Autistic child and dining recommendations

[alleymaxx]

Good afternoon all,

I am a Disney Travel Planner. A couple of my most recent clients have children that are autistic. I was what restaurants you might recommend for an autistic child, if any?

I know it really probably depends on the child but just curious if there were some you call had luck with or would recommend staying away from?

TIA!

 

[nikkislaght]

I cant tell you about WDW as the last time my son was there he was 4 months old.. but we regularly go to Disneyland... my son is 11 and has HFA. for us its more about knowing what food they will have and consulting with him before we go. it has to be fast service.. sit down it ok.. but fast , don't engage with him . just ask him his order and get on with it.!! Character meals can be hit or miss... he loves interacting with the Characters, but not at food times.. again give him the food and let us move on..!
like you said.. it really will depend on the child and how they tolerate certain environments... we regularly eat out as a family, but to the same places.. and once food has been inhaled we pretty much have to leave.... no sitting round and chatting.. noisy places... not a good idea unless you have headphones..
we liked the Café New Orleans and sit outside.. it dilutes the nose.. he can move around a little bit and see things and not feel boxed in.. eating off times to make sure we get good fast service... and have reservations even if not busy.. this will assure you of a table and at the time you need...

but really any place will do on any given day.. given the right set of circumstances .... know your kid.. know their eating habits.. get them on board with what the restaurants serve , don't try and force them to eat what they wont eat..
my son lives on Pizza for the 9 days we are at DLR.. I'm ok with that.. as I know when we get home I can get him to eat healthier .. its his vacation too..

 

[gap2368]

I think this will depend on the child what foods they will eat do they need a quieter place to eat do they need something with less viseral noise

I would ask the parents what they need with there kids this will help you recommend a place to eat for them

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

As I've heard probably a million times since my son was diagnosed, "If you've met 1 person with autism, you've met 1 person with autism." What works for my son (quick service) might not work for another child (crowds;on the noisier side). Disney's website has the restaurant menus. If your client's children have preferred foods you can always verify that the preferred food is on the menu.

 

[magicaldisney]

Agreed with the above. I do not have an autistic child, but I am a special ed. para. You need more info from the parents. I work with children who would be totally fine seeing characters, and others that would not be able to be around a character. Some are good with noises, others need as quiet as possible.

 

[lanejudy]

A lot of that is going to depend on the child. Some families find that character meals work well for their child vs character meet & greets in the park; while others are the opposite. Some families avoid character meals but do like other table service meals without the character encounter. Table service meals can offer a break indoors with a/c, but those typically require an ADR planned in advance, take longer and can involve quite a bit of waiting; so other families prefer QS where they have more flexibility on the when/where/how long aspect of the meal. If the child has very specific food preferences, that can become tricky -- have the family check the menus online, both the WDW website and allears.net have menus posted.

The only truly negative my family has encountered was T-Rex at Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs). We found it exceptionally loud and hectic, not an enjoyable experience for us. We do fine at the Rain Forest Cafe, but T-Rex didn't work out well. Other families report it to be a good option for them.

 

[DisMommyTX]

As others have said, recommendations would vary for every child. Make it clear that table-service restaurants usually take 2+ hours and most have major theming complete with costumes and unusual smells. Definitely check menus for their favorite foods, but then come to this board to get details about atmosphere or other specific questions. Some venues are definitely more chaotic than others. I would also encourage them to remember that it is okay to ask a CM for assistance if they face an unexpected issue and there is something reasonable that can be done to help. If your child needs to sit against a wall, or if another area of the restaurant would be a better fit for your family (quieter, calmer decor, walkway, etc), they can usually make accommodations. For example, many children are afraid to sit in the West Wing area of BOG (the dark and thunder), but you can just ask to be seated in another room.

Fwiw, my son's favorite restaurant is Garden Grill. The family-style dining is less stressful than a buffet and faster than ordering, but of course that only works if your children will eat the food they serve! The character interaction there seems more organized than most with the characters walking around the circle. He can see them coming, knows when he is next, and has more personalized interactions without distractions from lots of other tables.

