Food Allergies with a 1 year old.

[ah1126]

We head to Disney in 9 days and my 15 month old DS is allergic to eggs, wheat, soy and nuts. I have emailed special diets and it looks like there are allergy chicken tenders and 2 kinds of pasta are the main things he can have.

This will be the first time he will be eating food made by someone else since he was diagnosed, and it is a little scary for me!

When you order special items, are they adult size or kid size? I plan on taking some food into the park, but it would be hard to take everything for him. He will eat the fruit food pouches, but not baby food ones. He has 8 teeth and chews pretty well, but he is still a little guy.

Any tips, tricks or suggestions??

Thank you!!

 

[stackyallred]

I am allergic to all of the foods you've mentioned and have had great experiences on both of my vacations since diagnosis (diagnosed in 2012). I am not sure if they will make smaller portions for him because of his age but I do know they can handle those allergies well. I do take my own snacks into the parks because packaged foods offered there just don't offer me many options but I did occasionally get fruit with my snack credits. If you have any questions about any particular restaurant, ask away! My DS 4 has been twice with allergies to dairy, almonds, food coloring and strawberries and had eaten well and always had more than he can finish. One suggestion I read here that helped greatly was to make allergy cards with your child's name and age and allergens for the chefs/managers to keep with them while preparing the meal. Also, if coconut isn't an issue, Babycakes is wonderful for treats. It was so great to have a REAL dessert that was safe! Hope your trip is wonderful!

 

[ah1126]

Thank you for the info!!

How are the allergy chicken tenders? If I have to order an adult portion, it would be nice if it is something someone else is willing to share with him.

We will be having breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and Lunch at Be Our Guest. We are bringing our own breakfast to eat in the room, and the rest of our meals will be counter service.

Do you have any recommendations of counter service restaurants that have better choices than others? I've heard that Epcot is the hardest park to find safe choices.

We are staying away from coconut for right now

 

[nfceagles]

The allergy chicken tenders are great. We DS and DD share them all he time. He's got allergies, she doesn't. DH and I also enjoy them. They are like real chicken with a nice breading on the outside, not processed meat like in a chicken nugget.

My DS isn't allergic to wheat and soy, so I can't offer as many specifics. Does your child like meat? I would focus on finding a safe meat and add fruit and/or veggies to it. There are allergy chicken tenders available in at least one place in each park. Keep a list on you. Epcot has Sunshine Seasons in the land pavilion which is excellent for allergic diners. Ribs and/or chicken from Flame Tree BBQ might work at AK. Chicken at Cosmic Rays might work. A burger with or without a GF bun might work and would be available at lots of places.

I don't think Hollywood and Vine has the allergy Mickey waffles, but if you want to eat out for one more breakfast, there are a lot of places with those and they are great. Add pure maple syrup, bacon, and fruit and you've got a delicious meal.

Where are you staying?

 

[nfceagles]

FYI- I understand not wanting to trial new things so close to a vacation, but in case you don't know this, coconut is not a nut. It is a fruit. The FDA mistakenly included it with tree nuts when making the labeling laws. People can be allergic to coconut as with any food, but it is not necessarily more dangerous for a person with nut allergies.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We have had really good experiences with WDW and food allergies with our little guy. TS for us was easier than CS as a chief always comes to the table and talks to you VS you having to work with maybe someone less knowledgeable at CS but that can work too. The one thing to keep in mind is how they will charge you for it. They can and sometimes do charge an up-charge for allergy meals so you may be paying a lot for a few bites a toddler may or may not eat. I also caution you to be sure not to introduce any new foods to him on the trip. We discovered a sesame allergy away from home and it was scary. He will be at a higher risk for developing more allergies in the future. Honestly at such a young age, I would look into maybe doing a grocery order and taking thinks into the park you know are safe for him and that he will eat.

 

[mistysue]

Eggs/wheat/soy can be a very frustrating combination- with CS locations they tend to contradict the alternative foods for each other, so you will have locations that only have yogurt, grapes and carrots for him. At a few TS this comes up, but not as bad. If your son won't eat fruit, you may find the menu at H&V a little limited for him for breakfast. My son has your son's list plus dairy, sesame, buckwheat, peanut and shrimp- between wheat, soy, egg and dairy his H&V safe food was bacon. The wheat-free waffles are Van's (soy waffles). He had bacon, orange juice, and a waffle on the plate that made him sick from the crumbs that got on the bacon. The characters were great so considering that he's free it might be worth bringing him a little something to add to his plate and hoping for better selection. Jake spent about 10 minutes playing with my kids. If you just want a character buffet and Disney Jr isn't a priority, I would see if you can get into Tusker house. They give DS a huge plate full of things he can eat.

Nearly every CS location will have yogurt, grapes and carrots pre-packaged. If this is not a reasonable snack/meal for him you may run into trouble at many of the CS locations because just about everything they use as a substitute for one of those allergens contains a different one of them.

If you can't do table service (it gets expensive quickly!) I would try to eat at your resort, followed by:
Magic Kingdom: Columbia Harbor House or Cosmic Ray's
Animal Kingdom: everybody says Flame tree BBQ, we have always done tusker house here and love it.
Hollywood Studios- we have had bad luck every counter service here, but have been told to go to Backlot Express.
Epcot- Sunshine seasons.

