Party food help for a novice, please!

[TrashPanda]

I've booked a soft play party for my son's 4th birthday and one of the attendees "can't have wheat, dairy or soya.. he's gluten free" - I've used the exact wording from the RSVP text from parent.

The venue do cheese/ham/marmite/jam/choc spread sandwiches on white and brown, cocktail sausages, various crisps, veg sticks, fruit, chocolate biscuits and fairy cakes as the party tea.

They have advised that apart from the fruit and veg everything has at least one of the above in and they can't guarantee no cross contamination onto the fruit and veg. They have asked that we supply food for the party child.

Can anyone help with safe foods or brands that I can use to make a similar party tea to the venue. Also, what do I do about cake?

I'd just ask the child's parent(s). You may have to get a small separate cake but some supermarkets now do suitable cakes. We often took our own party food for our son who is lactose intolerant but it was lovely when we didn't have to.

I'd tell the parents what is provided by the venue and say that they can bring an alternative.

Contact the parents. Ask for a lift of his favourite fruits and vegetables and make him a container containing some of those. You’ll probably have to watch him as well, if this is an allergy issue and one of his parents isn’t present.

List not lift

Yes, refer to parents. My son has those allergies (plus egg) and it's a real pain, but I'm used to it now and know what he'll eat. I wouldn't want someone spending a fortune on free from products when I can provide or suggest something easily.

My son had multiple allergies. I would never have expected someone else to provide his food. I would tell the parent what the venue said. If they don't offer to provide food themselves, explain that you aren't an allergy household and are worried about cross contamination and what food can you buy at 'insert your supermarket of choice here' that you can take for the child.

Unless of course you really want to learn all about allergies, cross contamination and cooking for that child ... in which case I can provide you with recipes etc

Thanks very much all. I'm expecting a parent to be staying, most do, but I'm not 100% sure. Dad has replied but I only ever see mum at nursery.

Will go back and ask what I can easily provide. I think I'm most worried about cake to be honest.

You could always make Rice Krispies squares or similar as cake replacement

Ooh that could work and I could eat the rest I'm probably worrying too much and it will be simpler than I expect. The dad has said a couple of times that gluten free cakes are really easy to get but that worries me because he's not mentioned dairy or soya.

We were wheat soy and dairy allergic. Gf cakes ARE easy to get, but I remember having major problems getting any that met all our allergy requirements.... though we had some extra requirements too so that may have been what rules it out. If he's really pushing for cake, Ask the dad what brand you can buy that suits from Tesco/Sainsbury's etc.

Some parents feel that their child should be catered for wherever they go while other parents don't necessarily expect other people to know about allergies and try and make it simple by providing own food (and others provide own food because you can expect that someone somewhere will make a mistake which might be life threatening).

I'm filling time and have just checked Tesco.com and the genius gluten free chocolate muffins might work for you. They have soy lecithin which most soy allergic people can eat (but you would need to check). Betty Crocker frosting is usually ok as well (caveat you need to check all packets on day of purchase as companies change recipe and often have different formulas for different countries and even packet sizes

It's not so much that he's pushing for cake but that I'm hoping the food is similar enough to stop cries of 'I want what they've got' both ways! I don't really know the parents and the information I'm getting from texts is sparse. Thanks for your help.

Either ask the parents or you can buy gluten free sandwiches (ready made) at big supermarkets and gf sausages are most premium ones these days. The free from section will have cake too - or it's easy to make your own. Because of the multiple allergies I suspect the parents will be ok to oblige and you just source a treat

When my DS friends had allergies the parents would generally bring food their child could eat and stay to supervise their child