peanut allergy problem

[720L]

I have a friend whose kid has a life threatening peanut allergy. She is wondering how hard it will be to get "safe" food for him at Disney. Should she just bring food? I know I have read about peanut allergies on here before so please give me your tips/suggestions on what she can do. She is not staying on site and is planning on visiting Epcot and Magic Kingdom, maybe Animal Kingdom. Thanks-

 

[Selket]

My 4 yr old son is highly allergic to peanut/tree nut and is also a type 1 diabetic. Most of our dining issues involve the allergy though. Here is a link to our trip report from last summer. Scroll down for more info - including Brenda Bennett's phone number - very helpful. Also be sure and note the allergies on any ADR's she makes.

Here is the link: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=818591&highlight=peanut+allergy+diabetic

Also you can do a search on peanut allergy on the boards and find many, many posts on dining with allergies in the parks. Overall the restaurants and counter services places should all be able to accomodate. The peanut butter sandwiches served most places (if not all WDW restaurants) are the prepackaged kind which eliminates the cross-contamination issues in the kitchen anyway (or helps!).

 

[Christine]

Selket gave you all the info you need. I just wanted to say that we have been to Disney 3 or 4 times with my peanut allergic son and it is one of the easiest places to deal with. Honestly, I feel that it is the only "safe" place that we can vacation with him. We have a worse time of it when we go to the beach that is 3 hours from where we live.

Just make the ADRs anywhere you like and let them know of the allergies ahead of time.

I guess, though, the worst places for my son were Kona Cafe and 'Ohana (although we ate at both). Both of these places use a lot of nuts in the kitchen (Kona is worse) and he had very limited choices there of food and dessert. I kind of felt nervous at Kona. 'Ohana was "iffy" because of the peanut sauce. That wasn't a big deal because we just ordered chicken tenders from the kitchen and he didn't eat the 'Ohana food at all. Now that he is older though, we just probably won't go there because there wouldn't be much he could be safe with.

 

[Selket]

Christine has a good point - some places are not as safe. I've read mixed reviews on Boma and any of the asian food places. Coral Reef used to have some sort of "peanut butter playdough" for kids - I think - not sure if they still do that. Brenda would be able to answer questions like that.

You might want to review the menus on this website or some places like this: http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

Any place that seems to cook with a lot of nuts we tend to avoid. We generally don't need to avoid places that have the PB sandwiches for the kids meals because, as I noted, they come prepackaged everywhere I've seen so it didn't bother me.

The only restaurant I didn't feel comfortable eating in at all was the Food and Fun center in the CR because it was smallish and I saw lots of folks eating peanuts. Too much chance of him touching a peanut there or having residue on the table.