Milk Allergy and free Refrig.?

[hmch07]

My 6 yr old son has a severe milk allergy. We have been to Disney before and have not had problems with sit down meals. I found counter service options were very limited. I was wondering if I would be able to get free refrig due to his disability. I would use it mainly to hold his soy milk for breakfast. 7 days on pop-tart and dry cereal for breakfast would not be good.

 

[Selket]

If you're in a moderate or deluxe there is already a fridge.

If you're in a value perhaps go ahead and reserve the fridge - can you build it into the budget if they won't give it for free? You could explain the reason when you arrive and see what they say.

With a small cooler you could keep just the soy milk cold too with ice I'd think....perhaps another option.

 

[BillSears]

Do they sell soy milk at the food courts/marketplaces? If so then I'd guess you're in the same situation as anyone who wants milk with their breakfast, either rent a fridge or go to the food court every morning. But if they don't sell soy milk then you brining it would probably be considered a medical need...although it's probably more a want then a need.



I don't know, I guess it can't hurt to ask.

 

[SueM in MN]

If you're in a moderate or deluxe there is already a fridge.

If you're in a value perhaps go ahead and reserve the fridge - can you build it into the budget if they won't give it for free? You could explain the reason when you arrive and see what they say.

With a small cooler you could keep just the soy milk cold too with ice I'd think....perhaps another option.

If you are in a moderate, deluxe or DVC, you will have a fridge. If you are not, they may consider it a medical need if they don't carry soy milk.

There is shelf stable soy milk that doesn't need refrigeration until it's opened. And, I know people do use a small cooler with ice to keep regular milk in their room without a refrigerator (replenish the ice morning and night).
If you have a car, there is a Super Target not far away that does carry a large assortment of food (I know the Super Target by us does carry soy milk).

You could also try contacting Brenda Bennett (brenda.bennett@disney.com)who is in charge of special diets at WDW. She might be able to tell you where to obtain soy milk.

 

[ducklite]

I would be careful in referring to a milk allergy as a disability. It's a special need, but I'm not sure most would consider it a disability. Some pople might find equating food allergies and disabilities offensive.

Anne

 

[SueM in MN]

I would be careful in referring to a milk allergy as a disability. It's a special need, but I'm not sure most would consider it a disability. Some pople might find equating food allergies and disabilities offensive.

Anne

I would agree it is a special need rather than a disability.
My niece used to be very lactose intolerent, but as she grew up, she outgrew the intolerence to some degree and now can have small amounts of milk/milk products without problem. Even at its worst, it mostly inconvenienced her at meal times.

 

[KPeveler]

if you say that you need a refrigerator for a medical reason (which a special diet need is) they should provide one for free.

 

[hmch07]

In the U.S. Department of Education under Sec 504 of the Rehab. Act food allergy falls under as a Civil Rights Law. My son is not intolerant. He would not just get a bellyache if he had milk. He is allergic. If he touches milk his skin breaks out into a rash, and if he ingest milk, his throat closes and he would be unable to breath. He has a physical impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. That being breathing! Yes, I know I am blessed because my son is not limited in physical or mental activity, but it is a constant conscience effort for me everyday to ensure his safety. So it is not frivoulous want or me trying to get over on Disney. I know this sounds defensive but I am just trying to show my point of view.
PS. the box soy milk taste horriable. Yuck

 

[KPeveler]

In the U.S. Department of Education under Sec 504 of the Rehab. Act food allergy falls under as a Civil Rights Law. My son is not intolerant. He would not just get a bellyache if he had milk. He is allergic. If he touches milk his skin breaks out into a rash, and if he ingest milk, his throat closes and he would be unable to breath. He has a physical impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. That being breathing! Yes, I know I am blessed because my son is not limited in physical or mental activity, but it is a constant conscience effort for me everyday to ensure his safety. So it is not frivoulous want or me trying to get over on Disney. I know this sounds defensive but I am just trying to show my point of view.
PS. the box soy milk taste horriable. Yuck

i dont think people meant to say that your son's need was unimportant. i think it was more that calling a milk allergy a disability will be difficult to explain to hotel personnel. If you say medical need, they do not ask questions (or never did when i was a kid and needed a fridge). i know some people do not like to go into detail in a hotel lobby about their children's issues, so just saying "medical need" should be enough. didnt mean to offend.

