Challenging Baby Again!

Day Four! 

The end of Day Four, to be precise!

I'm finally allowing my hopes to rise.

We're challenging Baby again. It's a bit overdue. I'd put it off due to this or that - you're meant to make sure they're completely well, for one thing, but also I was waiting for a time that was convenient. Holiday time certainly wasn't!

A 'challenge' by the way, is the means by which you test whether an allergic person can tolerate the food to which they've been allergic. If you're likely to have an life-threatening anaphylactic reaction, this would have to be carried out in hospital. 

'Baby' has had a Non-Ige allergy. This means her reactions are delayed. Not life-threatening, but real nonetheless. So our challenges - agreed with our dietitian - take place at home.

It wasn't a planned challenge, by any means. We were out. Someone mistakenly gave her a biscuit. They had no idea she was dairy free and for once, she didn't ask. Hence I found her happily munching on a malted milk. 

One of these:

'Cow biscuits' as they're otherwise known!

'Too late!' she uttered gleefully when I asked her about it.

She certainly enjoyed it.

'Oh well!' I thought, 'there's not much I can do about it now. We'll just have to go along with it and see what happens.'

So we did... and nothing happened!

'Oh!' I thought, 'well in that case, let's try another and see what happens.'

There was only one problem - I had no Malted Milk biscuits in the cupboard, so I bought a pack from Poundland. Previous experience (see here) suggested we weren't going to get very far, so I didn't want to spend too much on them - just in case the rest of the packet was going to waste. I made sure I checked to make sure they had milk in them (sometimes cheaper biscuits don't).

So anyway, we tried again... and she was fine with that one too!

No tummy ache, excessive wind, disturbed sleep, sore bum or dodgy poo!

Yesterday she had a rash, on the front of her torso, but it turned out that it was just heat rash. Left to run around without her clothes and with a fan on, it disappeared within an hour or two!

'Baby's' itchy rash

Then she had a tummy ache late afternoon, but she hadn't eaten much lunch, and it soon disappeared once she had eaten a nice cream! 

One thing I have learned with 'Baby' is that sometimes a tummy ache might not necessarily be a sign of a reaction. It could be because she's hungry, constipated, got a tummy bug (she's had a few), or because she's about to produce a poo. So every tummy ache has to be considered in context and sometimes we just have to wait and see what will happen.

If it is milk related, then repeated exposure has meant tummy aches and dodgy poo and so on become more frequent, to the point where they can no longer be ignored. 

But today? Still no signs - nothing!! 

So it's a BIG FAT HUZZAH and Hallelujah!!

Originally we were told 4 or 5 days, with a biccy, but I'm still playing cautious, until after the weekend. Then I upping the anti - we're going to two malted milk biscuits, as per the 'Milk Ladder' 

For those of you not aware of what a 'Milk Ladder' might be, its a programme for reintroducing milk. Starting with baked milk, in biscuit form (baked milk is more easily tolerated than straight milk), it progresses in twelve stages, to the point where you're on the real white stuff - y'know - cow's milk.

Who knows how far we will get up the ladder on this occasion, that's still to be determind, however I was interested to read this article, which states:

 it appears that many children are taking longer to ‘outgrow’ their milk and egg allergy, a period of time that corresponds to the increasing utilization of strict allergen elimination diets for the treatment of children with these allergies. Recent studies indicate that about 80% of young children with milk and egg allergy can tolerate these foods in baked forms, that is, extensively heated proteins that have become denatured, and that the addition of heat-denatured proteins into the diet actually leads to more rapid development of tolerance to all forms of milk and egg

So, now that 'Baby' has started to manage some baked milk is a good sign. Up 'til now this has not been the case.

I have to tell you that now that she is older 'Baby' has become more aware of how she is affected by her allergy to milk - how much she is missing out on. She is ECSTATIC that she can now have Malted Milk biscuits (I don't blame her, I used to love them too). 

Yesterday, she told me she wants a carton of milk for Christmas.

Bless her!

