What can I give a 5 year old party guest who's allergic to eggs and nuts ...

[Snowstorm]

I was going to do mergingues and fairy cakes for the sweet part of the party tea but both have egg in. What would be a treat for someone who has both these allergies? Poor girl.

• ur, that'll be meringues ...

Jelly - in a special fancy mould?

rice crispie cakes with raisins and marshmallows in and NUT FREE chocolate

Try Chocolate Oil Cake.
No nuts or eggs in it and it is delicious.
My Daughter can't have any Dairy in her diet and this recipe is perfect for birthday cake or fairy cakes.
It sounds a bit dodgy with oil in the title but its just a sub for butter or marg.
Go to Allrecipes.co.uk and type it into the seach engine on that page and the recipe will come up.
I use it all the time and it is good for freezing too.

Good Luck

I second the chocolate crispies - with cornflakes/rice crispies and nut free choc (eg kinnertons nut free). Jelly is good too. DD is allergic to dairy, egg, wheat and nuts and she is always happy with these.

It is very kind of you to bother btw! One thing I would say is maybe to reconsider the meringues, depending on how allergic to egg she is. We have faced countless allergens at parties and just get on with it, on the basis that you can't dictate what others have at their parties, nor would you want to. But a party where there were hordes of 4 year olds eating meringues with cream was one of the most stressful events of my life because the egg (and for us the dairy) shed so much in that form - I was endlessly sweeping up crumbs, wiping faces....Because meringues are only egg white, and it is generally the white that is the problem, it is a major hazard.

Anyway, up to you of course and this child's parents may feel differently. On behalf of all allergic kids, thanks for thinking of what she might like

Thank you for your thoughts ... I think that between 17 children I apparently have: nut allergy, milk allergy and egg allergy ... and ... what really amazes me is that I have had to ask. NOT ONE PARENT mentioned this when they RSVP'd. I find that absolutely strange ... don't you?

It is strange. We have a nut allergic friend (5 yo) and they never mention it, the boy is just 'trained' never to eat anything that looks dodgy . Mind you they don't carry any medication either and have had to ask us for some antihistamine when that method failed. This boy has only ever had mild/moderate reactions and I think they feel they can just wing it.

So the lack of warning may mean that your guests are intolerant or mildly allergic rather than anaphylactic - although obviously you can't rely on that! Or it may be that they were planning to bring their own food - we always do, but then again I would always mention it first to the hosts.

my DS is allergic to dairy eggs and nuts and has an epi-pen, We always take his own food....can't imagine why they haven't mentioned it... How rude....

Does being allergic to nuts rule out most shop-made chocolate stuff (biscuits/buns etc?)

Ds2 allergic to egg and sesame, usually send him to parties with his own stuff and strict instructions not to eat anthing else, Think its really rude of parents not to inform you sooner if they expest you to cater for them.

Just to add you can't have a mild allergy, just because a child has a mild reaction once doesn't mean they will always have a mild reaction, could be far worse next time.

I would serve, flapjack, rice crispie cakes, caramel shortbread, most of big supermarkets have good labelling to what allergens they include.

Ds has nut and egg allergy.

His fave party treats are vegan chocolate cake (if I have managed to persuade someone to make it as I am crap at baking!), chocolate rice crispy cakes (if you use marshmallows make sure they are egg free), party rings, jammy dodgers, jam tarts.

Maybe the parents were expecting to bring their own food as they felt guilty about causing you trouble with your catering.

Have fun.

those honey/cornflake clusters are nice too

Snowstorm - my ds is allergic to nuts, but I have never mentioned it. When he was small I would come along, and now that he is older, he is good at just eating safe foods.

I guess I never mentioned it because I don't expect people to fuss over him. Also we have a small school, and people tend to know these things about the kids.

Thanks for the ideas - I think I was going to do DD2's choice of party food for the majority but make sure I'd got a couple of 'treat' things for the allergy kids both at the party tea and for their party bags. "Here, have a chocolate krispie jobby instead of a fairy cake X", that kind of thing.

I think that what triggered all this off is that I went to a child's party the other day and was helping a little girl, who was late, to a plateful of food. She was painfully shy - it took one of her very confident classmates to tell me that this girl was allergic to egg and nuts ... there wasn't much to put on her plate after that. I just would like everyone to have a nice full party looking kind of plateful!