 

[flynnmnstr]

We have always asked (politely) and received a refrigerator for medical necessity to keep "his" food refrigerated at Swan/Dolphin and any other hotel that we have stayed in the country. Most of the time I call the hotel ahead of time and explain his needs so there is no scrambling when we get there.

hmch07- My son's allergy is also life threatening. Just a splash of milk on his skin will cause a severe allergic rxn and ingestion will cause an anaphylactic rxn so I definitely understand where you are you coming from.

All the TS restaurants were able to bring us soy milk but none of the CS could. The Main Street Bakery has soy milk but they would not let us buy a glass. They told us it was for coffee only. DH got a little "un-disney happiest place on earth" and proceeded to ask for a large coffee with soy milk hold the coffee. Needless to say we left without any soy milk.

 

[SueM in MN]

i dont think people meant to say that your son's need was unimportant. i think it was more that calling a milk allergy a disability will be difficult to explain to hotel personnel. If you say medical need, they do not ask questions (or never did when i was a kid and needed a fridge). i know some people do not like to go into detail in a hotel lobby about their children's issues, so just saying "medical need" should be enough. didnt mean to offend.

Thank you for that.
That's what I was trying to say.
I made 3 assumptions; One was that most of the people I know who say their child/they have a milk allergy (even if they say 'severe') actually are lactose intolerant. I assumed that was the OP's situation. That was an incorrect assumption; the OP's response later in the thread was that the reaction was an anaphylactic shock reaction, but that is not evident from the first post.

The second was that most people would not consider the first assumption to be a disability and instead would consider it a special need (ie, you have a need for soy milk).

The third was assuming from the OP's comment "7 days on pop-tart and dry cereal for breakfast would not be good." would be interpreted as an "inconvience" by hotel people if that was the reason given for needing a refrigerator. If the child was an infant or toddler who got most of their nutrition from soy milk and wasn't able to have it for a week, that would be taken as a definite need. It's not that evident a need for an older child (ie, they can eat other things for the week), so it's more an uphill battle to get a refrigerator.

Again, I didn't mean any disrespect or minimilization of the OP's dilemma. I don't think other posters did either. The responses were just people's reaction/answer to their interpretation of the question.

 

[dclfun]

I don't want to imply anything to the OP about her child and his severe allergy, but I do want to be sure that the ADA is clarified. Something that would limit a major life activity is not something that occurs only when someone is in contact with an allergen. Someone's life activity of breathing is not substantially limited if he can breathe just fine without contacting the allergen. Breathing is considered as a substantial life impairment if someone cannot breathe on their own or has a breathing impairment severe enough that it limits mobility, self-care, working, etc all the time. The ADA is very limited on who is considered "disabled" under that law. That said, there's no reason why this child's medical condition would not warrant a free refrigerator to provide for his need. He doesn't need to be considered disabled under the ADA to have a refrigerator provided. If the resorts/parks don't have availability for the product he uses then it can also be stored during the day in a refrigerator at First Aid in the parks, but hopefully that won't be necessary. My son drinks unfortified rice milk now that he's on dialysis and cannot have calcium, so I'd be requesting a refrigerator for the same reason as the OP- a medical necessity.---Kathy

 

[KPeveler]

i was on a hypo-glycemic diet and had to eat a lot of food high in protien and fat. therefore i was eating a lot of yogurt and cheese. needless to say neither of those do well without a fridge. i just asked for one for "special dietary needs" and always got one with no problem!

 

[ducklite]

I don't want to imply anything to the OP about her child and his severe allergy, but I do want to be sure that the ADA is clarified. Something that would limit a major life activity is not something that occurs only when someone is in contact with an allergen. Someone's life activity of breathing is not substantially limited if he can breathe just fine without contacting the allergen. Breathing is considered as a substantial life impairment if someone cannot breathe on their own or has a breathing impairment severe enough that it limits mobility, self-care, working, etc all the time. The ADA is very limited on who is considered "disabled" under that law. That said, there's no reason why this child's medical condition would not warrant a free refrigerator to provide for his need. He doesn't need to be considered disabled under the ADA to have a refrigerator provided. If the resorts/parks don't have availability for the product he uses then it can also be stored during the day in a refrigerator at First Aid in the parks, but hopefully that won't be necessary. My son drinks unfortified rice milk now that he's on dialysis and cannot have calcium, so I'd be requesting a refrigerator for the same reason as the OP- a medical necessity.---Kathy

Well put Kathy.

I have tree-nut allergies and just being within a few feet of a couple types can cause a severe, life-threatening reaction. I don't consider myself disabled. I also have asthma, which certainly limits my life activities from time to time. Again, I don't consider myself disabled as a result. They are both conditions which with some common sense and adance planning can be easily controlled to allowed me to have a generally "normal" life.