Here's hoping!!

Fancy a date... at the Allergy and Free From Show 2014??

Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I gotta date!!

Nooooo! Not with The Hub!! He'll be my babysitter, on this occasion, or so I hope)  ;)

I've found a fellow gluten and dairy free (well, shes' lactose free) gal pal to go with me to The Allergy Show. 

Just like I was a few years ago (read about it here and here), she is an Allergy Show virgin and is really up for it!

What's it all about?

If you want to know what on earth I'm on about, well it is pretty much the Allergy and Free From highlight of the year, for me, anyway. If you haven't been before, and are wondering whether it's worth it, well yes, I think it is! Hence this post!

It's the allergy equivalent of the London Boat Show for sailors or Chelsea Garden Show for the gardeners, or the Ideal Home Show  for... well you know, whoever goes to that one!

It's an area filled with all kinds of things to do with allergies, food, skin or otherwise.

There's opportunities to hear and speak with all kinds of experts and free from food folks...

there's opportunities to try and buy the latest in free from food, direct from the manufacturers (often at special show prices)...

opportunities to watch cookery demonstrations...

the major supermarkets are also represented there... 

and so on and so forth!!

So, like my friend, you might initially want to know:

When is it?

Well, there are two, now. The one in London is in July this year, from the 4th to the 6th.

The second (and slightly smaller one) is in Liverpool from 25th to 26th October.

Where is it held?

Olympia, in London.

BT Convention Centre, in Liverpool.

Click here for directions to both.

Any other info you may need to know is in this post that I wrote before last year's show, but with a few extra things to note:

1. The two hour spotlight sessions, in London, this year are on Food Allergy (Saturday July 5th at 11.00am) and on The Sensitive Gut (Sunday July 6th, at 11.00am). You need to purchase tickets for these. Last year they sold out well before the event. Tickets for one person are £10.00 and for two are currently at the special price of £15.00. Dr Adam Fox is speaking at the first. He is one of the head honchos in Allergy treatment in the UK.

2. The Allergy Show was held in conjunction last year with the V Delicious Show. This year, The Back Pain Show and Love Natural Love Organic will also be sharing the space. With this in mind, please take extra care to read ingredients lists and ask any questions that you would normally ask. Don't take anything for granted. 

Last year I didn't realise that the V Delicious Show was going to be occupying the same space/room as The Allergy Show and the only way of telling when you were in one part or the other, was by colour coding - pink for the V Delicious bit and green for The Allergy Show. Hence I wandered around, without a clue, looking for the entrance to the V-Delicious bit, for hours! OK, so maybe I'm  bit thick...

3. Last year the show was incredibly crowded. As a result, I am NOT planning to take 'Baby', which is a shame, as I want to check out Allergy Adventures in action again this year, and without an excuse to hover, I might look a bit dodgy! However, apart from this space there was not much room for 'Baby's' pushchair among all the crowds, and I didn't dare let her out - resulting in one cross and frustrated small child. Even though The Hub took her to a nearby park for an hour or so, the day was far too much for her.

4. New this year - you can purchase VIP tickets!! These tickets allow early access to beat the crowds, a free special cloakroom, priority seating in lectures, VIP lounge, VIP treats and more! I'll be honest, they are pretty pricey - starting from £45 for a single one day pass *GULP*!! But, thinking about it, you may just be thanking your lucky stars by the end of the day!!

So do you want to go? Do you? Do you?

Well, if the answer is, 'YES!' click here, to get yourself some free 'Standard' tickets (otherwise priced at £7.50 for a single one day pass in advance, or £10.00 for a single one day pass on the day of the show)! 

Go on! Y'know it makes sense!! 

And, what's more, if you use dairyFREEbaby as your code you can get 20% off the price of a VIP ticket.

Good huh??

No need to thank me...  I get my tickets for free too!  ;)

Further Reading:

The Allergy Show - Mission Accomplished!

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Eating dairy and gluten free at Walt Disney World, Florida

Well this post isn't about the experience of the dairy free 'baby' and me, this time. 

