<p>I have a son who is currently a sophomore in HS, and he is considering college choices for his applications next year. His situation is complicated by moderate to severe food allergies. He is moderately allergic to peanuts, and very allergic to soy. Peanuts have been fairly easy for us to avoid with careful label reading. However, soy is in nearly every processed food you buy these days, and it is an ongoing challenge to find foods that do not contain soy in any version. He is worried about leaving home to go to a college where he has to live on campus, because he definitely could not eat in a campus dining hall. His alternative is to live at home and attend a community college for two years, or the local state school that is not highly ranked.</p>
<p>Has anyone dealt with sending a child to college with food allergies? How did they manage? Does anyone have any recommendations?</p>
<p>Many large schools have apartment-type living arrangements where the student is on campus, but has a small kitchen and prepares their own food.<br>
I think you are smart to start researching this issue now...my friend's daughter with a severe nut allergy had no problems at all during her childhood with vigilant parents and 3 hospitalizations her freshman year from accidental ingestion of nuts at the college's dining hall.
There are also many schools where students are not required to ever live on campus, like UCLA, and there are many private housing options adjacent to campus.</p>
<p>I would call the schools he is considering directly and ask if they have any special considerations for food allergies. Some schools might have food sections with an effort in that direction. Otherwise, your son might have to live off campus and do his own cooking. It would be a shame for him to have to limit his options due to food allergies.</p>
<p>Are there certain restaurants he can eat at safely? It might be a good idea for him to look at schools that have a more urban area around them, I would think that it would be easier for him to do his own shopping or find specialty restaurants that would cater to his needs. </p>
<p>We have some delivery services around where we live that deliver foods and will make the food according to allergy or food considerations. Something like that would be ideal for your son.</p>
<p>Some places, such as my alma mater, have kitchens in some of the dorms. Most of my friends cooked for themselves at least some percentage of the time, some nearly all the time. A dorm doesn't have to mean a mandatory dining hall.</p>
<p>Many colleges could accommodate your son's needs fairly easily.</p>
<p>I have one child at the University of Maryland at College Park and one at Cornell University. </p>
<p>At UMCP, there is no requirement for anyone, including freshmen, to live in the dorms. But if students do live in the dorms, all except those living in kitchen-equipped apartments (usually reserved for upperclassmen) are required to be on a meal plan. Your son would probably not want to be in a conventional dorm because the cooking facilities are limited, but the university might be able to place him in a kitchen-equipped apartment. Freshmen living on campus are not allowed to have cars, but a student in your son's situation might be able to get an exception made to this rule on the grounds that there is no full-size supermarket within walking distance of the campus. Another alternative would be to live off-campus. There are off-campus apartment buildings that are as close to the academic buildings as the dorms are, and the apartments have kitchens. My son (a senior) lives in a four-person apartment in one of those buildings. One of his apartment mates lived there as a freshman.</p>
<p>At Cornell, freshmen must live on campus, but participation in the meal plan is optional. (Your son would NOT be safe on the meal plan because students serve themselves out of large containers, and cross-contamination from one dish to another could easily occur.) One of the dorm complexes reserved for freshmen is apartment-style, with full kitchens in each four-student apartment. Your son would probably want to request that complex on medical grounds. (Lots of kids get special housing assignments on medical grounds, such as placement in a single room or placement in an air-conditioned building; placement in a building with kitchens would be just as reasonable a request.) Upperclassmen can and usually do live off-campus, in apartments or houses with kitchens. All students, including freshmen, are allowed to have cars, but parking is expensive. </p>
<p>The main issue for your son at both of these universities would be that he would almost certainly need a car, which would increase his costs. He would want easy access to a good supermarket, and there is none within walking distance of either campus. </p>
<p>These are just examples. I think that most universities with diverse living arrangements could easily accommodate your son's needs. I would only be concerned about those colleges with very uniform living and dining arrangements for the entire student body (such as Yale's house system).</p>
<p>Our sons have similar but opposite food problems. Your son allergic to peanuts, and very allergic to soy, my son very dairy allergic, so soy is a good ingredient for him.
