Quote:
Originally Posted by vmartino26
Our grand daughter is four years old and has a peanut allergy. She's up with us in NH quite a bit, and eating out is really a difficult problem. We tend to go to "mom and pop" type eateries where an owner may be present. Restaurants of this type usually can answer questions factually because the owner in fact may be involved with the food preparation. We do have the needle with us just in case, however. It's also difficult when we travel to craft fairs and the like where food is often times on display and available for tasting. That can be quite a challenge. Likewise with ice cream. The Dairy Queen in Laconia is about the only place we've had success purchasing some pre-packaged ice cream for her. Other places are a gamble. Often times the ice cream may be okay, but the scoop will have been in contact with ice cream that contained peanuts or nuts, and then it's a problem. I suppose bringing pre-packaged food is one answer, but I'm not sure it's a good long term answer.
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Our son has a treenut allergy, and has been diagnosed for about 4 years. We eat out quite a bit and have not had any issues, but we are careful. My recommendations are as follows:
1) Stick to restaurants that are smaller and more in control (as vmartino suggested). You can generally feel better about their answers. That said, SIA is correct that kitchens are busy places and you cannot always be sure to get a correct answer.
2) Think about how what you are ordering is prepared. When out, we stick to more basic foods (pasta with butter, plain cheeseburgers, etc) to avoid the cross contamination issue that SAI is MOST CORRECTLY worried about.
3) for icecream, we warn the server about the nut allergy and ask that the scoop be washed before it is served. Stick to toppings that cannot be easily contaminated (whipcream, cherry, etc). No mix-ins Not foolproof, but an extra precaution. I like the pre-packaged suggestion.
4) Most importantly, we know how sensitive our child is to the various allergens and adjust our ordering accordingly based on what we see on the menu. We don't even allow treenuts on our foods (like walnuts on salads) to avoid cross-contamination.
5) Never introduce a new food at a restaurant to a child. for our daughter, even once she was three, we waited an extra 4 weeks until we returned home to try peanut butter in our controlled environment where we could observe for about 2 hours after the introduction.
6) We
always carry an epi-pen and all adults we are know we have it (in case one of us is in a bathroom, etc). That pen can give us the time between incident and paramedics.
7) Finally, starting at about in his late threes, we taught out son about his allergy, what to watch for and tell us (severe itch and/or difficulty breathing) and not to eat foods that have not been checked or verified. He is really good about it.
knock on wood, we have not had an incident. That said, we owe a debt to SIA for bringing this up and noting that restaurants cannot be expected to be perfect. If allergies are severe, extra precautions need to be taken. I agree that most restaurants would be willing to heat up a dish or make a very basic dish (like pasta with butter, assuming pasta is on the menu).