 

[redberyl]

I second the opinion on trex. It is horribly loud! Any child with noise sensitivity should definitely avoid it. My nephew with asd loved the epcot restaurant at the seas. He didn't eat much though, too busy looking in the aquariums.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I have an autistic teen that we've taken every year since he was born. It really depends on the child like others have said. We have found that like our child, a lot of autistic kids eat very limited, so we stick with buffets. Most character buffets have a separate kids section with the kid staples like mac n cheese,pizza, etc. My son is not that noise sensitive (he will cover his ears if a baby cries- that's about it). So we don't worry too much about noise. Since he isn't too noise sensitive we always stuck with the louder places when he was little- because he was non verbal until 6, he had many tantrums due to lack of communication. So we did everyone a favor and stayed away from quiet places. Now that he's older we can eat anywhere.

 

[unwritten01]

Another buffet here for our 10 year old who also has gone many times - about the only non-buffet place he will go is Sci Fi as he love classic sci-fi/horror - talking 1930s through 50s.. he can get what he wants and that's that. You need to ask them about their kids though as has been said - that will be your answer. Noise/not-noise, patient, etc. Even if characters bother them.. Go get em!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I agree with the other PP's. This is something that needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Every autistic person is different! My DS8 has been to WDW multiple times and has eaten in almost every restaurant on property. Non-buffet TS's work best for him as it's less chaotic than QS and buffets. We tend to re-visit restaurants that serve his preferred foods, though his palate has expanded quite a bit over the years and he is now more willing to try new things. We also tend to eat early dinners when the restaurants are less crowded. When he was younger he was terrified of face characters. I would simply ask your clients in what type of environments their children function best in and recommend from there!

 

[5kidsmommy]

Our son is older now and the solution we have found for dining is to avoid table service. The waiting just stresses him out so we just stick with quick service. But it really depends on the child. When he was young we would limit ourselves to one table service a trip because waiting to be seated and then waiting for the characters just pushed him over the edge. It just really depends on the child.

 

[CoriM48]

Agree that you need more info from the parents, specifically on triggers such as food aversions, light or sound sensitivity, crowd sensitivity, aversion or obsession with characters, etc. All those things are going to come into play.

T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe are both loud and alternate light and dark with loud noises. We also struggled at the House of Blues due to the volume level of their music. The Mexican restaurant in Epcot is also very dark and was hard for my son to handle. One of the rooms in Be Our Guest is very dark and has thunder sounds.

A character breakfast we've had success with is the Garden Grove breakfast on the weekends at The Swan hotel. It's not a huge room and there are a number of tables tucked away at the base that feel quite secluded.

Like the previous poster, we generally have learned to avoid table service for my son's needs, and if we do, we have a TS meal every couple of days, certainly not every day or multiple times a day. Every person is different, though.

 

[MamaJinji]

I agree with everyone else. Autism is very different for every kid, it seems. My own isn't at all picky about what kind of food he eats (a five-year-old that loves sushi, who knew that was possible?), but he's not interested in anyone bothering him while he's eating. So for him, character meals are useless, because while he's not afraid of the characters, he just doesn't care to interact with any of them. Nor does he particularly care about playing with other kids, though he's getting better at it, so something like Ohana (my personal favorite when I was a kid) wouldn't work either. Most of the time, he was happier with counter service and off, because he would rather walk around and play than sit and eat for a long time.

Definitely find out from the parents what the kid will tolerate and roll with that.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I'm an almost 21 (yes, I said 21) year old with autism so I can help. I've done well with the different restaurants on trips. It would depend on what your kid likes to eat

 

[married2mm]

I'm an almost 21 (yes, I said 21) year old with autism so I can help. I've done well with the different restaurants on trips. It would depend on what your kid likes to eat

Nothing wrong with being 21 and autistic


Any age with any diagnosis we try to do the best we can.
And I love Nick Jonas and I'm closer to 50