Dairy Free Baby and Me: Dairy Free and Gluten Free Sweet Treats at Disneyland Paris

You may well be on holiday, but wondering around the vast Disney Parks in Disneyland Paris can take a LOT of energy!

Be prepared for a LOT of walking! Comfy footwear is a MUST!

But... fear ye not!

Disney is careful to make sure that there are plenty of places to provide you with a little refill! But if you're looking for anything healthy, you might need to look away now and take your own!

Apart from this stall in the Disney village:

Fruit to go?

which sells things that are fruit based.

We didn't actually investigate it, as 'Baby' is not a natural fruit eater and I was a little bit wary of anything unpackaged and unlabelled. This might seem mad, and over cautious to some of you, but do you really want a reaction on holiday??

The only other place I saw that sold fruit was McDonald's - where you could buy a small packet of apple.

If you are staying half board (like we did), you are given a voucher for a 'Pause Gourmand' which amounted to a hot or cold drink and a bite to eat - one for each day that you are resident. This can be exchanged at selected venues throughout the parks. It took a while for us to work out just where these venues were. Unfortunately, although the drinks were useful, none of the muffins or snacks in these venues were dairy free for 'Baby' or gluten free for me. Just as well we brought some of our own, then!

Food on the move!

Throughout the Resort, there are lots of places to eat; including restaurants, fast food outlets (bizarrely themed as Victorian, in Main Street - that was a little surreal), food stalls and moving food carts. Of course, it was sometimes tricky finding food that was allergy friendly, it was nowhere near as good as Nicola's experience in the States (read about it here, or on her new blog, here), but (probably because a lot of the treats we found involved sugar), we still found a few things that 'Baby' and I could have.

The key thing was to buy packaged products - then we could check the label and be certain that there was no chance of cross-contamination.

Not labelled or pre-packaged? We wouldn't take the risk!

When checking labels, the main thing to look out for was sans lait or sans lactose' regarding milk and sans gluten regarding gluten free. You were more likely to see sans lactose than sans lait - perhaps showing that lactose intolerance has a higher profile in France than milk allergy. However, it was always a good start, when it came to examining labels. Knowing other related words like buerre (butter), fromage (cheese), or, for me, ble (wheat) also helps. That doesn't cover everything, of course, but is a start!

So what did we find?

Popcorn

One snacky treat that we sometimes have a home is popcorn. However, knowing that sometimes butter is used to help coat popcorn with flavour, I was pleased to discover that the popcorn sold in tubs was suitable for both 'Baby' and me. Even better, you could get it in tubs with characters that 'Baby' loves... i.e. Mater!!

'Baby' friendly popcorn

Packaging states:

gluten free, nut free, lactose free, soya free

Ingredients:

Sweet: corn, sugar, glucose syrup, vegetable oil, natural colouring agent: beta-carotene

Salted: corn, vegetable oil, salt, potassium chloride, seasoning extract, flavouring powder.

Large sugary lollies!

I couldn't eat one, but you see plenty of people wandering around who do!

Bound to catch the eye of princess mad little girls!

Ingredients:

Sugar, glucose syrup, acidifier: citric acid, colourings: beetroot red - curcumin, flavour.

Pez

A very familiar-looking Pez sweetie dispenser - 'Baby' loves these!

Various characters available!

Packaging States:

No lactose or gluten

Ingredients:

sugar, glucose syrup, citric acid, acidity regulator (sodium-citrates), hydrogenated vegetable fat, emulsifier (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids), flavour colouring foodstuffs: Lemon: concentrate of salflower), lemon juice concentrate; Orange: (concentrate of paprika); Cherry: (concentrates of grapes, black currant and black carrots); Strawberry: (concentrates of black currant and black carrots).

Candyfloss

Pure sugar, I know, I know, I know, but we were on holiday and we made sure that she didn't get to eat it all by herself, or even all in one go. A definite advantage of once again sticking to a packaged product that was clearly labelled, rather than one which was freshly prepared, was that we could stick the lid back on and save some for another day!

Loving the fact it's got a lid!

Ingredients:

Sugar, colourings: E100, E101, E120, E131, Flavouring.

Price: €3,99

Haribo Marshmallows

Another hit with 'Baby,' but I didn't buy them on this occasion!

These stayed on the shelf!

Ingredients:

Glucose syrup, sugar, water, gelatine, Humectant: sorbitol syrup, Maltodextrin, rice and potato starch, Acidulant: Citric acid, flavouring, Colour: carmine.

More Haribo!

Bought for 'Baby,' but she didn't actually enjoy these and I wasn't sure that I should have them. I had to translate the label from French, as the ingredients weren't listed in English, and I'm not sure whether they contain wheat or not.

Disneyland Haribo

Ingredients:

Glucose syrup,sugar, dextrose (from wheat or maize), pork gelatine, flavouring, inverted sugar syrup, carouba fruit extract, concentrates from fruit and plants (apple, kiwi, spinach, nettle), acidifier E330, coating agent: E901, E903, dyes: E120, E161b.

Price: €2,99

Candycanes
Found in a shop on Main Street

Ingredients:

Sugar, glucose syrup, acidifer: citric acid, natural flavouring, colouring: carmine acid.

Price: €1,99

So, there were options, but as you can see, they're full of sugar!

One thing sadly lacking, at Disneyland Paris was a decent dairy free ice lolly. In fact, there were none that I could find. I didn't mind that there wasn't dairy free ice cream - I knew that would be unlikely, but an ice lolly...

Not a great deal of choice anyway!

The nearest thing I could find, that looked hopeful was the 'Super Twister'. It boasted three fruit flavours, but the ingredients list included buerre (butter). Hoping that it might be some kind of other 'butter' (i.e. cocoa butter, isn't made with dairy) I interrupted a French couple who were eating one, so I could ask for their help in translation. Startled as they were by my leaping upon them, once they grasped what I was after they were most helpful... but soon confirmed that it was unsuitable.

This was disappointing, as the weather was hot that day and plenty of other folks were wandering around with tubs of Ben and Jerry's.

It was harder for 'Baby'.

'But why don't they have one for me?' she wailed repeatedly.

'Good question!' thought I, trying to 'jolly her along'.

There were some 'Slush Puppy' type drinks, available from some stands, but although logically they should be OK (ice, right), I wasn't prepared to take this for granted and was fed up of asking questions by this time. I suspected that they were full of additives anyway and as 'Baby' had no idea what they were or if she was missing out, we passed those by!

Good job 'Baby' likes balloons, is all I can say!! Expensive, but a great tool for distraction!!