Bring Own Food To Rest for ASD child?

[hroyale]

Hi,
I've been reading some posts about how great and accomodating the staff at WDW is with food allergies and the like. My DS (4 when we take our trip) doesn't have any allergies. However, there are about 10 foods total that he will eat (brand specific). When we eat out with him (mostly for lunch) we always pack foods we know he will eat. If they offer fruits and yogurt we'll order that for him too. Some places we feel we have to order a meal for him other places we don't. So I have two questions:

1) If we have a GAC I'm sure it will be Ok for us to bring along a packed meal for DS, correct? (mostly crackers, cheese, fruit and yogurt)

2) Would the TS places be Ok if we didn't order a meal for DS or should we do it anyway? Sometimes places just assume DS and DD are sharing and bring two plates, which is fine. I'm sure for character meals we'll need to pay for his meal, but what about other restaurants? Sometimes we can just order a side dish for him. We waste so much food with our picky eater, I try to limit that when possible. Also he can get angry when served food he won't eat.

I'm going to plan out our restaurants in advance and would prefer places that take ADR so we don't have the wait melt-downs. So that will leave out a lot of CS places, which of course are the easiest.

TIA,
Heather

PS if this is already dicussed elsewhere, I applogize, I still can't seem to get search to work.

 

[livndisney]

The GAC is only for rides and doesn't really provide any accomidation for eating.

Also, there may still be some wait time even with an ADR. It looks like you will be traveling during the busy holiday season-I would expect waits even with ADRs.

In my experience, the staff at TS/CS places cannot prepare any food not from their kitchen. So if you brought in a meal that needed to be warmed/cooked, there would be a problem.

I can tell you, we went to the character meal at MGM's and I did not eat (long story-chef was NOT helpful). I was not charged anything for me. But I have seen some places that charge an "entertainment" fee for people not eating.

I would suggest contacting Brenda @ Disney (Brenda.Bennett@disney.com) and maybe she can answer your specific questions.

 

[SueM in MN]

I agree with everything that livndisney said.

A GAC won't do anything for restaurants.

Generally, the only situation where I can see food brought in would be a problem would be if you had packed a picnic lunch for your whole family, taken a table and not ordered anything from the restaurant. If you have brought food for your son, but the rest of you are eating from the menu, there should be no problem.

I don't know if there are any laws against heating food in the kitchen that was brought from outside, but there are food safety laws in some states that forbid it. In general (speaking as an Infection Control Nurse), it is not good practice to allow food from 'outside' to be brought into the kitchen. The things you are talking about bringing should not be any problem though.

For people who don't eat, the server has the ability to lower or waive the fee. I'd go in expecting you might have to pay full price for him for the character meals. That way, if the fee is not waived or lowered, you won't be disappointed.

The TS restaurants won't care if you don't order for him. As you mentioned, they may just assume you are sharing with him. If they bring an extra plate, you have the option of giving him some of your food if he likes. When ordering, just explain to the server that your DS has some special needs related to food and that you have brought food for him to eat.

Besides contacting Brenda Bennett, you may want to look at the menus.
Here's a link to the menus on the DIS site.
And a link to the menus from allearsnet.com. Between the 2 and what you find out from Brenda, you should be able to get a good idea of what you will find.

For the TS restaurants, as was already pointed out, you may have a fairly long wait after you check in. Many of the restaurants use a sort of beeper that lights up to let you know when they are ready to seat you. That might help. It would also help to eat at 'non-traditional' meal times. The CMs you talk to when making the reservations should be able to help you out.

PS - the search function is not currently working very well. Because of the size of the website - millions of posts - it's difficult to get a search function that works adequately.

 

[leanan]

Someone else with a picky eater. While I do not have any advice, I do have a story that will make you laugh. DD10 demanded to go eat at Angel's Lobster Feast off property. She made me pay for the full buffet with lobster and crab. Only once discovering the lobsters still had their face refused to eat anything but the mashed potatoes. $20 for what should of cost me $7. So there you go I hope you had a good giggle from that. Nyssa has Aspergers so it comes with the territory.

I am so happy for you that you have stuff you can bring into the parks with you. Mines is on the wet and slimy diet. I love her to pieces though and can not imagine life with out her.