Those of you who have been following our recent experiences of travelling to Disneyland Paris could be forgiven for thinking I have a 'downer' on all things Disney. So, to redress the balance a little, before I continue to relate more about our trip, I've asked the lovely Nicola (@N1C79_EATS on Twitter) to share her experiences of travelling to the Walt Disney Land in the States. 

Like me, Nicola is dairy and gluten free and I've heard so much from her, via Twitter, about the great times that she had there, that I thought it would be good for you to hear it too - it's quite interesting to see the differences between Disney in Paris and Florida!

Very kindly, Nicola agreed! And I really appreciate her sharing this, because it takes a lot of work to put a post together.

So, over to Nicola:

I find the USA (Orlando in this instance) caters a lot better for food allergies than the UK. A lot more information is available and procedures in place. This being the case it was our 3rd year going back to Orlando for our annual holiday. Not only is it a fantastic place with lots to see and do but there's also a vast amount of alternative foods and restaurants that cater for different diets without any awkwardness making your holiday more relaxing.

We choose to stay in a villa as we like our own space but it also enables us to eat breakfast before a day out and any other meals when we don't fancy driving to restaurant. Not only that I absolutely love going round the supermarkets and discovering all the American Free From goodies.

The three main stores we visit are Walmart, Publix and Wholefoods. Walmart and Publix are both minutes from our villa so we always do our first shop at one of those to stock up on essentials. Both have a decent selection of Free From foods on shelves and in freezers. Publix have a slightly bigger selection and also more options in the freezer department inc lots of different dairy free ice-creams. My all time favourite is Wholefoods, yes its a bit more expensive but their selection is overwhelming. I could spend hours in there. When you've spent a year looking at different american goodies on the internet and they are finally on the shelf in front of you its very exciting. I always bring a suitcase back full of my favourites.

My favourite snacks to have in the villa were - Daiya Pizza, Vans Waffles, Piping Gourmet Whoopie Pies, Rice Dream Bites, Earth Balance "Cheese" Puffs, Amy's Pizza and Enjoy Life Cookies. The list could go on but I enjoyed all of those this visit.

Fave Snacks

Disney do food allergies the best. Even if you are not staying at a Disney Hotel you can still book a meal at one of their restaurants (and have a nosy round the resort). When booking you can specify any food allergies which will be printed on your booking when you check in and stamped "Allergy". Your server will seat you and then the chef will visit you at your table to go through your options. In a sit down restaurant this is standard practice. At any Disney quick service locations it is best to tell a server or cashier that you have allergies and they will in turn call for the chef. This also applies within any of the parks. My favourite place to visit is the Grand Floridian Cafe for a breakfast of allergy friendly Mickey Waffles. Amazing! A new discovery this year was the allergy friendly Beignets at the Port Orleans resort which were delicious. As a special treat we booked in at the Victoria & Albert restaurant for our final meal. Only in Disney could I have been served the most delicious 7 course meal, free from everything I couldn't eat. It was the best meal I have ever eaten. They even gave us a Babycakes Lemon & Poppy seed cake to take away as a present. Fantastic.

The Seven Course Meal

Eating at the Disney parks is also pretty easy. If you contact the Special Diets department before your trip they will notify you of the most appropriate locations to eat. This year we only visited Animal Kingdom and Epcot and I found it easy to eat at both. The Animal Kingdom has a Special Diets "Garden Kiosk" within the park which not only has information of places to eat in the park but it also sells Allergy Free snacks. Since Babycakes has closed in Downtown Disney you can also buy their yummy Donuts and Cupcakes from this kisok too. Their cinnamon sugar donut was scrummy.

