Thanksgiving dinner can be stressful for parents of kids who have severe food allergies. The foods that you think might be safe for your child to eat could be full if hidden allergens. Here is a quick list of some things to avoid.
Cross contamination can be a big problem at Thanksgiving dinner. All it takes is for one careless person to use the wrong utensil to serve himself some food, and then to put that utensil into a completely different serving dish. Suddenly, the food that your child could have potentially eaten is absolutely unsafe.
Turkey may seems like a safe choice. Your child probably isn’t allergic to turkey, and it is unlikely that someone decided to bread the turkey (even if it was cooked in a turkey fryer).
If the turkey was basted while it was cooking, that means that this turkey could be covered with soy, wheat, or dairy. Be sure to ask the chef what he or she used to baste the turkey.
Some turkeys are sold with a solution injected into them, to help preserve them, or to add flavor to the meat. That solution could contain butter, or “vegetable protein” (which might contain soy, wheat, or corn). To avoid this problem, purchase a turkey that has been marked “natural”. By law this means that the turkey was only basted with water.
Stuffing is going to be a problem for people who have an intolerance to gluten. It is unlikely that the stuffing was made with bread that was gluten-free. Certain types of stuffing could contain walnuts, almonds, or other types of nuts.
Powdered mashed potato mixes could contain gluten. They also typically end up containing more milk and butter than one would use if they made mashed potatoes from scratch. If you are making real mashed potatoes, you might be able to use chicken broth and margarine instead of milk and butter.
Gravy usually has gluten in it. This is because wheat flour is added to things like gravy in order to thicken it. If you make the gravy yourself, you can use a gluten-free flour. Otherwise, if it came from a package, then it could contain gluten or soy.
The green beans might be safe to eat, but not after they have been added to the casserole. This type of casserole often contains a can of mushroom soup. Soups often have wheat flour added as a thickener, (which means that this casserole now contains gluten).
Image by Craig Dugas on Flickr