I know this sounds terrible, but would you do it?

[hroyale]

I too have a picky eater. Really, really picky. We're still on the wait list for feeding therapy, but I have hope.

Mine is only 5 and we don't do many "nice" places because of that. (being 5 more than the picky eating )

Whenever we do eat out, doesn't matter if it's the food court in the mall or Coral Reef at Epcot on our last trip, I bring food for him. Tacky or not, I really don't care.
I'm not brining a CS meal, because he won't eat any of those either. I'm bringing things like fruit, cheese, crackers, yogurt... I do order him a meal and hope that he'll eat some of it. I discovered that I can just order him sides from many places. That sometimes works out. I'll get him fruit and yogurt and maybe french fries (which he'll eat if he's really, really hungry).
So I'd make the reservation and fill your park bag with healthy snacks that he will eat. Then if push comes to shove, you have food for him.

Oh, as for the buffets, I believe you have to pay for everyone, even if they don't eat. We did for DS.

HTH,
Heather

 

[SomDayMyPrnceWillCom]

So what are some foods that he WILL eat? There are so many choices in Epcot, there's got to be somewhere that you all can find something to eat together in one place.

 

[Melody L]

Another vote for dessert only! We've done this with our kids when we wanted to go out for sushi but knew there was nothing our kids would eat. My husband and I got our sushi fix while the kids thought it was cool they could have dessert for dinner! Guess they forgot about the meal they had at home before we left!

 

[luchamouse]

I have such a picky child I have to go to huge expense to ship a particular type of pastta sauce from Ireland to Orlando. She has major sensory issues and literally eats 4 things. Last year at Le Cellier we got her to eat the fries and that was it.

Everywhere we went the restaurants were extremely helpful. She has Downs so I think she got more of a pass than a regular child. It's very restricting and I totally feel your pain. It's very hard to relate to that level of pickiness until you have a child with similiar issues.

Don't feel bad asking the restaurant to accommodate you, in my experience they will do whatever they can. I had Tusker house cook the pasta I provided them, they did it with pleasure. The main thing is that you and your family have the most relaxing vacation you can have.

It's not tacky IMO, it's essential to your childs comfort. WDW is not the place to start feeding therapy yanno?

 

[Amy&Dan]

You know I just realized what part of the dilemma is! If you do DDP, he's 12 and an adult, duh me for not thinking that in the first place!

I have a bit of this with my 12 year old dd. She's not particularly picky (but wont' do spicy anything) but she's a light eater. I still do the DDP because my 14 year old can usually finish his plus hers! But at places where there is nothing on the adult menu that appeals to my dd12, I ask for a kids meal. Its not the best use of a credit but it works. Or they'll make her something off the adult menu without the sauce and sub fries for the other side. Many places have given me an extra large kids portion.

I have also been known to pay OOP for her a kids meal or a salad then save her credits for us to do an additional breakfast or something like that.

And last but not least, I like the buffets. My dd can get what she likes (kids stuff and lots of fruit which she loves) and the rest of us, my teen son in particular can get what we like in the portions we like!

No problem at non buffet places for someone not to eat. I would suggest maybe leaving a bit extra on the tip since they are taking up table space etc.

When you have kids in that 10-13 range, the DDP is tricky at some places but the waitstaff are always happy to help make it work for you.

 

[JanB]

My son is kind of like that. Bit he's 22 now, and I no longer call him a picky eater. I call him a man who prefers simple food. We've been taking him to WDW since he was 4 -- multiple times yearly. These are some of the things that have worked for us over the years.

(1) We've never had a problem with his ordering from the children's menu, even after he was 10 or 12 years old.

(2) Of course, now he's older, and the children's portions are not large enough anyway. However, in our experience, most restaurants are fine with, for example, "May I please have an adult meal of Chicken Fingers?" I don't know how this would work with DDP.

(3) We have also tried to teach him to look past the fancy descriptive words on the menu page. For example, if they offer "Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon", then he most likely can get a plain steak. You can always ask for something to be cooked plain, or with the gravy or special butter on the side. If they have fettucine with special ingredients plus a sauce, you can probably get fettucine with butter and parmesan.

(4) If you are going for a Dinner meal, do also look at the Lunch menu. Sometimes there will be items on the Lunch menu (like a hamburger) that aren't offered at dinner. Le Cellier has an open faced grilled chicken sandwich with fancy toppings. That tells you that you can probably get plain grilled chicken. They might tell you that it's not available at dinner, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Basically, on this suggestion and number (3) above, we figure that if they have an item in the kitchen, they are probably more than happy to prepare it for you.

(5) For this suggestion, you have to decide your comfort level, and your child's. By the time our son was 12 or 13, he knew his way around like the back of his hand. We knew him well enough to know that he was totally reliable. So on a few occasions, we would allow him to go eat counter service by himself while my husband and I ate where we wanted. While we were at Artist's Point, he would go downstairs to Roaring Forks. While we were at Le Cellier, he grabbed something quick and went to ride Test Track. If we did this in a park, we made sure that he had a cell phone with him. He would tell us exactly where he was going, and we would tell him what time we would be there to meet him.

 

[marylouwho]

Which restaurant wouldn't let your son order off the kid's menu, using an adult TS credit. That is just absurd to me.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Which restaurant wouldn't let your son order off the kid's menu, using an adult TS credit. That is just absurd to me.

