Any kid-friendly allergen-free foods?

October 16, 2006 3:09 PM

Are there any companies that sell allergen-free foods geared towards children (e.g. snacks, cookies, kiddie meals, lunchables, and the like)?

Dairy (including whey and casein) and nut-allergies especially. Specific products are okay, but I'm interested in companies (even Mom&Pop stuff) or divisions or lines of products. USA if it matters.

posted by unknowncommand to food & drink (7 answers total)

Whole Foods (in some stores, at least) has "school-approved cookies" by the deli, which they say means they are meant to be nut-allergy safe. They also sell a whole bunch of products geared toward kids (Whole Kids) that keep dietary restrictions in mind.
posted by Airhen at 3:18 PM on October 16, 2006

Pangea and Vegan Essentials are good places to start.

One of the great things about a lot of veggie products is they believe in complete package information. They will tell you about any nuts, gluten, or dairy.
posted by nadawi at 3:43 PM on October 16, 2006

Earth's Best and Healthy Times make wheat/soy/nut/dairy free teething biscuits that I started my son out on. Earth's Best makes baby food (pureed in jars), and both brands may have other lines of food. Van's (I think?) waffles have a wheat-free version.

You don't say what age group, but in my experience, making as much stuff from scratch is the best way to go about it. My son doesn't seem to have allergies, but we had good reason to be methodical about introducing foods. The closer you are to "from scratch" ingredients, the more you know about their contents (and usually the more economical, too).
posted by cocoagirl at 7:10 PM on October 16, 2006

Sounds like a good business opportunity, especially for an existing snack company. If what you want is access rather than the profit, I recommend deluging the VP's of marketing at likely companies with a letter campaign. The marketing angle would be that it is not just for your kids but also for when you send in snacks for the class/team/club/party etc. No dairy, wheat, nuts or preservatives. Right now, it seems like the foods are specific to not having a particular allergen rather than avoiding all the main allergens.
posted by caddis at 7:33 PM on October 16, 2006

Gak's Snacks

Never had a chance to try these, they are cookies made without wheat, dairy, eggs, peanuts, or tree nuts.
posted by dweingart at 8:03 PM on October 16, 2006

Babycakes in New York will ship sweets that are free of gluten, wheat, sugar, dairy, and nuts. They're kinda pricey, so it's more of a birthday thing than a lunchbox thing.
posted by chickletworks at 9:33 PM on October 16, 2006

Kinnikinnick Foods is in Canada, but they do ship to the U.S.

Mostly gluten-free stuff, as well as casein-free.
posted by Merlyn at 12:37 PM on October 17, 2006