Anne

 

[SueM in MN]

I don't want to imply anything to the OP about her child and his severe allergy, but I do want to be sure that the ADA is clarified. Something that would limit a major life activity is not something that occurs only when someone is in contact with an allergen. Someone's life activity of breathing is not substantially limited if he can breathe just fine without contacting the allergen. Breathing is considered as a substantial life impairment if someone cannot breathe on their own or has a breathing impairment severe enough that it limits mobility, self-care, working, etc all the time. The ADA is very limited on who is considered "disabled" under that law. That said, there's no reason why this child's medical condition would not warrant a free refrigerator to provide for his need. He doesn't need to be considered disabled under the ADA to have a refrigerator provided. If the resorts/parks don't have availability for the product he uses then it can also be stored during the day in a refrigerator at First Aid in the parks, but hopefully that won't be necessary. My son drinks unfortified rice milk now that he's on dialysis and cannot have calcium, so I'd be requesting a refrigerator for the same reason as the OP- a medical necessity.---Kathy

Very good post.
I was trying to say those things too, but could not think of a good way to put it.
Well put.

 

[dawnball]

I don't want to imply anything to the OP about her child and his severe allergy, but I do want to be sure that the ADA is clarified. Something that would limit a major life activity is not something that occurs only when someone is in contact with an allergen. Someone's life activity of breathing is not substantially limited if he can breathe just fine without contacting the allergen. Breathing is considered as a substantial life impairment if someone cannot breathe on their own or has a breathing impairment severe enough that it limits mobility, self-care, working, etc all the time. The ADA is very limited on who is considered "disabled" under that law.

Since I have a fairly similar issue, I did some research a year or two ago. The DOJ's position (from reading settlements, mediations, legal briefs and speaking with someone from the DOJ) is that severe allergies can indeed be considered disabilities, subject to the same case by case screening that other disabilities are. As a result, allergen-related disability cases have gone both ways and there are dissenting options for almost all of the appeals. It's very much a case-by-case thing.

For example - you can't exclude a child from your daycare because they have life-threatening allergies and they must take reasonable precautions to ensure that the child avoids allergens. You can't require college students to pay for a meal plan that doesn't include food that is reasonably allergen free. You can't prevent people from carrying an epi-pen at a concert anymore than you could prevent them from carrying insulin.

Some Q & A from DOJ.

Whether a person has a disability is determined without regard to the availability of mitigating measures, such as reasonable modifications, auxiliary aids and services, services or devices of a personal nature, or medication. For example, a person with severe hearing loss is substantially limited in the major life activity of hearing, even though the loss may be improved through the use of a hearing aid. Likewise, persons with impairments, such as epilepsy or diabetes, that, if untreated, would substantially limit a major life activity, are still individuals with disabilities under the ADA, even if the debilitating consequences of the impairment are controlled by medication.


Now - I don't know that I would consider milk allergy cause to request a free fridge under the ADA (and it didn't occur to me to request one last time I was there) - but it sounds like Disney is happy to provide one for medical needs. And the more I think about it - the more it makes sense. When I stayed at Pop the only way to get food that was reasonably safe for me involved a half hour wait in the dining room. A fridge would have let me eat notably safer meals without an inconveniencing wait.

I'm not saying that I'm *entitled* to a fridge under the ADA. I'm saying that it's a nice thing to do that doesn't really cost Disney anything and makes life easier for people who have limitations. It encourages me to go back to Disney and stay on-property - the same way that a GAC would for people who might not meet ADA limitations but benefit from some consideration (a place out of the sun to wait for someone with photosensitivity for example).

 

[SueM in MN]

Now - I don't know that I would consider milk allergy cause to request a free fridge under the ADA (and it didn't occur to me to request one last time I was there) - but it sounds like Disney is happy to provide one for medical needs.

Thanks for the information and the way you said it.
I think that what people (including me) were trying to say is that it would be easier to ask for/get a refrigerator for "medical needs" (WDW understands that) than trying to get it for a disability.

 

[RxforDisney]

My DS 3 is also anaphylactic to milk and egg. I have found the individual serving juice-box-like Silk Very Vanilla soy milk very handy and it tastes better than most. it really tastes alot like a milkshake. My local Wal-mart has started carrying them in the nutrition bar section.

If you haven't tried the very vanilla, give it a shot.

Have fun at Disney!