> Now for my questions:
>
> We are going on vacation to Florida (Miami, Keys, Everglades and Tampa/Orlando
> area)

I just returned from a vacation in Florida, primarily the Orlando area,
mostly Disney World and surrounding stuff.

We stayed at a Disney Resort and the chefs in the restaurants were very
helpful. Two of us in our family are lactose intolerant. We called ahead and
asked for some dairy free milk for breakfast. When we arrived we found our
message was lost but the head chef of the Resort we stayed at came out to
meet us and after searching their internal stores ordered some rice milk
which was available the next day and for the rest of our visit. This was
purchased at a local market by the Disney staff. From this I can say that
at leat in the Orlando area rice milk is available.

>
> In particular:
>
> * Naomi drinks Nutramigen - where do I buy this formula - drugstore, pharmacy?
> Do I need a prescription? What price may I expect to pay?

Don't know about this.

> * What is sherbet I see referred to often?  - I only use the words 'ice cream'
> for anything containing dairy, and 'sorbet' for water based ice (for example
> lemon, raspberry flavoured as these fruit are acidic and milk based ice cream
> would curdle). What are the American equivalents?

Sherbet is like ice cream only it's usually fruit based. Orange, lemon
and rainbow are common flavors. It is definitly dairy based. Sorbet
usually doesn't have any dairy, but always read the ingredients.

> * Very often soy is substitued for dairy. This obviously is not an option for
> us. Also soy meal is widely used in cookies, etc. Any recommendations?

Try rice milk based stuff. Look in the local phone books for health food
stores when you arrive. They should have a selection of foods to choose from.

>
> I know one of the obvious answers would be to eat as much fruit and vegetables
> but do you know many 2-year-olds who love these... Mine is a meat eater! Also
> we won't be staying just in one place with our own kitchen, so I'd appreciate
> any recommendation on allergy conscious family friendly restaurants, or safe
> snacks which we could have 'en route'.
>

Florida seems to be geared for tourists and has a lot of "American Fast Food"
places. Chains like McDonalds, Subway, Arbys have ingredients lists available,
some on the web that you can check ahead of time. Also check the archives
of this list for comments on other restaurants like Burger King.

It did seem to me though that a lot more restaurants were using less dairy
ingredients than they had a few years ago. We ran into some seafood dishes
that were cooked with olive oil and served with fruit based sauces. There
are a lot of seafood restaurants in Florida.

Dennis.