It was Tutto's. I'm guessing they can do this because the are not run by Disney. Is this right? But to be fair to them they were very accomodating to him and made him an adult sized portion of plain pasta with butter.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Anything you can get at LTT you should be able to get as a kids meal at Le Cellier. They always have pasta, hot dogs, and chicken fingers for the kids.

 

[jparc]

We have a picky eater too! If she doesn't see something on the menu that she likes I usually let her just order sides. (an order of fries, potaotes & a veggie) Then if she is still hungry later we pick her up something else to eat. Its vacation! I try not to stress over the fact that its not a well rounded meal. They tend to go to waste anyhow because she doesn't have a huge appetite especially in the florida heat.

 

[Queenofthecastle]

After reading all these posts about picky eaters...how does one raise a child to not become one? At what age do you start their food adventures?

 

[JESW]

My ds14 is an Asperger's kid and one of the pickiest eaters ever! (smells, textures, looks - so many things bother him about food). His food issues are just one of the reasons why we bought into DVC so we can feed him at "home" before the three of us eat. (We also have a dd10 who will eat almost anything)

If we have dinner reservations at Epcot if we haven't fed him at the resort yet, we often get him a pizza from the place near Test Track (the name of the place escapes me now)

What are some of the foods that your son WILL eat?? Perhaps if we knew that we could direct you to places to feed him before you eat. There are a few places where ds WILL eat (at Le Cellier he eats the bread sticks and the cheese soup - I have NO idea why those work for him..) And because he needs something to keep him occupied, we are awful parents that let him bring his gameboy to dinner to play so we can eat.

I hope that things work out for you! It is easy for others to say that kids should just find something on the menu to eat, but that isn't always a possibility for everyone. You do what you have to do...

Jill

 

[RahRah573]

He's 12 so he's an adult on the dining plan, but I'm sure you could pick something on the children's menu if he's super picky? Also, there are a lot of good options on the adult menu, maybe he can pick something and ask for it to be made plain instead of fancy, like the chicken - instead of braised in red wine with root vegetables and potatoes, maybe they can give him plain old chicken and some mac & cheese (offered as a side dish on the menu)?

 

[crisi]

After reading all these posts about picky eaters...how does one raise a child to not become one? At what age do you start their food adventures?

As soon as they start solid foods, but it doesn't always help.

My daughter eats sushi and octopus and snails, but turned up her nose this week at chicken chili and pad thai. My son will give almost anything a try and was eating spicy curry at two - but he'll go through mac n cheese or peanut butter phases.

 

[RahRah573]

After reading all these posts about picky eaters...how does one raise a child to not become one? At what age do you start their food adventures?

For us, we started DS (turns 5 this summer) with veggies and fruits rather than cereals (potential celiac - runs on DH's side - so grains were out for quite a while) and slowly added in egg yolks, meats, fish and such as he grew accustomed to solids....he started solids around 7-8 months, but picked here and there from our food starting around 6-months. To this day, he doesn't like starchy foods at all - no potatoes (not even french fries), no rice, no noodles/pasta (just occasional mac & cheese, but it has to be homemade, not out of a box...wont' touch spaghetti or noodles/pasta of any other kind though) and very little if any bread, and when he does have bread, he wants crusty dense bread since he won't touch soft loaf breads.

Put any vegetable in front of him - he'll eat it....any fruit, he'll eat it....most meats, beef, chicken, lamb, fish, even game (alligator, buffalo, venison) he'll eat. Loves most nuts, but not peanuts or peanut butter (go figure?).....and loves salads! He's a great eater - his only qualifier is that these days he doesn't like "spicy" food -- this depsite for a couple of years loving curry and other Indian foods, Thai, etc.....now if it's spicy, he won't eat it, so we just do our best to pick foods that aren't spicy for him!

 

[Dreamfinder2]

You know, reading these posts, I'm learning some strategies for feeding my wife, too.

 

[Pumbaa_]

You know, reading these posts, I'm learning some strategies for feeding my wife, too.

thud

 

[DaisyD]

I think you either have a kid that is going to be a picky eater or you don't. I don't think you can make them one way or another. I have 3 kids. One has tried and will eat pretty much anything. One wil try stuff once but will only eat plain foods. He is fairly picky but will eat lasagne, burritos, chicken and burgers. The little one wont eat anything. She lives on mac and cheese, pb&j, fruit and very little of anything else. All three were raised the same and all three turned out differently.

 

[kaytieeldr]

One more question- that may have already been answered somewhere else, do restaurants that aren't buffets have a problem with someone in your party not eating. Would this matter if we are on DDP or paying OOP?

A buffet or family-style restaurant has no problem with somebody not eating - but you still get charged for all members of your party.

 

[ttbell]

After reading all these posts about picky eaters...how does one raise a child to not become one? At what age do you start their food adventures?

I agree that you start them when they start solid foods. A couple of things we've always abided by are the kids eat what we eat (we don't make special meals just for them) and that they always have to try a new food 3 times. I believe that kids will mimic their parents as well, so if Mom and Dad are eating junk throughout the day, that is what they will want. We also didn't let them eat candy/sugary foods or juice until they were 4 years old. I definitely got a lot of eye rolls and strange looks when they weren't allowed to have this kind of stuff at parties and holidays but we felt we wanted to give them a good start.

We like to eat out alot and do a lot of Asian (Thai and Japanese) and Indian. My girls eat all fish, raw and cooked, spicy foods, every kind of vegetable you can find...really there's nothing they don't eat.

I don't know if it's nature or nurture but probably a combination of both.