Food Allergies

[JoiseyMom]

Last year during out trip DS 4 started to break out. When we got home we brought him to the doctor, and found out he was allergic to peanuts/peanut butter. This had been his protein staple at the time.

When and who should I call about son's allergies for meals?

Thanks!!

 

[ducklite]

All WDW resturants can easily accomodate a peanut allergy. It sounds like your sons allergic isn't a deadly one, which makes it really easy.

Does he eat meat? Is he allergic to tree nuts?

When you make your ADR's, have them not a peanut allergy, and then let your server know when you are seated and a chef will come out to discuss the menu with you.

I have had hundreds of successful meals at WDW dealing with multiple food allergies (peanuts being one of them) and with a little advance planning and common sense there will be no problems. I promise he won't starve.

If you ahve any other specific questions feel free to ask.

Anne

 

[bertalander]

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about that. Thank goodness he didn't have an anaphylactic reaction!!! Those are so stinking scary especially the very first time when you don't know what's happening.

Check the DISabilities board here at DIS...

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20

From another DIS thread:


"Note the allergies on your ADR's and also give Brenda Bennett a call. She works for MK foods and deals with food allergies/restrictions. Brenda's number is: 407-824-5967 and she is a wonderful help. She can email you some documents with info on what may and may not be safe in some fast food places and food carts. With several allergies you might want to ask questions about what counter service may be safe."

Brenda is so awesome and helpful.

My 4 year old son has a peanut/treenut allergy. We found out (via a big ole reaction) literally a few weeks before we left. I was so worried about it. I shouldn't have been. Disney will bend over backwards to help you out. Same basic rules apply: no bakery items, no hand-dipped icecream. I heard that Coral Reef had edible peanut butter playdo for the kids so I wouldn't consider it 'safe' enough due to cross contamination for kids touching everything KWIM? Another no-no on my personal list was O'hanas due to the peanut dipping sauce. It's all about your comfort level.

Talk to Brenda, get all the phone numbers where you will be eating. I found counter service meals to be a bit more difficult, but totally do-able. Try to go during a less busy time and talk to the manager regarding food allergy concerns. They are very helpful, but the people ringing up don 't have a CLUE.

NO problem carrying epi pens in the park etc.


The chef at Mama Melrose was the SWEETEST every. He had them run out and get my son vanilla icecream in a sealed carton. He gloved up and served it himself. They all really bent over backwards...

HTH!



Have fun...

 

[dalt01]

i agree, DD has peanut allergy. we concern ourselves mostly with peanut oil for deep frying and we always ask. at Le cellier for example they told us to avoid the bread because of possible cross contamination in manufacture. buffets are the toughest. example: Chef Mickeys Breakfast, they have a peanut butter pizza type thing. now if a customer touches that and then picks up a ladle or serving spoon to fill there plate with say, eggs and your child then picks it up to get their eggs it could very well be a problem.

 

[Disneyrsh]

We have a 7 year old who became allergic to peanuts at the age of 5. It was a serious bummer, but we haven't had any problems with her accidentally ingesting peanuts because she can *smell* if any food has the slightest bit of peanut in/on it.

This really saved us, especially two weeks ago at the mexican restaurant when she picked up her taco to eat it, paused, put the taco back down and said "it smells like peanuts". Sure enough, the taco shell had been fried in unrefined peanut oil. We washed her hands and she was fine.

Refined peanut oil, like the kind they use at Chick Fil A, is supposed to be fine. We've cautiously eaten there a few times and DD says she can't taste any peanuts.

We've never had a problem with anything we've eaten at Disney, never even run into something that she said was peanutty.

Talk about it with your kid, peanuts have a very distinctive odor, he should be able to become pretty expert at picking up on the smell.

 

[ducklite]

FYI, I've eaten the breads at Le Cellier many times with no problems. Same with a lot of baked goods at WDW, I'm just picky and careful.

Anne

 

[JoiseyMom]

All WDW resturants can easily accomodate a peanut allergy. It sounds like your sons allergic isn't a deadly one, which makes it really easy.

Does he eat meat? Is he allergic to tree nuts?

When you make your ADR's, have them not a peanut allergy, and then let your server know when you are seated and a chef will come out to discuss the menu with you.

I have had hundreds of successful meals at WDW dealing with multiple food allergies (peanuts being one of them) and with a little advance planning and common sense there will be no problems. I promise he won't starve.

If you ahve any other specific questions feel free to ask.

Anne

As far as we know he is only allergic to Peanuts. And thankfully it is only slight. We do have an epi pen, but he just breaks out from it. It was hard because everything he ate had to do with peanuts! His granola bars, candy, everything.

He eats chicken (in certain forms) and hot dogs. He will take a bite of steak, and has eaten sliders (samples at Sam's). He sometimes eats fish sticks. He is your typical 5 year old. Give him chicken fingers and pizza or a bagel and he is a happy camper. At buffets I feed him chicken, pizza & or mac and cheese.

I am in agreement with another poster that our main concern is food cooked in peanut oil.

Thanks for all the wonderful input!

 

[liznboys]

Hi there! My 4 yr old is PA, but we also avoid all other nuts and shellfish with him. We too have had great experiences at Disney regarding this. The chefs really are wonderful.

We had a particularily great one at Boma when we ate breakfast there. I asked him about the Zebra Domes (was hoping to have them later during our stay), and the ones they put out on the dinner buffet, and the ones they sell in Mara are not safe due to cross-contamination...so he went into the back and a bit later he brought out some for us that he made sure were safe. It was really nice of him!

The little Mickey head crackers that come with some kids meals are unfortunately not safe (it's listed right on each package). They were always kind enough to give us a substitute for them though-a piece of fruit or some chips or something.

In May last year we bought some cookies from the Main Street Confectionary. The ingredients and everything were listed on each one-some of them had a nut warning, others did not. We were thrilled that there were some safe ones for our ds! We bought some and my son ate them with no problem. Then in December we went back there to buy more of them, but that time ALL of the cookies had the nut warning. Bummer... Most of the items at the Confectionary were not safe, which isn't surprising.

About Coral Reef-we ate lunch there three times last year and there was never any sign of pb playdoh. But since people have mentioned it on here, I'm going to check for myself next time we eat there.

There was another thread on this topic recently that I suggest you read:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1152637