Multiple food allergies

[Beccabunny]

DD and I have both had extensive allergy testing and learned that we each have more than twelve food allergies/sensitivities, most of them severe enough that we really have to avoid those foods completely for awhile. WDW restaurants have been great in the past when we were dealing with peanut allergy and just limiting dairy. I also know from this forum that they have great gluten-free items. However, we now have to stay away from gluten, casein, beef, eggs, corn, soy, apples, bananas, potatoes, and oranges. I can manage this at home, but I really can't think what we could possibly eat in a restaurant other than plain chicken. Is it even realistic to think the chefs might be able to come up with something with that many limitations? For most of our next visit we will be staying in a condo with a full kitchen, but then we will have a couple of days onsite at the Poly and I had hoped to be able to eat at their restaurants.

 

[clanmcculloch]

You'll be fine. Honest!!

Here are a couple multi-allergy dining reports I've written from past trips. Our allergies are not all the same as yours but it does show that there's a lot they can do with long lists of allergies including some not so usual ones.

August 2011

August 2010

Since rice is good you'll have pasta options available. Many of the gluten free desserts have eggs but some places carry the Enjoy Life chocolate chip cookies and many places also carry Rice Dream ice cream and a few have sorbets and berries so there will be a few options.

We LOVE Poly with food allergies. We're partial to club level there since they really did make our kids feel really special (DD13 loves telling people that we're royalty at the Polynesian because of how special they made her feel). Kona Island Sushi Bar made an unbeliavable platter for us and both Kona and 'Ohana made wonderfully delicious food. Even at Captain Cooks they took great care of us the couple times we ate there with the chef going up to Kona to prepare customized food for us. I can't say enough great things about Poly with complicated food allergies.

I believe that the allergy chicken tenders that are found all over WDW should be safe for that list but I'd confirm that there's no potato starch in the ingredients (Special Diets will send you a list of ingredients if you ask).

Look over menus when booking ADRs. You'll be able to see if there are other proteins besides just beef and chicken on the menu. If the restaurant has the ingredient then generally they can prepare it in an allergy safe manner for you.

The Mickey waffles are generally made using Bob's Red Mill pancake mix. The first ingredient in that is potato starch unfortunately. Some places have Namaste mix. I'd ask Special Diets to find out which places can make pancakes or waffles using that mix rather than Bob's Red Mill if you're interested in a TS breakfast.

 

[Beccabunny]

Thanks! This is great info!

 

[Owl's Friend]

I bet they can do it. I ate very well at Disney with peanut, tree nut, peas, watermelon, and shrimp allergies. Dd did great eating with her milk, eggs, peanut, tree nut, beef and sesame allergies. For dd, I told the chef what she couldn't eat. Then said what can you do with that? She ate a way more varied diet than she does at home.

 

[Leota]

I'm here right now with Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, Peanut, Fresh Tomato, Broccoli, Legume intolerances. (the first 4 are major immune responses, last 3 hard to digest til I heal more) and I'm eating like a Queen. I am a major foodie, trained in Classical French cuisine. I likes my food.

Anyways - tips & tricks - contact Special Diets ASAP. They will send you a packet that will help you alot. Also, they'll send you a sheet to put all of your ressies & info for each person. When you check in, remind them - if you eat at CS, let them know & they'll send out a mgr. So far, so good. Also, look at the menus & see if there are items that are inherently safe. Choose a spot that has those items. I learned that the hard way with FF. I assumed they could accomodate me, when their menu was not remotely set up for my needs.

So far, we have eaten at Ohana (amazing what they do there - you should check into that, really) Flying Fish (ok, I was surprised. was our favorite pre-illness place - well prepared, but just not equipped for all my allergies) Il Mulino (the BEST for food allergies. ask for Matthew as a server, he's in school to be a dietician & takes this very seriously) La Hacienda CS lunch & Leaning Plams lunch.

It can be done. Also, I found it helpful to let folks know what I do like & that I am allergic, not tasteless. Good Luck. I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised at how much you can eat down here.

 

[brown1442]

Disney can do it... you'll be amazed!! Just be prepared a head of time and be patient when you get there!

My son is anaphylactic to peanuts and tree nuts and also allergic to milk, soy, gluten, bell peppers, zucchini, and vanilla... and they did AWESOME with him.

