The Nut-Free Mom Blog: Food Allergy Safe Easter Celebrations!
Easter will soon be here and so will family celebrations that naturally revolve around food! However, food allergy safe Easter celebrations are possible. I wanted to compile some of my best tips for holiday dining with the family.
Easter is tricky because a restaurant Easter Brunch is often part of the festivities. Please be extra careful at a "buffet" brunch. Risk of cross-contact is astronomical and many brunch dishes contain tree nuts. Sometimes bringing some safe foods for your child is the best thing you can do when faced with this issue. Don't take a chance at buffets. If you know you will be going to a brunch, call the restaurant now and see if you can have a "safe" item prepared separately in the kitchen.
1. Instead of decorating real eggs, paint, decoupage or bead wooden eggs available at craft stores or online. Plastic eggs can also be decorated using stickers, ribbons and permanent markers.
2. Fill baskets with small toys, cars, dolls, crayons or mini stuffed animals, instead of putting the focus on food.
3. Organize an Easter egg hunt using plastic eggs. Fill them with coins or stickers or even coupons for activities such as roller skating or movies, instead of candy.
4. Suggest an alternative to "mixed nuts in a bowl" and peanut-laden Chex mix-style snacks from the party. Yes, these are a big hit with many family members, but see if you can bring an alternative snack. These are particularly dangerous because younger allergic children may grab these items and eat them before you can stop them. Also, people spread the nut dust and residue around with these snacks. If your child touches the hands of someone who was recently snacking on this, and then eats something "safe," a reaction can occur because they will then ingest the nut allergen along with the "safe" food. This just happened to the child of a friend of mine, so be careful.
Thank you!! Love all your blog posts :) Have a great Easter!!!
I bring food for my daughter all the time, because even though I am lucky enough to have a very very understanding family, they don't live with an allergy, so they don't always know what is safe and what isn't. I've taught them enough and they know to read labels, but sometimes they just aren't sure, or forget. So I always bring food for her, just in case.
We solved our church egg hunt concerns with ease this year. I bought two cross shaped pops from Vermont Nut Free Chocolates ahead of time and offered the "trade" as soon as the eggs were gathered. They gave me the eggs UNOPENED in exchange for the chocolate pop that could be eaten IMMEDIATELY! It worked like a charm for my peanut/nut allergic daughter and non-food allergy daughter.