He is now a freshman at college, in a part of the country that features Tex/Mex cuisine rather heavily, meaning lots of cheese. His dining choices are often very limited, but the chef has been very proactive in telling him which dishes are dairy free.
My son takes care of his own breakfast and there is a shopping shuttle the school runs on weekends so that he can buy supplemental snacks and food for the days when pickings are slim at the dining hall.
We are going to see him this weekend and hopefully he has not lost weight in this situation.
How does your son cope when he goes away, such as school trips, or trips with youth/scout/teams? If he can manage with caution on short journeys, he should be able to handle the college dining environment, if the school is cooperative.</p>
<p>My son at Carnegie Mellon and is in an apartment where you could easily cook all your meals. However freshman are required to be on a meal plan that works out to about two meals a day. It's one of those places that has a food court and I imagine that you could probably find out which meals or restaurants provide safe food.</p>
<p>Jacdad -- on trips, he checks menus in advance for restaurants, and he asks the chef/managers questions about the food. It is hard, because he can't even eat a burger off of a grill if they have cooked soy products on the grill -- like garden burgers. So he brings his own cooler with foods that are safe, for those occasions when the restaurant is not safe for him. He has done this for band trips and scout trips, too.</p>
<p>I think we will have to go the route that many on this thread have recommended, and have him live in an apartment or dorm with a kitchen he can cook in. A meal plan is not an option -- many, many times, the server or cashier will say that foods have no soy in them, but the ingredient list includes vegetable protein, vegetable oil (very commonly a combination of soy and other oils), or other "hidden" soy. Also, many foods contain soy that you wouldn't suspect -- many commercial french fries have a coating on them to make them crispier that contains soy. Soy flour and soy fiber have become very common in breads. It is challenging!</p>
<p>Jacdad, I will look forward to hear how your son has been doing -- it is reassuring to hear about someone in a similar situation who is doing well.</p>
<p>mathmom mentions Carnegie Mellon - I have a friend who is gluten intolerant, and there is one particular place she goes on campus where she asks for gluten free food and they make it for her; I think it's some sort of 'food for people with allergies' kitchen. (Which might not exist anymore, at least not in the same place, because the dining options are always changing.)</p>
<p>Some schools have special dining options, such as vegetarian or kosher. While vegetarian might not help for someone allergic to soy, how about kosher?</p>
<p>I had to deal with food allergies (severe sesame and moderate tree-nut) when I went to school. Fortunately, those are reasonably easy to avoid while eating dorm food (not that I had any guarantee of dorm space where I went). It did almost kill me though when I had 1 chip with garbanzo dip (unlabeled - it had sesame flour in it) at a party the day I graduated - wonderful night in the hospital!</p>
<p>In your case, if the school your son chooses has a on-campus requirement for freshmen, you can probably play the ADA card (allergies are considered a disability) and require them to provide your son an apartment on campus (upperclassmen only usually), where he can cook his own food. Do not let them sell you the standard dorm room without the kitchen unless you really want to pay for him to eat out every night. </p>
<p>While he might not get that bonding with his classmates the first year, I think living with the upperclassmen may be better for his studies.</p>
<p>I have a friend in college allergic to soy. He definitely does not need to live at home and go to community college. There may be food he can eat in the dining hall that hasn't had contact with soy products. He should speak to the dining people at his eventual college about whether he can have special access to soy-free food. If none of that works out, then he can almost certainly get out of the normally required meal plan. If he'd like to cook his own food, you can look at colleges with kitchens. Most dorms have a kitchen for the dorm or hall, if that's good enough. If he wants a private kitchen, then he may find himself living with upperclassmen, which can be an uncomfortable and isolating experience for a freshman. Some colleges do have kitchen suites available to first year students (mine does, for instance). </p>
<p>In my understanding, the real problem is with soy oil, since it is the cheapest oil to use. An accommodating dining hall that wants to avoid problems can likely make food available that uses a slightly higher class oil. The problem with frozen foods that have soy oil would remain.</p>