Allergies - Dairy and Corn

[becka]

I posted this on the Restaurant Board but the only response I got was that I should post this over here so I will repost it. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

I am sure this has been discussed before but since it did not apply to me at the time I didn't read very much. I would do a search but search does not work.

My DS was just diagnosed yesterday with mulitple food allergies (milk, corn, wheat, tomato, potato, pork, etc..). It has been a very overwhelming experience and we have so much to learn. Currently our allergist has us focusing on the milk and corn allergies since they are the most severe for him (no dairy, no corn or corn products i.e high fructose corn syrup (in everything ),. We are planning on a trip to WDW in late November and while we have been many times before and we love the restaurants we have really no experience with food allergies. I know many said that WDW is great with this kind of stuff but if anyone has any particular information or resources for us it would be appreciated.

Do we need to call each potential counter service and table service place we are interested and find out what menu items are safe?

Thanks!

 

[disneynewbeemom]

When you make your ADR's for table service meals, tell them about the allergies. Our sons are allergic to corn, peanuts, treenuts, and fish. When we checked into our restaurant, the hostess knew of the allergies. Before we were permitted to order or go through the buffet line, the chef had to come out to talk with us. They were always wonderful -- extremely timely and very knowledgeable. At buffets, they would walk through the buffet line with us and point to items that were safe. At CS places in the park, I asked about ingredients. There is a book at each CS place with ingredients and the CM's were very knowledgeable. If they didn't know the answer, they always called the head chef. I also emailed Brenda Bennett - her email address is around here on the Disboards somewhere. She was very knowledgeable also. Good luck with the allergies. My son is able to eat cereals with corn products (Fruit Loops, etc.). We stay away from corn, corn dogs, corn oil products. He does not have any problems with corn syrup at this time. Peanuts and tree nuts are our main concern. Good luck!

 

[dawnball]

Just how sensitive to corn is he? Almost everything processed has a corn derivative in it. Corn Syrup is out, what about xanthan gum (which is grown in a corn/soy based culture?)

I just pulled up my list of ingredients for some MK foods. Note this list is more than a year old at this point.

At Cosmic Ray's the chicken is probably ok (unless distilled vinegar from corn might be an issue). The fries contain dextrose (probably from corn) as well as flavoring (likely from corn), and maltodextrin (almost certainly from corn). The beef franks may have corn in the flavoring or sorbital. The burger meat is fine. Those items are all also dairy free (although the fries may be shared fryer with something containing dairy)

The popcorn oil at the popcorn carts contains corn oil, and I wouldn't trust the artificial butter flavor since those frequently contain a milk derivitive. The dairy free frozen treats all contain corn in one form or another. The safest is probably the strawberry fruit bar although he might tolerate the orange juice bar as well.


That's just to give you an idea of the counter service and cart options. I would contact Brenda Bennett Brenda.Bennett@disney.com or Theresea Joiner Theresa.Joiner@disney.com. They should be able to send you a list of ingredients for specific foods or some guidelines about what types of things might be appropriate.

In general - you're going to be *much* better off with table service. I'm gluten free, dairy free (and it looks like maybe nightshade free) and in my experience trying to work with the counter service locations was frustrating. Managers blew me off, it took *forever* even off-peak, and it just wasn't worth it. On ther other hand - table service locations generally at least got me good food. It will take quite a bit longer to be served at a TS or CS location. They do take great pains to avoid getting you sick if you can manage to communicate your needs.

I take in snacks and occassionally lunches and eat TS for dinner. I generally try to eat at signature locations because the allergen-appropriate food is more interesting, but any TS should be able to give your son safe food. It's just likely to be unseasoned and simply prepared.

If your son is highly allergic I would avoid buffets completely. When I have ventured into buffets I have *always* regretted it because I am highly sensitive. It isn't a fault on the part of the chef - other customers just contaminate foods on the line. If you want to do a buffet meal, you may have luck asking for specific foods to be brought out directly from the kitchen.

Do have you allergies noted when you make your reservations. If you send one of the wonderful ladies mentioned above the phone number or reservation number (room reservation, not ADR) that your ADRS are linked too then they can pull the whole list and send the restaurants a heads up for you with more specific concerns and requests.

 

[Selket]

The advice offered so far should be enough to get you started. I too had more trouble with CS locations - trying to get and go through that book is a major undertaking if the restaurant is busy. I found myself caught in the middle of the que with no way to leave and holding up others behind me. I couldn't get up to the counter to ask for the manager even - to get the book beforehand cause I would have needed to cut in front of everyone. I suggest if you do CS then try to know before you go in (talk to Brenda perhaps) about what is safe.

The other consideration is how allergic your child is. If they are anaphylactic to corn then you have a whole other problem than being sensitive to it. Do you need to do strict avoidance or will a small level of cross-contamination mean an epi-pen and 911 call? For example my younger son cannot risk any level of peanut in his food. However for awhile we just avoided eating products with a great deal of egg - a bit of egg was fine (like egg in a cake).

You have a long time before your trip and still awhile before you can make ADR's. If the allergies are severe I would recommend going TS as much as you can. If the child is young enough (or agreeable) it is fine to bring in a packed lunch for him/her and safe snacks. We've done that too - and did TS for dinner.

Hang in there!

 

[becka]

This is all so new to us. Right now his allergist has us on a very strict non-dairy and non-corn diet and yes that means we are having lots of trouble finding food for him to eat because basically all processed foods have some form of corn in them as a previous poster mentioned. It is a very difficult allergy. Mostly we have to stick to whole foods that have not been processed: lean whole meats, fruits and veggies, rice, etc..

