Food allergy friendly colleges?

[mallomar]

Don't forget dealing with food in the dorms too. As roomates are matched for compatibility, don't forget to consider food allergies. Not wanting my daughter to go into anaphylactic shock from her severe peanut allergy, she will be submitting a medical form outlining her need for a roomate with food allergy awareness, either by also being allergic to peanuts or foods in general. She doesn't want to end up in a room where peanut butter is the evening snack.

[snowball]

Another peanut allergic child here. Her roomate loved peanut butter but was willing to give it up for my daughter. It is kind of hard with most housing forms to request a roomate that will not have peanut butter or peanuts in the room.

My daughter has always learned how to work around her allergy. During orientation she met with the director of food services and was made aware of any menu items made with peanuts. When the open jar of peanut butter was left out for all to use by the bagel, my daughter had them move it to another area so there would be no worry of cross contamination.

As my daughter has been PA since she was 11 months old, we have learned to relax and allow my daughter freedom to eat out as she know where she can go and what she can eat. I did intervene when she was going abroad this semester. I was worried about her living in a host home speaking a foreign language. The housing office found my daughter a host that was willing to read food label and take extra effort for my daughter. So far all is well. The host does not have any peanut product in her home which is more than I can say for my home!!

So back to the original question, you will be able to find many school that are accommodating as far as food allergies. Just make sure you speak to the person in charge of food planning. You will be able to get a good feel of how much they will work with you early on. Most likely if it is a larger school, they already have a plan in place as there have been other students attending with allergies.

Good luck!

[quareidfaciam]

Sierra Lin, my kid has gluten intolerance after chemo. From diarrhea to weight loss and poor nutrition, it's a serious concern. We had a trial run at a state U last summer and discovered that even the director of food services, despite a desire to be helpful, was unable to help as he didn't always have ingredients due to the large, unmarked containers. I ended up calling suppliers -- Ken's has some GF dressings and some not. In the end, I made supplemental weekly food drops (while kid was out), and I expect to mail food next fall. We hope to find a pay-as-you-go meal plan (possibly kitchen access too), but even then, there is the issue of cross-contamination.

In all of our many college visits, only Brown said they catered to GF diets -- this was said without our even asking! At some schools, the large Harry Potter-like eating halls were a nightmare to think about, but as my kid sardonically reminded me, blunted villi, diarrhea, and set-up for intestinal lymphoma are small prices to pay for an Ivy education. Wish he had applied to Brown!

[gitlecoeur]

Harvard has been pretty good about accommodating a gluten-free diet. They purchased a separate grill to prevent cross-contamination, and they provide a fridge in the dining hall to hold GF food.

[icesk8mom]

I spoke directly with the dietician at her university and was satisfied that they take all precautions against cross contamination and how cooking odors are vented outside.( She has a severe fish allergy.) She is at a very large state university and I was happily amazed that the dietician would take the time to chat with me. DD did not have a problem during the two years she lived on campus and, even now, she eats some meals on campus without a problem. (knock on wood!!!)

[goaliedad]

Food allergy sufferer here as well (sesame, tree nuts).

My D goes to a boarding school that has a student with Celiac (sp) disease (cannot tolerate wheat products). They have no problems accommodating her needs, but this is a small (350 student) boarding school.

As one earlier poster mentioned 2 corporate giants (ARAMARK Sedhexo) run the vast majority of college kitchens. And they run them from standardized recipies with ingredients form a relatively small set of suppliers. You might want to contact the corporate arm of these companies to see if their folks can assist you with providing recipies and ingredient lists from their foods. I'm not sure if they will be willing to help, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Now if you are lucky enough to send your student to a school with its own food service (mostly privates - publics tend to like the competitive bid process for food service for some reason), I'd talk to the dietician (as opposed to the food service manager) as they are in charge of menu development and are responsible for nutritional standards. The dietician would have the ingredient list (and nutritional info) for everything prepared. And since dieticians are nutrition professionals by nature, they are more likely to be attuned to nutritional needs than a food service manager (responsible for production).

[astrophysicsmom]

Franklin and Marshall College is particular attuned to food allergies--in fact they are a "no nuts" campus....no products with nuts sold on campus. We have a friend whose son has Celiac disease. Franklin and Marshall was on his "short" list, for many reasons, but one factor was their ability to handle special diets. I believe UPitt also met his criteria and is his 1st choice. Going to schools that have experience with dealing w/ special nutrition/dietary requirements makes things a lot easier than trying to forge it on your own. Good luck.

[Delicate Arch]

I have a son with severe milk allergy that reacts to even aerosolized milk proteins (think Doritos or powdered hot chocolate). Also, think of what happens to the greasy fingers from pizza - in all of these situations exposre can end his life in the worst case and send him to the ER in the best case.

We've now been dealing with this for 16 years. Yes, severe food allergy is a disability covered under ADA.

Yes, you should talk to everyone involved. But, no, this does not ensure complete safety. For example, milk protein may or may not be in the dough conditioners that are used (at a trace amount) in most commercial breads. Because they do not all come with complete labels (when the larger package is broken down for smaller kitchens), no one can say what is in the product.

Most school will try to work with you, but, they emphasize that the liability remains yours.

