Dining out locally with a food-allergic child has been such
a negative experience that we almost never do it (aside from Wendy’s or
McDonalds). It is nearly overwhelming to
consider eating on a plane or in an airport.
We have worked hard over the last few years to create breakfast, lunch,
and dinner menus full of safe and tasty foods.
Going on vacation entails trusting that we can find the same in a dozen
or so different restaurants. We ventured
a short vacation last year that involved driving with a cooler loaded with safe
food and a stay in a hotel with a full kitchen so we could prepare most of our
food. The one time we ate at a
restaurant, we ended up using the Benadryl.
On Disney World’s website we found menus of all of their
restaurants, lists of ingredients for many of their commonly served food, and
the Special Diets page. The typical
child’s menu includes chicken fingers, hot dog, hamburger, mac and cheese or
pizza. The only option for our son would
have been a burger with no bun. I had
read that the chef would come to the table to discuss options, so I looked over
each and every adult menu to determine which ones had the greatest potential
for substitutes. We made dinner reservations
at four restaurants and we planned to eat at the resort for breakfast and
lunch. We figured that we would see how
comfortable we felt before we ventured any further than that.
Through the Special Diets department, we informed Disney of our
children’s allergens and gave them our dining reservation information. They, in turn, passed the information on to
the chefs at those restaurants. Just as
we had read, the chef came to our table and discussed our dining options. In every instance, the chefs prepared safe
and wonderful dinners and desserts. Our
son, who is anaphylactic to milk, had his first milk shake (soy) at Hollywood
Studios. He had Rice Dream ice cream
with a waffle cone in Magic Kingdom, and he had sorbet with fruit at Epcot. For breakfast one morning, he had Mickey
Mouse-shaped waffles at the resort. To
top it all off, he ate his first-ever donut at BabyCakes NYC in Downtown Disney. For him, these foods were delicious. For us, it was a surreal experience. As if to highlight the point that Disney goes
out of its way to cater to food allergies, when we tried to eat breakfast at a Chili’s
at the airport, the only thing they
could offer our son besides bacon was to toast the bagel we brought in.
Out of extreme precaution (as well as frugality), I had groceries delivered to the resort by We Go Shop. There are at least two grocery delivery services but this one looked better for us. I ordered specific foods like Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Kellogg’s Pop Tarts and Thomas’ blueberry bagels and checked the “no substitute” box. I included a note that we had several allergies to emphasize why I didn’t want substitutes. The bread that I had checked, however, was not available at the local Wal-Mart, so Amy at We Go Shop substituted another non-diary. She said she had called a relative of hers with a milk allergy to find an ingredient list which would work. I was impressed. With food in the hotel room, we were able to eat quickly, safely, and cheaply for a few meals.
One other bit of preparation was the creation of a chef
card. The list of allergens is on the
front and food-preparation safety information and a picture of my child is on
the back. It proved extremely useful
when we were brave enough to eat at a counter service restaurant on the last
day.
Not one reaction: no rash, no hives, no swelling, no
lethargy, no vomit, no Benadryl, no Epipen.
Just rides, shows, and smiles.
Two very tired children and two very happy parents.
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