 

[SueM in MN]

Only once discovering the lobsters still had their face refused to eat anything but the mashed potatoes. $20 for what should of cost me $7. So there you go I hope you had a good giggle from that. Nyssa has Aspergers so it comes with the territory.

I can just imagine that.
One of my nephews has Aspergers and we took him to a Mexican restaurant. It was really interesting to watch him getting his food ready to eat. It didn't look exactly like the picture (and I'm sure you've probably had that situation come up), which was a problem until he decided that he needed to cut it into small pieces. He's apparently on the 'every piece must be less than 1/4 inch' diet, so it took him some time to prepare the food to his specifications, but he did eat quite a bit and said it was 'surprizingly good.'

 

[mechurchlady]

My online waitress friend is napping so what I do know is that there are in some places like california that do not allow restaurants to .....

Taht is were my mind gets muddled, sorry. What I remember is that the restaurant cannot take the food and cook it or use it. I know I am allows to order a salad and add my own dressing but that they are not allowed to take the dressing and pour it on.

I know I am zoned out tired but do know there is laws about guests bringing food into a restaurant in california.

You will have to read up on the restaurants that require reservations. Some may charge even if the person does not eat. Contact Brenda and work with her. The parks do not care about snacks being brought into the parks.

 

[Selket]

My younger son has different medical issues but similar issues with food. When he was younger (like a toddler) and we were at WDW I almost always brought along something I was 100% sure he would eat. (he is a type 1 diabetic with a severe peanut/tree nut allergy - we were also avoiding eggs then too). I am certain that you can bring in small coolers with meal items - we never had a problem with that. Sometimes we used our cooler items to supplement his meals and it was always nice to have some "emergency" food with us at all times for lows, etc. (some usual things like glucose tabs, juice didn't work for him when he was 3 - but drink yogurt was great).

He did eat from the buffets so we never addressed the issue of not paying for him at a buffet.

If there are specific brands that he will eat there might be places that will get those brands/items for you if you plan to dine there often. For example, if you were staying at a WDW hotel and planned to eat lunch at the food court most days then the chefs there might be able to get some of those items and prepare them just for your child. I have had chefs get certain brand name items for William in this way. They have also offered to make him a boxed lunch to take with him. I mention this in case you are staying at a place without a fridge - it can be easier to have them do the food. You would need to contact a chef at the hotel well in advance to see if that could be arranged- some chefs are nicer than others!

I highly recommend making the dining ressie a bit earlier than usual meal times (like 5:45 instead of 6pm, etc.). The earlier your ressie the more likely you are to get seated on-time. It does not hurt to mention the melt down issue to the CM when you check in - you might be seated more promptly but there is no guarantee.

Have fun!

 

[BeckyScott]

This is a direct quote from an email I received from Brenda Bennett:

If you want to bring some items with you like snacks or something that does not need heating , just let the Security Person doing the bag checks know you have allergies and they have no problem with you bringing in items . State Law prohibits us from heating or using foods brought in by our guests, so our chefs will not be able to heat anything that is not prepared by us.

The email is from maybe a month ago, so I doubt they've changed their policy since then.

 

[hroyale]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

This is acutally something we do with him now when we eat out around home. I bring a small cool lunch bag for him with crackers, cheese, fruit, yogurt, bread and lunch meat. So re-heating isn't an issue.

I have found some menus on-line and will target places that offer fruit and celery sticks as sides on the kids menu.

He as ASD so I can totally relate to the auspies. Hot dogs are to be sliced before they are cooked. Chicken nuggest after they are cooked. Waffles sliced in half etc... The teachers keep telling me that many ASD kids out grow this, I hope so. I have no idea how he is as huge as he is, he never eats!


Thanks again everyone.

 

[lucigo]

We just returned from disney and we also have a 4yo son with ASD who eats maybe 10 foods. We brought a microwave and no one said anything about it being in the room (Pop Century). We also brought him snack foods and sodas. We went to Chef Mickeys and when I explained to the waiter that he had autism and have an extremely limited diet, he just said no problem I'll count him as under 3. (That got him a nice tip). BTW He didn't eat anything there.

 

[winniethepoohsmom]

I agree with a previous poster about make early ressies. Our ressies were between 5pm & 5:30 and we were able to either be seated right away or with minimal wait. Also eating early for lunch makes a big difference before noon, I'm not sure what time they start serving lunch. We always eat breakfast in the room to avoid the crowds. Enjoy your trip. Linda