We too love the Poly... they really did go above and beyond for my son. Captain Cooks made him allergen free Mickey waffles and not just a couple but like a dozen... I kid you not!! Along with sausage and fresh fruit. They were amazing. Then at Ohana he got his own skewers of meats, a huge bowl of rice, another of veggies, and for dessert they came out with this giant half of a whole pineapple built up like a long house with skewers of 3 huge gluten free brownies and sorbet and sparklers. I mean really the kid ate like a KING!! Mind you he was 4!!

Now... that being said the sit down places will be FAR better equipped then the counter service places. For that reason we are doing the Deluxe Dining Plan when we go back in March for our next trip. It'll just save heartache in the long run for us even though its more expensive its worth the peace of mind.

 

[staceyhzoo]

You'll be fine! DD was allergic to many of the same you posted (except gluten) and most of her's were anaphlactic. The first time we went dd couldn't have so many things and she was under 3. I was convinced that she's starve, not really but you know what I mean. The only place we had trouble was Tutto in Epcot, I think the language barrier was to blame. Her plain pasta was covered in sauce and cheese twice and we decided not to let her eat anything.

This year we are dealing with ds's allergies, I thought we'd dodge that allegy bullet...

You'll be fine!

 

[Disney_Princess83]

If you let each place know, you should be fine. I have several allergies: all nuts (except almond and hazelnuts) soy, coconut, malt, barley and corn just to name a few. If you're making reservations up front and call a few days again before to confirm.

 

[DVCDawn]

I think you'll be fine. We have been going for years with my DD12, who is allergic to peanuts, nuts, lentils and chickpeas. Your best bet is always going to be at TS places as they are better equipped to make changes to ingredients on the spot. We have had incredible service and great meals at:

Flying Fish (not a problem for us, as it was for a previous poster. We have been several times, each in a different year. A memorable meal each time.)

California Grill

Narcoosees

Ohana's

Artist Point

We felt each of these places went out of their way to provide my daughter exceptional meals while making her feel special and me feel relaxed about it. Although she's only 12, my DD is an adventurous eater with an adult palate. In other words, she never orders chicken nuggets.

It is important to contact Special Diets ahead of time. Knowing what to expect is half the battle. You can plan out your CS choices as well as prepare all your TS restaurants for your arrival. The more they know ahead of time, the better they can serve you safely.

Have a great trip!

DVCDawn

 

[CarrieR]

I missed this post when it first went up, but just wanted to say that you should be okay! I would suggest looking at menus ahead of time, to give the chef some ideas -- help them help you, so to speak. We went in Sept (and didn't even send in the special diets form ahead of time, fwiw,) with three separate mfa diners. I posted a report in the forum -- don't have time to dig up the link, but I will try to add it later. The only major snafu we had was soy + 'Ohana, but YMMV and I think we had a cranky chef, honestly.

The biggest things we found to be helpful were a) having everything in writing -- on the plane ride down, I made index cards that listed each diner's name and all of their allergies -- that I could hand to the chef as they arrived at each table. I told them they could keep them, write on them, take them to the kitchen etc and most were quite appreciative. And B, as I said above, help them help you -- tell them what you'd like off the menu, how they can modify it to make it safe, or make some suggestions like, "I don't see anything on the menu that's easily modified, but do you have rice noodles in the back? If you could maybe do chicken in olive oil with a few (safe) veggies, and throw them over the noodles, that would be great!"

One last tip: stick to the Disney-owned eateries. They tend to be much better equipped to handle those of us who are slightly complicated to feed. If you need to know which these are (it's most things on property, except for some countries at EPCOT, some restaurants at DTD, and a couple at AK,) you can ask here.

 

[tinker-belle]

Our son is anaphylactic to peanuts and tree-nuts. Does anyone know about disney snacks? Popcorn? Mickey ice creams? Itzkadoodles? Dole whips? We've tried contacting disney for a few weeks already, but still haven't heard back from them.

 

[Leota]

Did you email speacialdiets@disneyworld.com? You should get an auto-response within 24 hours and a live person back not long after. They can send you a bunch of info, including ingrediants of alot of those things. I was looking thru my old email to see if I still had the files to send you & I must have deleted them....

 

[tinker-belle]

I did try. Thanks so much for your help!

 

[CarrieR]

Tinker-belle, I would email them again. If you don't hear back within 48h or so, I would call the listed number.

OP, here is the link to my dining report. The first portion deals with latex allergy, but there's also a pic of my index card (lol) and some info on our bajillions of allergies, lol.