As for the other parks. Discovery Cove is fantastic, a bit similar process to Disney, I mentioned food allergies to the server and the chef came out to advise me. They also stock Gluten Free "To Go" packs which contain various snacks that are free of the top 8 allergens. These were available at the beach huts too on request. Seaworld and Busch Gardens also stock the "To Go" packs. At Busch Gardens the best place to eat is the "Crown Colony House". We ate in the sit down restaurant. On arrival they have Allergy cards that can be filled in with your information and passed onto the server/chef. This worked very well and I thought was a good idea. Something a lot more restaurants could do. I've never eaten properly at the Universal parks. I've read they do cater for allergies but not quite to the level that Disney do. I normally settle for a fruit cup and lentil chips until we come across somewhere I know I'm safe. A lot of these parks have Dippin Dot Stands (frozen ice cream balls), I love the Rainbow Ice Dippin Dots as they are just flavoured ice and great to cool you down.

Downtown Disney is a nice area with lots of restaurants to visit. My favorite fast became Raglan Road/Cookes of Dublin. If you want dairy free/gluten free/egg free fried food this is the place to visit. We went back three times as I was addicted to their deep fried Scallops. To die for. They also do gluten free Fish & Chips and Shrimps. The Fish & Chips were very good too. I also had a very nice meal at Splitsville. They have a menu marked with all gluten free options of which a number are also dairy free too. The Fiesta Chicken bowl was super tasty.

The Scallops

Outside the parks/attractions my favourite fast food spot is Chick-Fil-A where I can get dairy free/gluten free/egg free grilled chicken nuggets & waffle fries. We also really like Outback Steakhouse which now has a gluten free menu, the server was very helpful with substitutions to make it dairy free too. I'd researched a lot of other restaurants in Orlando but didn't get the chance to visit them. I did find that a lot now have gluten free menus so are quite likely to cater for other allergies too.

My advice when traveling to America would be to do lots of research before you go. Check out menus on websites and email them for information. Being prepared removes some of the stress when you are there. We like to have some meals booked so we know where we are going to eat, but it's also nice to just eat when and where you want, or even back at the villa. Some Disney restaurants are booked months and months in advance, so don't leave it until the last minute. Parks do allow small snacks for allergies to be taken in your bag so pack a few bits just in case. Relax and have fun!

Any questions just give me a shout on Twitter! 

Wow! Didn't that food look and sound A-MAZ-ING?? It's got me salivating! And what a difference compared to our experiences in Disneyland Paris!

Those of you who would like to know more might be interested to know that Nicola will soon be blogging on this herself, so do watch out for her future posts! And a HUGE 'Thank you' goes out to Nicola for sharing this with us! xx


Further Reading:

How to Visit Walt Disney World with Food Allergies

Related Posts:

Why we're lovin' McDonald's... at Disneyland Paris

Breakfast at Disneyland Paris

Travelling Eurostar Dairy Free

Why we're lovin' McDonald's... at Disneyland Paris

If you want to know the secret of our survival at Disneyland Paris, it's this: McDonald's! Well... partly anyway.

It's a whopper! No, sorry that's Burger King! Must be a Big Mac ;)

Why? Because it was cheap, and reliable(ish), you know what you're getting and... well, we were on holiday!!

Oops! Now I know I've probably alienated half of you already - especially you healthy eaters, but there wasn't exactly much choice! When it comes down to a choice of McDonald's or starve, I know which one I'd rather choose!

OK, OK, that's perhaps overdoing it a little, but the thing is, this:

Disneyland Paris bills itself as a land of magic and dreams come true, but when it comes to dairy and gluten free cuisine, despite being situated in a country famous for it's culinary delights (think brioche, croissants, moules marinere, creme brulee etc. etc.) it just doesn't match up for folks with allergies! 

Land of Dreams?

There are, it is true, any number of places to eat at Disneyworld Paris, and we by no means explored them all. However, we soon learned enough to put me off too much experimentation. It just became too exhausting!! You may have already read the post about breakfast. I have yet to describe our experiences of dinner... 

When The Hub suggested going to McDonald's for the first lunch of our holiday, I thought, 'Why not? It's only one day after all. I expect we'll find somewhere else to try tomorrow...'

