Insanely picky eater - best restaurants for picky kids?

[FreFam5]

What exactly WILL he eat? You said no meat, does that mean he's vegetarian? Because every TS restaurant will have a vegetarian option....the buffets will have a fruit bar and salad bar selection. Counter Service are a little more difficult, but you can review the menus at allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm to see which have something he'll eat.

If it's more "picky" than that, give us some examples of what he normally eats and we may be able to guide you to the places that serve the food he'll eat. One of the great things about Disney, too, is that they seem to be willing, within reason, to accomodate different eating requirements....no guarantees of course, but it's a possiblity. I know that some people will flame the idea of a "picky" eater having an eating requirement....I have learned that it can actually be a requirement. I have friends with a preteen that would rather grow weak from hunger than eat other than what she wants (the parents tried to "starve" her into submission but that backfired with almost 2 days of not eating), so while I don't personally have this issue (my kids will eat dern near anything, lol) I have great symphathy now. When we first met my friend and her daughter I thought she was just an indulging mom who didn't put her foot down and tell her daughter to eat what was fixed for dinner and not go about making a completely separate menu for the daughter only......boy did I learn better! My kids went through the "I don't want that" phase and I simply refused to make a separate meal for them, you eat what's served or make yourself a PBJ sandwich basically. But with this friend it goes well beyond that....the times they have tried to force her to eat she would get sick, violently so....and refusing to fix her special foods she'd simply not eat and she's already so thin and frail from the little she'll eat, that was pretty bad. She's been to doctors and eating disorder specialist but not diagnosised as eating disorder for some reason. Pretty sad to watch all they go through trying to feed their child.

Anyway...sorry to get off track....but tell us some of the typical things he eats at home, and we can try to find similar in WDW.

and some fruits and veggies. No meat, no fish.

He's 9 - I too, tried like your friends to sort of force him to eat. Made no special meals for him for a few days and hoped he would give in and eat what we were eating. The kid lost 4 pounds in 3 days - and he only weighed about 65 pounds to start with so that was not good. So I'm back to catering to his food pickiness - it's hard to justify to others when they say "oh he'll eat eventually" - really - we've tried - he won't!

The suggestions I've received here on places to eat are great - and since he does eat pasta that is an easy thing to get at many places!

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

 

[aribelle]

and some fruits and veggies. No meat, no fish.

He's 9 - I too, tried like your friends to sort of force him to eat. Made no special meals for him for a few days and hoped he would give in and eat what we were eating. The kid lost 4 pounds in 3 days - and he only weighed about 65 pounds to start with so that was not good. So I'm back to catering to his food pickiness - it's hard to justify to others when they say "oh he'll eat eventually" - really - we've tried - he won't!

The suggestions I've received here on places to eat are great - and since he does eat pasta that is an easy thing to get at many places!

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

I love fruits and veggies, so I can assure you that makes it pretty easy.....every buffet has fruit, I'd say typically I remember seeing

Fresh: melon (usually a couple different varieties), bananas, pineapple, occasionally I'd see apples (both red and green, not sure exactly which variety), and usually watermelon, but I have to say it was always tasteless .

Canned: peaches, sometimes pears, and sometimes fruit cocktail, but usually it was that awful concoction where they smother it in whipped cream.

Veggies are also usually at all buffets, but they aren't often "plain".....but I would venture to guess that if he doesn't like however they're prepared or the spices/seasonings on them, that a simple request for steamed veggies or another easy way he likes them, will be granted. I've been at WDW with apeople with diabetes, another with celiac and another with an aversion to seasonings of any kind.....each time we asked the server for help choosing what they could eat the server would bring out the chef. At the buffets the chef would escort the person through the buffet pointing out things they could eat and things to specifically avoid. At plated meals the chef would go over the menu pointing out things that might work for them, and also offering suggestions of what they could do, and not just "leave off the sauce" or something easy, but sometimes creating a recipe just for them...seemed like it was using ingredients they used in menu items, but in a new way that eliminated what they couldn't eat and making something they could. I was totally and completely impressed! Obviously this works only at Table Service places, as the CS places are pretty much made ahead. BUT....most of the TS have a pasta dish of some sort, and always veggies.....which means they have the ingredients necessary to be able to create a pasta and veggie dish for him. And you could certainly ask for some fruit for dessert, as I'll venture to guess they have some type of fruit available.

Now, I've also read that some TS restaurants will even run over to another nearby restaurant and get something from there to make a dish for a guest with special food needs......haven't heard this of all of them of course, but enough to feel that it's not really a big deal to them.....it sure seems like it to me, though!

You might ask the CM helping you make ADRs to note that you have a child with special food needs on your reservation.....you'll still need to tell your server, but I understand that this helps the chefs know that they have guests coming in that afternoon with special needs.

I have to say that reading these boards for the last several years I have consistently been impressed with the almost "above and beyond" that Disney will go through to help those with special needs. I've been at local restaurants where they've refused to cook something without the sauce, forget about making up a special recipe.

I'm guessing that you're not going to have much trouble at all given that his acceptable foods are in plentiful supply at almost all the restaurants. I would, however, be sure to allocate some extra time in your schedule, as you're likely to be a little longer at the table than the guests next to you as it takes time for the chef to talk with you and then go create something special.

 

[bookbabe626]

OP, don't worry if your DS is picky. Eventually, he'll likely get over it.

My younger brother spent the first decade or so of his life eating *literally* nothing other than fruit loops cereal, hot dogs (ketchup only), McDonalds hamburgers (the plain cheap kind, not a Big Mac or anything), frozen mini pizzas (wouldn't eat takeout pizza or homemade...just frozen mini-size ones) and jam sandwiches (no peanut butter, just jam) on white bread. (Yes, I have his menu memorized...it was the family joke for years, and we still bug him about it.) Eventually, in his teen years he added a couple more foods, like plain steak or other types of hamburgers, but only after my dad made him wait in the car one time while the rest of us ate in the restaurant. (another long-running family joke)

He's in his thirties now, married with a kid on the way, and is in the navy...so you know he grew up big and strong, even though he didn't eat his veggies as a kid. He'll eat almost anything now. We were floored when we went to visit and he took us out for sushi. I have no idea how it happened, but at some point he just started eating other stuff. It just had to happen on his own schedule and of his own free will, I guess...

In the meantime, as others have suggested, try the buffets and try making requests for modified dishes if you don't see anything on the menu that he'll eat. The menus on allearsnet.com are great for figuring out what's at each restaurant for him - maybe get him involved in the research process, and have him find at least one restaurant at each park that he'll eat in? If he ends up eating nothing but fries, mac & cheese and the occasional piece of fruit all week, he'll live...and go on to be a useful productive adult even...my brother's the living proof!