Food Allergy Moms

We recently found out that my son is allergic to Eggs (which we figured since he had a reaction each time he tried eggs) and also to Peanuts (which we didn't know about).

He is only 14 months and I've been extremely nervous to take him to a restaurant (or to go away with him) or even to someone else's house since I can't guarantee that what he is eating will be safe.

So, I've been bringing all of his food with me. Am I being overly cautious not taking him out to restaurants and such? I guess I'm just nervous because how do I really know that there isnt any cross contamination? And I don't want him to have a severe reaction and it's not like he can tell me if his throat is closing up or something.

What do you guys do? How do you handle going out to restaurants or even flying with your LO to different locations?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thx!

Re: Food Allergy Moms

I trust the places we go to a certain degree - but I always bring along Benadryl and an Epi-pen and we avoid certain places.

Logan is allergic to all nuts (peanuts and tree nuts) as well as sesame. We avoid most Asian food and Greek restaurants as a result.

We honestly don't eat out much, so for us it's not really a big deal. Also, he doesn't have an airborne allergy so as long as the food doesn't actually contain sesame or nuts, he is okay. He can eat food that is processed in the same place without a problem (so far).

Also, if we aren't sure, we just pick something else off the menu.

We stick to things we know! We also frequent the same places often, so we tend to get an idea of what's okay and what isn't.

For example, we always go to the same coffee shop - we get him a croissant or ginger molasses cookie. We know those 2 items are safe. If we go out to eat, he usually gets grilled chicken & rice which tend to be safe or spaghetti and meatballs. For desserts, we stick to a good old scoop of vanilla ice cream!

If you get to know places a bit better, you can always ask and MAKE SURE you tell them you're asking because of a severe allergy. We have ONE japanese restaurant that we will go to because we have been going there for 5 years and we know the waitress. She makes sure that NO sesame, sesame oil, nuts, etc. get into Logan's food. We have never had a problem there. Other places we really just don't trust!

Message edited 9/4/2012 4:31:49 PM.

Re: Food Allergy Moms

My son is also allergic to eggs and peanuts/tree nuts. When we go out, we ask. We know now what is safe where. If it is someplace we have never been before, we ask if something has peanuts or eggs.
For dessert type things, pretty much any kind of cake or cookie is not good. Ice cream we only let him have soft serve that comes out of the machine with no toppings because of the risk of cross- contamination.
Every place we have been has always been very accommodating and will always look at ingredients if I ask.

Friends and family are very aware of his allergies and will make sure not to have any kind of food he is allergic to. I will still always look at ingredients of snacks, etc.

The egg allergy is a lot harder than the nut one, because so many things contain egg. I won't let him have bread, and he can't have anything fried/breaded. I also won't let him have pasta at a restaurant because most homemade pasta contains egg.
FYI carvel ice cream also has egg.

We did have an incident at a party once that stopped me from going to parties where food is out on tables that he can grab without me seeing. I will wait until he is older and understands better. He is starting to understand now at 3.5 but I still wouldn't trust him not to eat something tempting in front of him.

We haven't flown anywhere or gone on vacation, but I would do the same thing about asking every where we went. I would also request a peanut free flight.

And make sure you carry your epipen everywhere you go.

ETA to the AP: I'd be careful with getting a scoop of ice cream. Most places use the same scoop for all their ice cream flavors, so there is a high risk of cross-contamination.

Message edited 9/4/2012 4:37:51 PM.

Food Allergy Moms

Thanks!!

Food Allergy Moms

A lot of chain restaurants have allergy friendly menus. Chili's is one off the top of my head that I know does. DD2 has food allergies, some of which she has thankfully outgrown, but in the past year we haven't had issues with restaurants accommodating us at all.