Long before we left for Paris, The Hub had already checked out the allergy menu for Disneyland Paris McDonald's, online. 

He had been excited to discover that not only could 'Baby' have her 'usual' Fish Finger Happy Meal, that she has every time we visit McDonald's in the UK (although in France it was more like a 'Filet o' Fish' without the sauce), but also the Chicken Nuggets, which are most definitely NOT listed as dairy free in the UK! 

Voila!

Funny that - how McDonald's can provide something dairy free in one country but not in another!

'Baby's' lunch.

Also, we discovered, in France, you can get a packet of fruit (apples and grapes) as an extra side for no extra cost - you'd pay for that in the UK (except, for some strange reason, on the first Friday in a month). Knowing that otherwise 'Baby' might not be getting much of her 'five-a-day,' that was quite reassuring - to know she was a getting a portion of something, somewhere along the line! Thankfully, she likes apple.

Unfortunately, there was not much sign of anything gluten free, for me - I was hoping for the gluten free burger buns that you can apparently get in Sweden (so I've heard), but no!

So I was left with my 'usual' - fries and salad - which came with a nice little pot of dressing!

Pour Moi!

It wasn't terribly exciting for me, I must admit, but 'Baby' loved her Happy Meals! As it was her holiday and she was denied treats that other kids could have (like ice cream), I'm afraid my wish to compensate for this overrode any other consideration.  

Unable to read the menu, 'Baby' was blissfully unaware that other kids were having McFlurries or donuts or Big Macs with cheese etc. 

Eating her McDonald's gave 'Baby' the chance both to feel and be 'normal'.

Priceless that!


Some practical points:

1. Check out the menu online before you go - just to make sure it hasn't changed. In the UK, you can also check online, but it's a bit unwieldy - you have to check each item individually. It's easier to go in and ask to see the allergy menu, which should be printed on the reverse of your tray liner  - yes really!!

The French online version is much easier to follow than the English - as long as you can read French!

2. It's not situated in the most obvious place - Disneyland Paris McDonald's is tucked away in a corner behind The Rainforest Cafe, towards the lake end of the Disney Village - almost as though they're slightly ashamed of it. That doesn't stop plenty of people finding it, though!

3. It gets very busy, so go as early as you can to avoid little kids having to wait too long for their food, and also to avoid running out of what you want - the salad was all gone by mid-afternoon on our last day.

4. The Hub found that the best thing was to use one of the quick self-ordering points. You have to pay by card, but it was easier to work out what was what.


Now I should perhaps add, at this point, that I have since been warned that last year there was some controversy regarding McDonald's and cross-contamination - apparently due to using the same oil for different products. I had not heard of this before and cannot say that I have ever found this to be a problem for us - either here in the UK, or abroad in Paris.

To avoid cross-contamination at the table, I wiped it carefully, with my usual pack of wipes, and then laid a couple of serviettes under our food, for extra measure. That seemed to do the trick!!

Related Posts:



Breakfast at Disney



Travelling Eurostar Dairy Free

I said, 'What about Breakfast at... Disney?'

A little background...

There are various ways to 'do' Disneyland Paris. You can stay completely outside of the Disney Resort, and be completely independent; you can stay in a Disney 'Partner' hotel, or you can stay in one of the Disney Resort Hotels. 

Having heard reports that Disney could cater for those with food allergies, The Hub suggested that we try one of the resort hotels - in order to save time as much as anything. The Hub, being self-employed (every day he takes off work for holiday he is basically losing money - so each day costs him twice over), was prepared to spend the extra - so we could make the most of our short time there. 

Big gulp! 

I agreed, but must admit to feeling some trepidation about putting our food fate in the hands of unknown others!   

The four star hotel we chose, New York, was about as close to the Disney Village and Parks as you could get. The only hotel closer to the attractions was the five star Disneyland Hotel - which is basically built right over the entrance to Disney Park. 

