Blog
Eating out with a child who has food allergies
Published
A children’s menu is not a separate set of allergen rules. If you are ordering in a UK restaurant for a child, the business still has to tell you whether any of the 14 regulated allergens is an ingredient. The Food Standards Agency’s advice on ordering is the same conversation we use for ourselves: be clear, give examples, ask about cross-contamination and recipe changes, and do not eat there if you are left in doubt. This page is about doing that conversation as the adult at the table. It does not replace the child’s own allergy plan, and it is not advice from their doctor.
We do the asking
We speak to the server or the manager ourselves, or we do it with the child if they want to take part. We do not leave a kitchen check to a child who is hungry, excited or embarrassed. The Food Standards Agency, writing about cooking for someone at home, says to ask the guest, or a child’s parents or carers, what they can and cannot eat. In a restaurant that question has already been answered in your house. Your job at the table is to pass it on accurately, including foods that are easy to shorten. “They can’t have dairy” may be heard as lactose. If the child has a milk allergy, say milk allergy.
The NHS lists foods such as nuts, cows’ milk, eggs, fish and sesame among allergies that can cause anaphylaxis. Those are examples, not a ranking of your child. The guides for milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish and sesame are the eating-out detail behind those names. If the child avoids something else, name that too. The legal list of 14 is what the business must be ready to answer. It is not the limit of what you are allowed to say.
Give examples, as the Food Standards Agency suggests, because menu words and kitchen words drift apart. A child who reacts to milk may need you to mention butter on vegetables, cheese on a bun and milk in mash, not only a glass of milk. A child who reacts to egg may need mayonnaise and a glaze named, not only a fried egg. You are not claiming that every children’s meal contains those foods. You are giving the kitchen the examples so they can check this meal.
What to ask about the children’s menu
Ask about the coating, the oil and the sauce, not only the item named on the card. A plate described as plain can still be fried in a shared oil, brushed with a glaze, or served with a dip that was made for the adult menu. Ask whether the recipe is the same as the adult version or a different product bought in. Ask if anything has been substituted today. Food Standards Scotland tells you to be extra careful with complicated dishes, because allergens are less obvious. A children’s plate with three components is three questions.
- What is in the coating, the batter and the oil, as well as the piece of food?
- What is in the sauce, the dip and the side, including butter or milk in potatoes?
- Is this the same recipe as last time, or has a supplier or a garnish changed?
- Can you mark this plate so it is not swapped with another child’s on the way out of the kitchen?
- If a pudding is included, what is in the ice cream and the sauce before it arrives?
They must give you allergen information. They do not have to make a different meal. GOV.UK states that plainly. If the answer is that they cannot check, we order something else or we leave, even if the table is already sitting down. A birthday is not a reason to guess.
If a cake or ice cream is coming for the table, ask what is in it before it is set down. Scraping a sauce off is not a fix. The Food Standards Agency makes this point about cooking at home: taking a food off the plate is not enough, because an extremely small amount can be enough to cause a reaction. We do not share forks or a taste from someone else’s plate.
The plan you were given is the plan you follow
A school allergy plan does not replace saying the foods out loud in a restaurant. If a clinic has given you a written plan for the child, follow that plan if there is a reaction. This website cannot see it. We will not tell you a dose or a food challenge. Those decisions belong to the team that looks after the child.
The NHS says that if you have adrenaline auto-injectors, you carry two, you check the dates, and you teach the people who might need to help how and when to use them. It also says you should be shown how to use the injector each time it is prescribed, and that there are different devices which are given differently. Follow the device that child was prescribed, and the instructions on the side of it. Do not borrow another person’s injector because it looks similar. If the child has not been prescribed an injector, do not decide from this article that they should have one. Ask their doctor.
If you think the child is having anaphylaxis, stop the meal. The NHS list of emergency signs includes a child who is limp, floppy or not responding like they normally do. Their head may fall to the side, backwards or forwards, or they may find it hard to lift their head or focus on your face. Other signs include swelling of the throat or tongue, difficulty breathing, a tight throat, wheeze, and skin, lips or tongue that look blue, grey or pale. On brown or black skin, the NHS says that colour change may be easier to see on the palms or the soles. Call 999 and say you think it is an anaphylactic reaction. Use their adrenaline auto-injector if they have one. The fuller sequence, still following the NHS and still not a personal plan, is in what to do if you have an allergic reaction in a restaurant.
Takeaway, packed food and the next table
A takeaway has to give you allergen information before you pay and again when the food arrives. Ask for the child’s container to be labelled, especially if adults at the table have ordered something they cannot eat. Do not let boxes be opened in a pile and sorted by eye. Food packed before you chose it, such as a boxed sandwich from a cafe fridge, should carry a full ingredients list under Natasha’s Law. Read it. A picture of a plain filling on the front is not the list.
Other people’s food is part of the meal. A neighbour’s bun, a shared pudding, a bread basket put down in the middle: we move those, or we ask for the child’s food to be kept apart. We are not owed a private dining room. We are allowed to ask for the plate to be handled with the care the Food Standards Agency describes, and to leave if that cannot be done.
You can start with a search for restaurants for a food allergy, or search on the SafePlate homepage. Searching SafePlate is free. Add the child’s foods before you search, then phone the place with the questions above. In London, Edinburgh, Leeds and Bristol, the city guides explain local food teams and emergency departments. They do not certify a children’s menu.
A written list helps when you would rather not recite a medical history in a busy room. The usable allergy chef card, in 38 languages, is part of SafePlate Plus. On the free site, the allergy chef card page is a preview of a sample card. It is not filled in for your child, and you cannot print it as theirs. Plus is what makes a card from the foods on a profile, to show or to print. The kitchen still has to read it and check the plate. If they got the information wrong, there is a way to report that to the local food safety team afterwards. Medical help comes first.
Sources
Set up your foods before you search. This is not medical advice. Confirm the meal with the kitchen. In the UK, if you think someone is having anaphylaxis, call 999.