Feeding the Family

[battymum]

Forgive my slightly OT rant.

You know the thing I hate most about holidays (of any length) is feeding my family. I have been reading Ehsmums blog and sympathised re her fussy eater.

My DD 15 and twin DS 13 all eat like eight year olds. Whenever we eat out I resent them for only ordering nuggets chips and resent myself for letting them, and totally resent what said nuggets and chips cost me (especially when they can no longer eat off a childrens menu) yet dont want to make a scene when we are on holidays. I can make them eat better at home when such offerings are not on the menu.

I hope things change within the next twelve months, (I know they can with boys of this age!) nuggets and chips for 3 weeks!

Anyone else have this problem? Its been something that has almost deterred us from taking this trip.

 

[Kalice]

While my kids are not fussy the kids meal options at most places are not usually the most healthy list to select from. We were often saying things like "okay, this meal you can have chips, but you need to have fruit salad for dessert" or "you had chips with your last meal, so this meal you need to have the carrot sticks". What I did like about the US menus was there were usually at least one or two healthy options, and the servers would let us mix and match. Sooo... that meant things like Pizza, with grapes, or chicken nuggets and corn.

Other than that, we did buy some fruit and whenever the kids wanted to snack at the hotel, also ordered granola bars, mini carrots, yoghurt etc. Plus we at breakfast in our room most days which gave us a little bit more control.

My son and his friend (11) are both as big as 13/14 year olds, and were never questioned about ordering off the childs menu. If it wasn't enough, then we'd always be carrying granola bars or fruit. Also, the adult menus in most restaurants are far more reasonable than cost of meals here

Our trip was only five weeks so we definately relaxed our usual food rules. We also felt the food had improved 100% from our first trip in 1998 (or our standards have dropped ) Don't stress too much as I'm sure you'll have an awesome time.

 

[aussiegirls]

I had a big talk to my girls about holidays and food a few weeks ago. We have set some ground rules about eating even now before we go, and I keep reminding them every few days - just so they are clear on what is expected before we go and I won't have to have the fight every day once we are there.

My rules are :

Not more than 1 chocolate milk a day (they drank choc milk at every single meal last time).
Chicken nuggets will not be allowed more than once a week.
New food will be tried - trust me I will not make you eat something you won't like.
There will be at least one completely healthy meal a day - as in something healthy with a salad or steamed veg.
If all these rules are followed many treats and ice creams will be allowed in between.

xxx

 

[heidispidi]

I like to think that there will be balance between the good and the bad, like Aussiegirls said. I am lucky that my 8 year old eats quite a variety of foods, and have mentioned several times to her that we will be eating salads and fresh vegies almost whenever they are on offer.

My problem will be Maccas. We've just changed out hotel from HoJo to the Camelot Inn (don't throw things at me!), and it is right next to Maccas, from what I've read. My daughter is addicted to Maccas - by that I mean that she is allowed to have it once a week (there is a need for a quick meal on Thursday evenings for her), and that's it - but she asks for it ALL the time. So getting her up to our room without the usual argument is what I'm up against. That and limiting her trips to the snack bar on the A380 (assuming they will be back in the air by Jan).

It's hard when I have a love of food, to remain focussed myself on what's 'right' to eat!

 

[aussiegirls]

You know Heidi, last year I was worried about the Maccas thing too. One of my girls is obsessed with Maccas (well both kind of are, but one is more than the other ).

We stayed at the Hojo and had to walk past Maccas several times every single day. But you know what, we didn't even get a chance to get to a Maccas in the entire fortnight we were there. I actually had planned to go into one just out of the curiosity factor (I wanted to see if it was the same as here), and we still didn't get there.

There is just so many new places to go, chain restaurants they have read of in novels and seen in movies, that Maccas didn't even get a look in. They were too excited to get into DLR to grab a Mickey pretzel or something like that.

As for the plane, what if you just don't tell her about the snack bar? We had a snack bar on our V Aust plane last year but I didn't need any extra food and the kids didn't know about it to ask, and they weren't hungry anyway considering they were given 2 massive meals during the flight that neither of them could finish.

xxx

 

[PrincessInOz]

My DS and I usually agree on food rules before every US holiday. Invariably, they end up looking like this:

• 1 snack per day - his choice
• 2 serves of fruit, vegies and/or salad per day (It's actually surprisingly easy to find and get salad for him to eat at Disney)
• 1 serve of chips either every day or every other day (it usually ends up being every day no matter what rules we agree beforehand)
• Try new things so that he doesn't end up eating pasta or pizza every meal
• Soft drink/soda every second day. Water for the rest of the time; except if we are staying at a place that has juice as part of breakfast.

I'm fortunate in that DS is happy to have Macca's once per fortnight or month. I don't remember the last time we bought Macca's in the US....

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

Eating out with my kids is something that I am worried about too. Normally they eat very healthily, but as we live in the country we don't go out to eat very often, so they are used to eating everything just the way that mum cooks it! I'm worried that my DS 5 will just eat chips for 3 weeks and my DD's will live on sugar! In the meantime I'm trying to encourage them to try new things and when we go to Disneyland next year I will try some of the eating rule suggestions posted here.

 

[kylieh]

I told DD for our last trip if she remembers to eat her veges and fruit, and a proper breakfast she can have some more than normal "sometimes food." But there is a disclaimer....

DD has a dodgy stomach - GORD since birth - and sometimes even now has to be supplemented with Losec (prescription.) So she has always been pretty good about her eating habits because she knows she can get sick from excessive fatty and dairy based foods quickly. She won't finish say a Tigger Tail for the sake of finishing one IYKWIM. So in the end DH and I don't need to do too much prompting or nagging