Our deal included half board: breakfast (eaten in the hotel) and vouchers for dinner that could be redeemed in resort restaurants/hotels, as well as a voucher for a refreshment break. This could, apparently, be exchanged at a number of venues within the parks, for a hot or cold drink and cake.

Now you might think that paying extra entitles you to a better quality of food, but it would appear not!

Back to Breakfast...

Mickey Mouse place mats! 

You are expected to book a time for breakfast! No rockin' up at whatever time you choose! You have to tell them at check-in. We opted for an early-ish hour, just before it was due to get busy - that way we thought we'd get more choice.

It was nice and fairly empty, at the time we chose...

WRONG!

If you have an allergy, you need to mention it to the staff who seat you. You then get presented with this - every morning!

A basket of Free From

A basket of Valpi Form products. That's it!

Everyone else gets buffet tables loaded with all sorts of stuff to choose from.

Put quite simply, Disneyland Paris Resort Hotels do not negotiate over food with anyone. If you have an allergy, or are coeliac, Valpi Form is all they're prepared to give you for breakfast. It stays in it's packets and you help yourself - presumably to reduce the chances of cross-contamination. 

That's great if you have multiple allergies, and are anaphylactic, as you know exactly what you are getting, but then you've got to hope that the last person to handle the packets had clean hands too - that weren't smothered in your allergens!

I mean, someone else with no milk allergy might have handled the boxes with buttery fingers - you just have no idea.

However, if you have just one allergy or are OK with 'may contain traces' you might wish for a bit more flexibility. When you compare this experience with our breakfast at Beefeaters in England (read about it here), you might feel a bit hard done by! 

What's in the basket...

1. One serving (two slices) of gluten free and milk free bread (wrapped). This appears to be soya free, but doesn't state anywhere that it is. Also it is made without egg but may contain traces of egg. No mention of nuts!

See the English Ingredients label?

This bread was quite hearty. It was quite moist, not too crumbly and not at all holey (unlike some gluten free breads I could mention). I liked it.

It was a good job that I liked it, as I had to eat it as it was - the toaster on the buffet table was (inevitably) used by anyone and everyone.

The other problem was that there was no margarine provided in the basket. There were individual sunflower margarine servings on the buffet tables, but there were no ingredients labels on them. So, The Hub Googled them. 

The only information The Hub could find online was for larger tubs of sunflower margarine by the same firm, which did contain milk. Now, sometimes products of different sizes/packaging contain different ingredients and these could have been okay, but because we couldn't tell, we just stuck to straight jam or honey on our toast (you could check the ingredients list of these, because they were on the side of each jar)! 

2. One box of Crac Form (the name made me laugh) which is a bit like Crackerwheat crackers. You can clearly see what it's free of on the front: 

Love the free from labelling on the front!

I must admit, this stuff doesn't float my boat - it's not at all filling and feels like you're eating some form of polystyrene!! However, if you're egg free, well, there's not much else you can have!! It came in two large packs inside the box - so basically, if you weren't the first person opening the packet (and you wouldn't want a whole one) you ran the risk of other people having handled it.

3. One box of Chocolate Chip Cakes (individually packed, within the box).

Individually wrapped

These were gluten, dairy, soya and peanut free, but not much good if you can't have egg!! They were quite nice as free from cakes go - they were soft and not dry or crumbly. Not my usual breakfast fare, but... needs must!

4. One box of Marble Cake (individually packed, within the box). These seemed quite popular, but were basically the same as the chocolate chip cake, without the chips!

5. One box of Chocolate Chip Cookies (in packs of three, within the box).

Not much translation skill required here :)

These tasted like standard chocolate chip cookies, so were quite acceptable, but... I wouldn't have biscuits for breakfast. However, when there's not much choice...

The ingredients. Bit blurry, I'm afraid!

so what can you do??

These were gluten, milk, soya and peanut free. No mention of egg in the ingredients, but no indication why not.

5. One box of Shortbread Biscuits (in smaller packs of about three or four, within the box).

Sorry, not the best shot!

