After nearly a week with some successes, we’ve done all right with eating at home and finding things to pack for lunch at school. Going on a day trip, however, presented another problem: eating out.
I had packed snacks for in the car, so that part was taken care of.
For lunch, we went to one of our old favorites, Famous Dave’s. They’ve been really good to us about food allergies in the past, and a few weeks ago I had quizzed the manager about things from this limited list that would be acceptable. Although it may not seem like a feast, my son was happy with a plain hamburger patty (no seasoning) and root beer (yes, of all the things he can’t have, the high fructose corn-syrup based sodas are mostly fine). French fries would also have been all right, but he doesn’t much care for those. He smothered the burger in Heinz ketchup, another standby that’s on the ok list.
For supper, we went to Chili’s. I had studied their food allergy lists a day ahead, so just needed to double-check with the manager. A plain sirloin steak, corn kernels, or corn on the cob with nothing on it would have been all right, but again he opted for the hamburger patty. The manager brought the restaurant-sized bag of barbecue sauce to our table so I could inspect its label, and it too was all right. I really like how Chili’s presents its allergen lists and keeps them up-to-date on their website, and we’ve always had good luck with the managers at its restaurants.
We learned that eating out when avoiding multiple foods may not be easy or exciting, but it can be done even with a very restrictive list. Having this experience under our belt will give us a little more flexibility in the months to come.
Travels with Children by minnemom » Food Allergies and Traveling said
[...] not letting it slow us down; we’ve already gone on a day trip with two successful restaurant outings even with all of the restrictions. (I find myself being very thankful for high fructose corn [...]