food allergies, milk, eggs, peanuts, treenuts

A friend of mine really wants to go to Disney with her family, but she is VERY worried about her 3 year old's food allergies. They are milk, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts.

Has anyone had experience with this? Is there a way to find out at the CS retuarants if they cross contaminate?

Were you able to speak with the chefs at CS and TS and get a special menu with non allergen foods?

My other question... has anyone flown with someone who had food allergies? Did they have problems if the planes gave out nuts, and in going into the recirculated air?

THank you to anyone with responses!!! I told her that if anyone had the answers... I would be able to find them here!

Most restaurants don't intentionally cross-contaiminate. It's usually accidental and human error. Disney chefs are pretty good abouit cleanliness (I should know coming from working foods at Resorts). While cross contaimination is very unlikely, it's easy enough to avoid in the case of allergens.

When you check into a CS rest, let the host/ess know about the allergies. Then when you are seated, let the server know about the allergies. They should then bring the chef out before taking any orders. Stress the severity of the allergies such as if it's just consumption or is it contact-based.

They will be able to prepare a special meal based on your needs, and the chef will prepare it themselves to make sure there was no cross contaimination. They should also bring it directly to you, but they might walk it out to you with the server.

My son has severe food allergies to peanuts and tree nuts. I have found WDW to be extremely accomodating to the needs of my son and our family.

When your friend is planning her visit and making her ADRs, she should ask the Disney Dining cast member to make a note, "on every reservation", that a member of the dining party has a food allergy. They are prepared to take this information and will also provide you with the telephone number for the chef's office for each of the restaurants you will be dining at so that you may contact them for further information regarding the menu. I also make a point to let the cast member know when I check in to dine that we are a party with a food allergic member, although I have found that that appears to always be known by them in advance. Usually, a member of the kitchen staff will come to our table at the time of order, to make sure our questions are answered and that they know of our food choices. For counter service, you can ask at the time of the order to see the food items ingredient lists, and I believe they are all now available at the order kiosk, which makes this aspect of dining at Disney a lot easier as well. Over all, I have found Disney to be extremely accomodating.

I admit to having considerable anxiety still while flying. We attempt to fly non-stop, direct flights whenever possible, to reduce the amount of time we spend on the plane. We cannot fly certain airlines because of the foods that they serve, or their unwillingness not to serve certain snacks when we are aboard, but have found several airlines who understand the safety issues and are willing to accomodate. The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis network maintains a list of allergy friendly airlines. When we fly, we let the resevationist know of the allergy when booking the flight and reconfirm when we check in prior to boarding. Our preferred airline makes an announcement prior to boarding and refrains from serving one of their snacks that contains peanuts/treenuts. We try to put my son between other members of our party, etc., to insulate him from the possibility that someone sitting near him and eating an allergic item could trigger a reaction. Finally, we dose with Benadryl prior to boarding the plane, wipe the seats down and carry several EpiPens on board.

Well my daughter, age 3, has all those same food allergies plus wheat. (milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts). We have gone to WDW once with her when she was 2.5, and we have another trip scheduled for early Dec. when she'll be 4.

Honestly, going to WDW was the best vacation we've ever had! I really felt comfortable with the foods that were offered to her and the extra attention that the chefs gave to us. I am so used to taking vacations where I still have to cook most (if not all) our meals. I felt like it was a real vacation for me too.

Here are a few tips that I think would help:

1. Go to WDW during a not so busy season if possible. That way you can dine at CS restaraunts for an early lunch and it won't be mobbed already. There are 3 ring binders at every CS rest. with food labels and ingredient lists for all of their foods, sauces, salad dressings etc. I would usually have my hubby take the kids and find a seat while I looked at the binder and spoke to the manager at the counter. Then I'd find the family and tell dd what her meal choices were. I think this is easier to do when the place is not super crowded, but I'm sure that it's do-able at heavy crowd times too. I researched ahead of time on allears.net using the menus to try and find places that I thought she'd be able to eat what was offered.

2. Purchase the dining plan. We need to dine at sit down TS restaraunts daily so that out dd can have more choices and the food can be specially prepared. The dining plan was nice and we did save money this way.

3. Be certain to contact someone on the special diets phone number so that you can get a list of foods and restaraunts etc. emailed to you. It is very informative!!!!!

4. I brought alot of snacks from home. We ate in our room for a lite breakfast sometimes too. We were given a complimentary refrig. in our room at Pop Century. We bought Silk soymilk from the food court and kept it in our fridge. We brought packets of instant oatmeal from home and Chinet disposible bowls. We mixed her oatmeal with soymilk and used the food court microwaves to heat it up. She could always get fresh fruit from the food court to go with it. This worked well for us.

We've never had any trouble on flights. I hope your friend looks into a Disney trip and decides to go. If she has more questions I would be happy to email back n forth with her since our allergens we avoid are similar. Just let me know.

tHANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INFORMATION!'

I am sure that this will help her put her mind at ease!