The packet just said 'gluten free' and 'lactose free' but there was no other mention of milk or indeed of soya, so we took a risk and both 'Baby' and I seemed fine with them. They did actually taste quite nice.

Taking a chance...

However, not entirely satisfied with what was on offer, and being less risk adverse than myself, when it comes to feeding 'Baby,' The Hub sourced some bacon and fried potatoes for her, from the buffet table. I wasn't exactly happy with this, but it happened whilst my attention was elsewhere and she was happily tucking in, before I realised what was happening!

From time to time The Hub does this - uses his own man logic. To him, it's logical that bacon is cooked in fat. He is not so aware as I am, dealing with 'Baby' day-to-day of cross-contamination issues, although I do try to 'educate' him. 'Baby' is very sensitive to traces of milk, but not anaphylactic, so it's never fatal, but it's still unpleasant for her. Sometimes it pays off, but there are other times when it doesn't. 

Risks taken and survived (on this occasion), I risked the bacon (visual inspection revealed that they were served in big metal trays, in which they may well have been cooked, with nothing drippy served either side), but not the fried potatoes, as processed potatoes (which these clearly were) are often coated in wheat flour of some kind to make them crispy. Having no idea if this was the case, I steered well clear!

'Baby' loves her bacon!

'Baby' didn't come to any harm from eating either these or the honey-coated cereal, that was also available from the buffet table. Although, I must admit, The Hub did Google the cereal ingredients first! These were served from large plastic dispensers.

'Baby' eats her cereal dry!

'Baby' often eats her cereal dry, although there was actually no need for her to do so, as soya milk is available, on request,  from the hotel. We, in fact, brought our own milk for 'Baby' as she is extremely fussy. Being long-life, it was OK to pack, and once open, was stored in the fridge at hotel reception!!

It turns out you can store stuff there as long as you package it appropriately (we tied 'Baby's' milk inside a plastic bag, and wrote our name all over it). You also have to sign a form to say that you are leaving it there at your own risk (there was a small fridge in the hotel room, but it was stuffed full of hotel refreshments, so we didn't use that).

There were a few other items on the buffet table that we helped ourselves to - fruit and drinks. However, the coffee needs a mention!

Pour moi!

I don't know about you, I NEED coffee in the morning - first thing! 

But... this coffee was served from a machine - the kind that also dispenses coffee with milk, or hot chocolate!! Not to be recommended for those with milk allergies, or who are breastfeeding an infant with milk allergy, then!!

You could however have bottled water or fruit juice.

Good job we passed Starbucks on our way to the Parks each day, then!!

Some reflections...

If you're gluten free, you'll be fine with a Euro Disney breakfast. It may not be what you're used to, but you won't starve. You'll also be fine if you're dairy free and okay with soya. Beyond that, you may want to bring your own bread/muesli/dairy free milk/whatever. 

I took some Genius dairy, gluten and soya free brioche in my luggage, and some almond milk for me, but it wasn't necessary - there was bread and cake for me and as I couldn't eat any cereal and usually drink my coffee black, the almond milk was useless.

All in all, although I know the restaurant staff are probably fairly low paid and possibly low-skilled in terms of food preparation, I can't help wishing that the hotel was more flexible in terms of catering for food allergies. It shouldn't be that hard to make sure that bacon or fried egg was gluten, dairy and soya free, at the very least!! And as for the coffee... pfft!!

If I'd known how generally inflexible and ill-informed the staff at Disney were, I'd have taken 'Baby' some bread rolls from good old Angleterre, as by the end of the week, my lil' wheat eater was begging for bread. Although bread in the UK is generally milk free, I had no idea about French bread, so wasn't giving in to her desperate pleas. Who'd have thought that something so simple as bread would have been such a sticking point?? It's hard when they're little and don't understand. I'm just glad she didn't have any non-allergenic siblings, to make her jealous!!

My conclusion is: Beefeater definitely did it better - for us, anyway!!


Related Post: 



Travelling Eurostar with the Dairy Free Baby and Me