Where do you stand on this?

[NewRVLady]

On Donna Beegle's Facebook she tells United Airlines to 'take a lesson" from another Mom's plight at mealtime.
This Mom (commenting on the United's incident) writes about her son's starting to meltdown at a restaurant and the cook making her son something special-comparing that to food on an airline-she's nuts...and Donna's nuts.

 

[NewRVLady]

The article....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-a-kid-with-autism-united-airlines-take-note/

 

[barkley]

the mom posting about the restaurant says that they will call ahead to find out if the restaurant has the item available the son will eat, and that the restaurant has made special accommodations for their son in the past. that the cook would recognize who the son is (by name/food preferences) just by virtue of the manner in which the noodles on that particular night were ordered says the family/this child are regular known customers.

this is TOTALY different than the airline situation. beyond the fact that an airline doesn't individually prepare each meal onboard for a passenger, the airline had no advance notice which many of us have posted the parents could have achieved during the layover when the child refused to eat the food the parents attempted to provide.

there are restaurants we use frequently (dine in or to-go), and when i place an order they often know from past experience w/us if there are accommodations/tweaks we prefer w/the items we order-BUT we also know from past experience which restaurants can and will make these. i wouldn't for a second go into a restaurant/call for take out if i had no prior experience w/them and then presume they could accommodate us-i would call ahead and research, just as I've done in booking airline reservations.

 

[StitchBuddy]

I teach students with autism. Mom should have had a plan in place. I take student out into the public on a daily basis, I try to leave nothing to chance. Not to say there isn't times when something unexpected happens. But, this could have been avoided. Plus, I can't imagine taking a child with severe behaviors and not using medication as a back up in this particular situation. Of course, I don't have all the facts.

 

[Minniesgal]

I think it sounds like more than the parent's are making it out to be but it is hard to judge without having seen what actually went on.

 

[dbrn]

I can't imagine any airline serving steaming hot food - a little bit of unexpected turbulence and you've got potential for a serious medical issue.

In this case, if I was the flight attendant and didn't know how this girl would react, I'd be hesitant to bring any hot food. What if she became disgruntled and threw hot food on another passenger, or spilled it and burned herself? Didn't happen in this case, but the possibility would factor into the decision process for me.

I would have discussed it with the captain, too, if I knew there was a possibility that this last effort of providing a hot meal might not work and, according to her own mom, we could have a violent situation on our hands.

I think the flight attendant went above and beyond to bring those meals, probably to try to keep her calm long enough to land safely.

This mom is way off base, in my opinion. My opinion is based, to some extent, on my experiences with kids who have had some pretty serious meltdowns, and I certainly wouldn't want to encounter that type of behavior on a flight. I know not all kids act the same, but with mom's response, I think I would assume the worst and hope for the best.
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