It's DD2's Reception Class and I sent an email around pointing out that it was a drop off party (I think it might be the first time for quite a lot of them but I'm confident we'll look after them all and give them a happy time, I've got all the parents' mobile number in case of an emergency and ... we simply don't have enough space for the parents too) and so it was important for me to know which children shouldn't touch stuff. I'm happy that these 4 and 5 year olds can fend for themselves but I'd just prefer to know as a kind of belt and braces approach.

I'm presuming that these allergies can't be that bad or else the parents would have told me if it was an ambulance kind of allergy.

If you don't have a child with an allergy (which thankfully we don't appear to have but I guess you never know what previously untasted food stuff is around the corner) then it's amazing how much you don't know. One mum that I stopped and asked said her daughter was allergic to milk - even a drop of it in anything ... so now I'm wondering if she's okay with butter for the sandwiches?

Ho hum, I shall persevere ... I could always drop a note to the Reception teachers and ask them ... maybe it'd be quicker and clearer that way!

Sorry, most woffly and rambly ... really must go and do 'stuff' now!

If she is allergic to even a drop of milk it is likely she won't be able to have butter. DD is anaphylactic to milk and we use Pure margarine (available in Sainsburys etc).

It is quite a lot to ask to cater for all these allergies from a standing start. All sorts of things have milk in btw, including unlikely things like some ham/processed meats.

Good luck!

Nettie - you can have a history of reactions or test results which suggest you are mildly allergic, and unlikely to have an anaphylactic reaction, as opposed to dd's which suggest she is severely allergic.

I would never rely on this even if I could - I agree that every reaction can be different and subsequent reactions can be much worse than the first. But I do think some parents are more relaxed about parties because previous reactions have always been controllable. That may be foolhardly, it may not, but I do think they should give proper info to the hostess.

Snowstorm, Fabulous Bakin Boys cakes are all made is a nut free factory. I know that McVities choc digestives, hobnobs and Jaffa cakes are peanut free but I'm not sure if they are nut free (ds only has peanut allergy). I think Jaffa cake mini rolls and mars bar mini rolls are ok but you would have to check.

THIS SWEETS WEBSITE HAS SOME SDELICIOUS SWEETS AT
www.scrumptioussweets.co.uk/

THE SWEETS EG MARSHMALLOWS ARE NUT FREE
GLUTTEN FREE ,MILK FREE ALCOHOL FREE AND THEY ARE REALY NICE
LOADS MORE SWEETS U CAN EVEN CALL THE LADY SHE IS HELPFULL THE NUMBERS ON THE WEBSITE

Thank you everyone - quite tricky what with the egg-free, nut free and dairy free combination ... particularly the chocolate aspect, what with it being a party and all.

What I might do is to browse the allergy section of Sainsburys and then have a little allergy free selection of foods on a separate 'serving platter' and keep those for the allergy kids - perhaps I might even find some sweets for their party bags in there?

Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who's told me exactly what I can buy - I'll be relying on your messages when I write my party shopping list - so thank you so much for taking the time to write.

Thank you snowstorm (from a mum with allergic kids) that you are taking such a brilliant interest and making a wonderful effort to make sure all the kids have nice food. Really great. xx

galaxy chocolate is nut free but not dairy free, Sainsburys or co-op (sainsburys cheaper) have a dark dairy and nut free chocolate bar.

Be a bit careful of jaffa cakes as some own brands have a may contain nuts warning.

It's kind of you to try and provide for the children with allergies - some mums don't mention it because they fear their child being excluded. If it's just an intolerance and not an allergy you can worry more about exclusion than illness. Be surprised if anyone with a serious allergy would not mention it as children of that age can't be trusted to know what is safe. However they might do what my child does and eat only crisps if in any doubt.

My ds is allergic to egg and intolerant to milk.

I bring my own cake to parties so that he has got something to eat at the same time as the others have birthday cake.

I wouldn't really expect the host to go out of their way tbh because I know it's sometimes hard to cater for allergies if you are not dealing with them every day. But when people do cater for ds's allergy, I am always very touched that they have thought of him. I hope your guests appreciate the effort.