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The Disney Chronicles: Dining out with 3 food-allergic children – Day 4

by on March 19th, 2011
The Disney Chronicles: Dining out with 3 food-allergic children - Day 4

Allergy Dining at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

Not much to report today, so I’ll keep it short.  This was one of those days where we just kept going and going and going at the parks, without taking a long enough break for a “proper” meal.

DAY 4:

Breakfast started the same as yesterday – cereal and yogurt in the hotel room.  Why do I keep bringing this up if it has nothing to do with Disney, you ask?  Simply because it’s a reality of life for large, busy families on vacation, especially those with food-allergic children.  We know breakfast will be hard, so we stock up on groceries in advance.  This allows us to get out the door each morning sooner than otherwise, and get to where we really want to be – the parks!

Again, this was a busy day.  We didn’t really have lunch, as normal humans would define it.  What we had was a fine combination of frozen lemonade, snacks, water, and more – all on the run.  What we did have, however, was loads of fun on rides all day!

Even dinner was simple tonight.  The children had their hearts set on different evening activities, so we decided to forgo sit-down dining and order food to the room instead (at the Wilderness Lodge hotel).  Salads and pizza for most of us, with pasta for my oldest son (not for any food-allergic reason) and a hamburger for my middle son (due to his dairy allergy).  According to my wife who placed the order, as soon as she said “food allergy” to room service, they immediately insisted on putting a manager on the phone.  She then spoke to Eddie, who took care to note all the details of my middle son’s allergies.  He recommended we substitute out the regular burger bun, which is supplied by an outside contractor, for one of their designated “allergy-friendly” buns (my best sense is that these are dairy-free and gluten-free).  He didn’t think the regular buns would be a problem, but also didn’t want to take a chance.  Good call, Eddie.
And that’s it for today.  Simple, safe, and quick – leaving us with a lot of time for fun in the parks and pools.

Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom!  Look for us there in our AllergyEats gear between roughly 9 & 3.
Any thoughts, comments, questions?  Anything from the whole series of posts so far?  If so, please click Reply below and have your say!

Also, allow me to remind as always, but particularly since this is the weekend, to please rate any restaurants you’ve dined at recently on our core AllergyEats site (www.allergyeats.com).  We’re continuing to build great momentum with new ratings, and this is making AllergyEats a better and better resource for our food allergy and intolerance community.

Comments

    Author:
    jeannine
    Written:


    Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! It I so helpful!

    Author:
    Julie Deramo
    Written:


    I’d love to see what this family’s life would be like if each child had what my child has had. An allergy to wheat, soy, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, shellfish, and rye. This isn’t a gluten issue, it is an issue of the protein of each of those foods. Getting a kid like this to eat when it also includes mouth defensiveness where many regular foods she chokes on(like home made oatmeal, hamburger, ham, deli meats…ext) If she can’t handle the food provided she just does not eat and its like she starves herself rather than eat out of desperation. Honestly, between bacon and Round Table Pizza sausage this kid has survived and is tall, and my heart goes out to anyone with food allergies and those who care for them.p

    Author:
    DianneK
    Written:


    Maybe I’m a day late (and more than a few dollars short right now :-)My kids searched Epcot all day on Saturday and sadly didn’t find, according to them “any of those allergy eats shirts, mommy” But we did enjoy a great lunch at Liberty Tree restaurant in the American pavillion. We stopped the first cast member we saw to ask about speaking with someone before ordering our food. I wish I had names but I don’t. Anyway, she brought back the Allergy Coordinator with her. Out came a big binder with all of the choices available for my son. Hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken nuggets (that were cooked in a fryer that is specifically designated for chicken nuggets and rice mac n cheese. Not sure what rice mac n cheese is (probably a wheat free alternative) so we went with our usual of chicken nuggets for the kids and hamburger for me. But they were very helpful and it’s always good to be able to see ingredient lists in writing. We will be back at Disney on Sunday and hopefully lunch will go as good as it did today.

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