We are going to start some immunotherapy for him and we hope to see some improvement but we do not know exactly what he diet will need to be by late November yet. I am sure he is still going to need to avoid the allergens but maybe he will have some more tolerance built up by then from the immunotherapy.

Thankfully he is not deathly allergic to any of this. He has had problems with skin rashes, etc.. for a long time and we never put it all together. I suspected the dairy allergy finally which is why we took him to get tested but the other other allergies were a shock - especially since there were so many of them. We don't know how careful we will need to be but it sounds like no matter what it is going to be a hassle.

My kids love the character buffets so we have several of those planned but we just can't eat TS every meal and since my kids are so young they don't often have the best attention spans so having to wait an extra long time at a restaurant will be difficult.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Merriwind]

Good luck! I had a terrible time with food allergies as a teen. Wheat, rice, corn, chicken, beef, pork, tomoatoes, soy, plus a lot of others I don't remember. Strangely, the "biggies" shellfish and peanuts were fine. It took a couple of years of really watching what I ate and I did outgrow just about every one of them. I eat normally now! (Except I can't eat the vegetable corn.)

BTW, Reese's Peanut Butter used to be the only candy not made with corn syrup. This was twenty or more years ago, but maybe they still are...

My dad is still very sensitve to corn, but as long as stays away from corn oil, cornmeal, corn syrup--the real corn stuff, not distant derivatives--he does pretty well.

You'll have to experiment and see what works. Some forms of a food may be ok where others wouldn't. As long as we're only talking rashes, you can try a little. He may become desensitized from some items pretty quickly--hope so! Good luck!!

 

[Selket]

I thought I'd add that we generally haven't had too many problems about long waits at TS restaurants for the chef to prepare food from the back. It does take longer though - first you have to wait for the chef to come - then the chef will lead you through the buffet (depending - if there are safe choices) - then you can discuss the particulars and they make anything special. William is also a type 1 diabetic so we generally schedule our TS meals for earlier times (like a 5:15 dinner seating) - this means we generally get in and seated on time with little wait and are eating by 6 at the latest.

By calling the numbers you are given when you make your ADR's you can make any special requests (such as particular vegetables - William likes peas and tomatoes, corn, etc). Sometimes they are already prepared for some of that when we get there. They can also have a safe dessert on hand too. I highly suggest talking to them about the dessert if you plan to have the family eat dessert with the meal. This tends to be our hardest time - we can't have the rest of us eating all this great buffet desserts and have William sitting there with a little bowl of tofutti. Generally some sprucing up of the dessert (with sprinkles, etc) has helped. They've been able to get a special brownie for him, etc. We had a terrible time at Chef Mickey's with this (to the point that we actually took turns walking around CM's eating dessert while someone waited at the table with William - the chef was unwilling to give him anything pretty much).

To me there is a big difference between avoidance and strict avoidance. I suppose it will depend on how sensitive he is to his allergens. If he is able to eat products that "may contain" and so forth it will be much easier!

I wish you the best - I know how overwhelming it is as first. There are several good online bulletin boards for parents of allergic children. POFAK is good but you have to pay: http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/community.html
I generally just need the peanut allergy stuff now so I am not a POFAK member as there is a good free board for PA. I hope these allergies have a high chance of fading away as he gets older - I know that is the case for many food allergies.

**just adding that if you are making ADR;s at the 180 day mark you might want to hold off noting all of those allergies until closer to your date - like maybe a month out. You will know more then and you don't actually need to call the #'s they give until a week before your trip.

 

[disneyandme]

My DD to be 3 next week, is also allergic to corn ( along with most everything else) Check on line for list of corn derivitives. Call all companies for exact origins of ingredients-- don't take there's no corn in it as an answer. If they say no corn, then ask for the origin of any potential corn ingrefients- like xanthum. Sometimes it's corn sometimes not. Often when they look at specific ingredients, then they surprisingly say it's derived from corn. Also, watch out for items like toothpaste, sunscreen, lotion etc. Almost all have corn. Fresh fruit is often coated with a corn dusting to give it the shiney look. Meats skins can be injected with corn to give them a nice color-- mostly poultry. These things are not often reported correctly. There's alot if info out there, but total avoidence is still very difficult. You have to check everything even if you would never think it could have corn-- ie. milk (vitamin D is usually derived from corn). Good luck.

 

[kandeebunny]

Buffets CAN be ok, just ask them to make up a plate for you BEFORE it hits the line. I have had very good luck doing this, they will even alter a lot of the meals for me, as I am gluten free and corn free as well as allergic to honey. They make me a gluten free rice pasta, with REAL butter or a home made tomato sauce (tomatos, water, salt) and a grilled chicken breast with salt and pepper only. Not ont he buffet, but I can eat it!!!

Brenda Bennet is AMAZING call her with any doubts.

50's Prime Time is great they have a dedicated fryer and use canola oil in it (for gluten free and nut/corn free foods!)

Boma's is AWESOME chef TJ is simply amazing I adore him to bits!!! He makes a HUGE effort at making your meal special, and something he is proud to put on your table. That meal will take 2+ hours, but is WELL worth it! Desserts, soups, salads, everything and anything is possible!

 

[kandeebunny]

OK Thanks to a chef at POFQ (yay Fern!!!) we have found some gluten, dairy, nut, egg, soy, corn, rice and potato free products!

The company is Gluten Free Kneads they can be reached at:

info@glutenfreekneads.com or (512) 706-1775

At POFQ they got us "cocoa Dream Cookie" they are actually good too!!!

 

[Talking Hands]

Chef Jeffrey at 1900 Park Fare is awesome as well. Made me a sugar free dessert using Splenda as the sweetener that was incredible. And it was low carb as well. Had a very good understanding of carbs and the need to avoid them.