We have learned that if we want to spend less money and reliably get food for our son we eat at the less expensive table service. Some of these have meals that are about the same cost as many counter service meals- the Plaza or Tony's for lunch or dinner, liberty tree tavern (lunch only), Rose and Crown and Wolfgang Puck's at DTD. We really liked 50's Prime time but they cost a little more. Also a touch more but we consider worth it have been 9 dragons and Raglan Road. Both of those we were surprised but they have consistently been good to us. Otherwise we've needed to go to the resort for food or cough up more money to sit down somewhere. The allergy tenders are great, but by the time we do an allergy order at a counter service place it usually takes as long as table service and the rest of us are done and waiting by the time we get the allergy food. We spend most of our days at MK and refer to LTT as our emergency walk-in for lunch. We're staying at the Poly this year, I'm wondering if they will start to recognize our order.

Oh yeah- if you are staying on property, on your first day, I would see if he likes the Mickey allergy waffles the resort CS locations will make. If so, we had a trip where we got a to-go order of those every morning and put them in a baggie. They will keep for at least the day and if he likes them it's a good back-up food if you run into trouble or suddenly realize you waited too long to get lunch and have a crisis pending. My kids will carry them around in one hand like a cookie without the syrup or anything.

 

[ah1126]

Where are you staying?

We are staying at All Stars Movies.

Thanks for all the info!!

His doctor wants us to stay away from coconut.

Hopefully he will like the chicken tenders! I am trying to think of easy things I can just take in the parks with me, and hopefully I will just need 1 meat and some veggies for him every day.

 

[ah1126]

Thank you everyone for all your help!!!!

 

[Ariel on Land]

wanted to chime in that I was really impressed with Sunshine Seasons. Even though it was a CS restaurant, the chef came out and told me what DD could eat and there were a number of options even with her multiple FAs. And I'll also second the allergy tenders were really good! At CHH she was able to have a good full meal of chicken, steamed broccoli (SOO glad the kid likes broccoli!) and fruit. I'm pretty sure we'll be eating there multiple times this next trip!

 

[nadira36]

With little ones like that, we order the safe food for an adult/or older child, and the toddler nibbles from their plate. We found that worked best b/c most of the CS GF meals are adult portions b/c they come in 1 size only.

 

[sleepingbean]

While ours were older when we traveled (3 years old the first time) we found that the chefs were GREAT about accommodating our allergies. They were creative in coming up with things and I would just advise asking for what you may want, and see if they can do it. So, for example, if you know that your child could eat a rice with steamed veggies meal, ask if they can do that instead of whatever is on the menu that your child can't eat. I found that given the extreme circumstances of allergies, the chefs were very accommodating and not limited to the menu, entirely. At the same time, they don't always suggest things that they have, so it's just good to ask. My example for that is Rice milk and or Almond milk. I often want that, but it's almost never offered. BUT when I ASK, they are happy to oblige
Good luck! I know how scary it is the first time you travel with someone else doing the cooking. They were really great for us each time. I hope you have the same experience and I'd love to read a trip report!

 

[Betty Rohrer]

if you take food into the parks, remember that only place to heat up that food is the baby centers in the parks. table serves and counter serves are not by law allowed to heat up food from outside the kitchens. the is also true for allergies.

 

[DCDisney]

I frequently eat the allergy safe chicken tenders but I'm not sure if a toddler would like them. They are firm because they are whole pieces of breast meat not the minced up chicken like nuggets. They also are rather spicy--mostly black pepper flavor. My kids would not eat them because they thought they were too spicy. Sit down meals are not a problem they will have things like fruit, cheese, yogurt, rice, grilled chicken or fish but for quick service you may find it easier to get snacky items like appleasauce, yogurt, cheese and crackers for him. Resort QS locations will have lots of options too and can make lots of things specially for him because they have lots of ingredients and a full kitchen. The Park QS places are the problem because they only carry certain things and mult allergies often don't work. I usually can just get a burger no bun and sometimes fries (depends on cross contam) at the more limited locations.

 

[ah1126]

Thanks again for everyone's help and advice! We had a great trip and my little guy had plenty to eat!

The night we got there, we at the food court at All Star Movies. The chef was very friendly and we tried the Allergy chicken tenders, fries and grapes. My little guy loved them!

Day 1 we were in the Magic Kingdom. We ate breakfast in the room, and I carried in lunch for him. We had dinner at Columbia Harbour House. We got allergy chicken tenders here, but they said that they fries weren't safe. He had grapes, apples and a cookie too.

Day 2 we went to Hollywood Studios. We did a character Breakfast (10:30am) at Hollywood and Vine. The chef was great and brought out a plate with Mickey waffles and fruit. My son loved the waffles and ate all 3! For dinner, we went to the ABC Commissary. We shared allergy chicken tenders here and he snacked on some stuff I had brought into the park.

Day 3 we spent at Epcot. We ate breakfast in the room and I carried in lunch for him. For dinner we ate at Via Napoli in Italy! The food was so good!! The chef here was also great and my little guy enjoyed gluten free pasta with cream sauce! I think he was pretty excited to have something different, but he was sad that he didn't get to enjoy the amazing pizza that the rest of us had.

Day 4 we were back at Magic Kingdom. We ate breakfast in the room and I brought his lunch in. This is the only day that we had any problems finding him food. We went to Tomorrowland Terrace and they told me that they didn't have anything for him, but if we went next door to Cosmic Rays, they would have allergy chicken tenders and other options for him. When we got to Cosmic Rays, they did not have allergy chicken tenders. The manager there said the only place in the Magic Kingdom that had them was Pinocchio Village Haus and it was closed. (I knew this wasn't true, since we had had them day 1 at Columbia Harbour House). I ordered him a grilled chicken breast, but he didn't really care for it. He at some fruit and the rest of the snacks that we had with us. I understand that everywhere can't carry special items, but it would be nice if they had a list of the other restaurants that did carry the special items.

Next time he will be older and have more teeth, so we will have more options. Thanks again for all your help!

 

[nadira36]

Happy to hear things worked well for you and your little guy.