soy, dairy, beef, potato, tomato-free eating out - suggestions?

[Synohomonymgraphphone]

DS (nearly 2) is allergic to soy, dairy, beef, potato, tomato. A lot of his diet is breastmilk.

Can anyone suggest any type of food where he might be able to eat a few things on a restaurant menu? We are going on holiday over Christmas and won't easily be able to cook or store food. We will be expected to eat out with other family members.

At the moment he's the pickiest eater ever and will only eat porridge & fruit, coconut yoghurt, bread & hummus, peanut butter & oatcakes, and one sort of homemade veggie soup (containing blended-up barley, lentils, beans, veg, stock, fresh spinach).

Won't eat textures like rice, won't eat meat or fish.

He would live on ice cream, salty biscuits and cheese if he was allowed to (and would then spend his life hiccing and choking, screaming in pain from reflux/gut cramps/bloody diarrhoea, and with bleeding eczema everywhere, never sleeping).

I despair of finding stuff that he will eat. I am utterly knackered from the lack of sleep that goes with these allergies, and from constantly trying to get him to eat. Holiday with a bunch of judgemental older relatives who think food allergy is about bad parenting is going to be a fecking nightmare.

[YeOldeTrout]

Bloody hell, that sucks. Unlucky kid.
Given his age (one day at a time, so just worry about this trip) can you just tell restaurants that he has very complicated allergies so can't order off the menu & bring stuff with you? Point out he can't have chips or milk. Even dry toast is out because often has soy in it.

I guess rice cakes & cheese are alright for a restaurant table? Cheese can be bought in small quantities so will keep well enough outside a fridge.

[Synohomonymgraphphone]

Oatcakes and peanut butter... (can't have cheese...)

Yes I guess we will have to do that - good point - I have utterly lost the will to even try eating out so had not thought about taking in food as being an option!

Given the breastfeeding, I have to be free of all these things too, but at least I will happily enough eat meat, veggies, rice etc. so can eat (some) Japanese, Vietnamese, or Middle eastern meals.

[Ylvamoon]

Could you have a look for a vegan / vegetarian restaurant? I think they might be a bit better in terms of cross contamination & the menu might give you some inspiration.
Always do as YeOldeTrout suggested.

[YeOldeTrout]

oops, sorry, I misunderstood what you meant about cheese, but then have nut butter if that's safe.

[DunesOfSand]

Would he eat plain pasta? Which i imagine a number of kitchens would have available? Would an Italian place be able to do dairy and tomato free sauce? Can he tolerate you eating a small amount of dairy - pesto?
Otherwise, bread and a fruit salad from the pudding menu??

Just as an aside, if he can't tolerate tomato and potato, is he also sensitive to aubergine and bell peppers? All 4 are part of the nightshade family.

[Synohomonymgraphphone]

Fruit salad should be ok, good point. Bread generally is not safe as commercial stuff is full of soy flour and often also milk powder.

Never tried aubergine. Unsure about capsicum as he won't eat it. Have never got him to eat plain pasta - it seems to make him gag. He adores pesto, but he's very allergic to dairy so it's vetoed. Unfortunately Italian is probably not going to work - the rest of the family (the ones we're visiting) love it!

[AllergicLaura]

Hi I'm Laura, a graphic design student at Loughborough University who suffers from night-shade food allergies. This makes eating out with friends/ families and colleagues hard and is sometimes embarrassing. I have an idea and need your help please… if you or someone you know suffers from food allergies could you please fill in this 2 minute survey (www.surveygizmo.eu/s3/90105507/Food-allergies) it would be so so helpful.

I think there could be a really good digital solution to help eating out which would really help to stop people with allergies or with members of their family who have allergies feel anxious.

[AllergicLaura]

Hi I'm Laura, a graphic design student at Loughborough University who suffers from night-shade food allergies. This makes eating out with friends/ families and colleagues hard and is sometimes embarrassing. I have an idea and need your help please… if you or someone you know suffers from food allergies could you please fill in this 2 minute survey

www.surveygizmo.eu/s3/90105507/Food-allergies

it would be so so helpful.

I think there could be a really good digital solution to help eating out which would really help to stop people with allergies or with members of their family who have allergies feel anxious.

If you'd like to be involved in further research tasks and solution testing stages of the process please drop me a message :)

[PutItAwayDear]

You can get dairy free pesto, Sacla do one (I know that doesn't help with eating out but just saying!).

[E20mom]

A relative has similar dietary restrictions. We happily eat at Wagamama.

[Nemesia]

If he loves pesto, you can get dairy free pesto from most supermarkets in the free from section.