For me, the bigger issue than the dining hall is other students - will the roommate eliminate all medications that have lactose in them (for example, Benadryl and Advair), will the girlfriend give up all diary products so kissing doesn't kill him, will other kids not use products will milk proteins (like lotion), will the labs and the EMTs all have latex free gloves, and so on. Probably not, in all these cases. That's the problem.

The decision should be driven by the distance to the nearest emergency room, people around your child who are willing to use the EpiPen when the contamination occurs (because it will sometime) and a kid who is hyperalert. With these in place and the modifications outlined in the previous paragraph I tink it can work.

[chaucers_pal]

Sierra Lin

Sounds like your son is a celiac? Or at least shares some of the restrictions of one. My husband is a celiac, and while he hasn't lived in dorm for a while ;-) he has to be super careful in how he eats. The cross contamination issue is hard - many folks who don't have a serious food issue don't realize how careful you have to be. As a simple example, we have two toasters - he can buy gluten free bread, but if he were to put it in the regular toaster, his bread might pickup bread crumbs from wheat bread. Which would be bad for him.

To add to all the useful advice here, one more thought - Investigate prepared foods that can be heated. For example my husband is addicted to Thai Kitchen noodles, which are a rice noodle dish that can be made in a microwave. He also has some favorite GF cookies, etc. And then, check out if you can order the food online and have it delivered. For example, Amazon now has an online grocery store, and it sells some of his gluten-free favorites quite a bit cheaper than they are at the store. So he orders 12 packages of noodles at a time, and has food on hand.

Best of luck to your son.

[historymom]

Sierra Lin: My son had a life threatening egg allergy which, thankfully, he has since outgrown. He was diagnosed at the age of one and believe me it terrified me to send him to preschool and later to kindergarten. He was taught never to take anything other than whole food from anyone who wasn't me or his dad. Once he could read them he was taught to read lables and then he became a bit more independent.

My point is that we gave him the tools to allow him to manage his allergy from a very young age. It gave him a sense of control and FWIW I suggest that rather than plan on running over to his future college to provide appropriate food to your son, that over the next few years you teach him to make many dishes that he knows are safe. You can send care packages through the mail to make sure he has the correct ingredients but I think it would be important for him to have the independence that would come from managing his own dietary constraints.

I don't mean for that to sound harsh because I 100% understand the instinct that makes you want to keep him close. I just think that limiting him to colleges close to you only because of his allergy may not be the best way to help him as a whole person.

[blossom]

fyi, I know of many kids with dairy allergies who have ended up eating in a college's kosher dining hall. During meals which are designated "meat" there are no ingredients used which contain even trace amounts of dairy or dairy derived products, and the dishes, sinks, sponges, dishrack/dishwashers, pots and utensils are completely separate from those used to prepare dairy meals.

Some college's kosher dining halls only offer dinner a few nights a week; some serve three meals a day where the breakfasts are dairy, lunch and dinner alternate between meat and dairy. Worth exploring for the severely milk allergic.

[Delicate Arch]

Thanks for the thoughts of kosher dining halls blossom. We often buy kosher food for just this reason. Vegan is another option. He'll be only only kid in those dining halls who sneaks out to have a ham sandwich in his room, lol.

[Sierra Lin]

Those of you with food allergic students in college, especially the multiple food allergies, how did you deal with this question when visiting campuses? There are tons of questions to ask, but then there is the concern that they may deem the student to much of a problem or legal risk to admit in the end. I guess directing the questions to the food service would take care of that problem.

My son is not celiac but has been tested and shows the reactions for allergies to wheat, soy, and also 4-6 other foods at this time. Thankfully we have not had life threatening reactions.

Last summer I was basically told by a head chef at an overnight program that he could not handle the multiple food allergies and during college tours for our 1st we didn't find many foods that the younger could eat. I will keep in mind the colleges mentioned in this thread even in terms of summer programs.

[LilyMoon]

I think different colleges vary in their concern about food allergies and what they offer. I have limited experience in this area, but will share what I do know. My younger daughter takes a class for young people at Hofstra University. We choose to eat lunch in their cafeteria because they have so much to offer those with allergies. My D is allergic to wheat and dairy. Plus their food is really good.

My S is at UMiami and their cafeteria is not allergy friendly from what he tells me. We can go to the food court and find a so-so meal for D. Fortunately, they are building an on-campus "Whole U" store where they will offer organic and healthy foods to the students. So maybe some campuses are getting more aware of food choices for their students.

I guess your best bet would be to call or visit the colleges your S is considering and find out what they offer. Even though you have visited schools before, things change and your awareness of what they offer food wise was probably not such a concern before.

Good luck...I guess we will be dealing with this issue when younger D is ready for college. Luckily, we have quite a bit of time.

[lkf725]

Sierra Lin, not to minimize the extent of your child's allergy nor to recommend risky behavior in sampling foods, but I have to add a comment as a person with anaphylactic allergies to some foods. I have tested "positive" to many more food substances than I actually react to. For instance, testing says that I am allergic to wheat, but I can eat normal bread products (react to buckwheat, though). Others are quite dangerous for me. I don't know if this might be the case for your son, but every positive test doesn't translate into a real-life reaction.

If you zero in on a few colleges, maybe you could ask if they have an ingredient list for their cafeteria offerings.