Chikdren coming to parties with allergies and intolerance?

[BeaverAbroad]

DD1's birthday is coming up. Have just been thinking about the food. We have invited 12 children (ouch!) and it's all at home, out in the garden. We have a limited budget (the party bags consist of cake and some things from the charity shop and poundland and whatever, meaning, aside from the cake, we will be spending £12 on that alone).

By chance, there are some children with allergies.
One child is allergic to soya and peanuts.
Another is allergic to tree nuts.
Another is allergic to strawberries and beet roots and milk.
Another cannot have gluten.

Help? We obviously need to include them and can offer other food which is the same ifyswim (different type of milk? I don't know much!).

I have asked the parents, obviously the strawberries/beetroot allergy went affect us, the milk will. Have had some ideas from them but don't know the parents that well tbh, so wanted to look on here, as well as google. How do I make sure everyone has fun and tasty food and making sure all the children are safe?

I have children with allergies and I always send their own food. Some friends who know us well try to accommodate their dietary needs with help from me but I don't expect it. I often ask what will be served at the party so I can send something similar.

Crisps (plain / salted and not pringles) raw vegetables, fruit, rice cakes, jelly type sweets (haribo are a safe bet) should be OK for everyone. Meringues would also be OK. You could have Swedish Glacé ice cream with gluten free cones but that may not be part of your plan / budget.

Leave the cake out of bag for the gluten and dairy free ones.

First of all, keep all packaging so the parents can double check.

Most marshmallows are dairy, soy and gluten free, so I would make rice crispy cakes by melting marshmallows and syrup and stirring in rice crispies.

Sainsburys used to sell chocolate in their free from section that was gluten soy and dairy free, so you could make little tophat cakes by putting a blob of melted chocolate in a small cake case, pushing in a marshmallow and use a small blob on top of the marshmallow to stick a skittle on top.

It's hard to find soya free bread for sandwiches and gluten free bread in extortionate, so I wouldn't bother with sandwiches for those kids.

Most popcorn is dairy gluten and soy free and it's easy to find crisps that will suit all. The Tesco own brand big bags of skips will be ok I think. Just double check everything.

Jelly would prob be ok.

Tesco do gluten free hotdogs. You could do those cocktail sticks with pineapple, pickled onions and hotdogs.

Children severely allergic to tree nuts are often allergic to pectin, so cannot have haribo.

Every child's allergies are different so I would leave it to the parents.

I always send a plate of my Ds's favorite things, it is much safer that way.

I find the best solution for children's parties are party food boxes.

Everyone loves to have their own little picnic box. It saves making up plates and plates of food where you often make too much and waste it. And the boxes are so easy to clear away.

Regarding allergies, we used to have a guest with food allergies and I'd just give one of the boxes to his mum a couple of days before and she'd fill it with food she knew he could eat and bring it along to the party. Then he'd have a box just like everyone else and wouldn't feel different from the others and his mum wasn't worried he'd eat something he shouldn't.

Fruit, baked chicken, veggie sticks, marshmallows, haribo, sweet popcorn, ready salted crisps, GF pasta salad, free from biscuits, free from cake.

It's all quite expensive but very doable.
If you must have sandwiches then genius GF bread is the best one to use or sainsburys free from soft bread rolls.

You have your hands full with that lot! I think it's really kind of you to try and include them as lots of parties I've been to the parents aren't too interested! And if you can at least make sure the party bag treats or prizes are suitable that helps a lot to keep the children happy. I often bring my own and try and bring stuff that looks the same!

Waitrose own bread was soya free last time I checked.

Kettle chips and tyrrels crisps are often gluten free (not always depending on flavour)

Gluten free sausages are in lost supermarkets but sometimes contain soya... It's a minefield! Talk to the mums they'll advise I'm sure.

*lots not lost

TBH I'd expect the allergic parents to stay (I always do). I wouldn't expect another parent to patrol what DS was eating, or know what to do if he had a reaction, I can't imagine a stranger being happy about using an epi-pen!

Rice Krispies are not GF. sorry!

in the garden in this rainy weather!?

Some shop brand rice krispies are gf - sainsburys rice pops, tesco rice snaps, waitrose rice pops & morrisons rice crackles. They're listed in the coeliac directory!

I would ask the parents of the allergic children to bring their own food. We have had a few allergic children come to parties and their parents always brought food....along with the epipen which would always make me panic.

My dd is coeliac I think it's lovely that you are trying to cater for everyone, I always check what the other children are having and bring her a gf version. Quite often close friends will cater for her but unless I know them well I prefer to bring my own as I wouldn't be confident that they have considered contamination issues. My lovely friend is making her dds birthday cake gf so dd can have some!

I would also always stay to monitor the food situation for dd but she is only 3 x

I always check with the parent hosting the party what food they are providing and then try to match this as best as possible for my dd. I don't expect the host to buy food suitable for dd, free from stuff is expensive nd will just go to waste.
At dd party we do similar, i.e. 'normal' food for everyone else apart from the cake which is free from.

It is lovely of you to want to cater for everyone. My DS is allergic to egg, dairy and sesame and I always take separate food to parties for him. Partly because I get very anxious about cross-contamination or missed ingredients and I just find it makes life easier for everyone.

I take safe treats for party bags and intercept and swap anything before DS gets hold if it. As others have said haribo are very useful, also marshmallow flumps, tesco do dairy free choc buttons (white or milk choc) and asda do a really nice choc orange bar. Not sure if these are gluten or soya free though, in fact I think they do contain soya.

In particular I would second the point about keeping any packaging, so that parents can reassure themselves about ingredients.