Tip Tuesday: Kids' dining at WDW

For most adults, eating at Walt Disney World is a true culinary delight. The same, however, can't always be said for kids, especially special needs kids who are picky eaters.

Case in point is my son who has a mild form of autism. He is very unwilling to try new foods - because he is very uncertain about new things. While I may push him to try new things at home, Walt Disney World is not the place to try new foods and risk a tough night.

Here's the problem: the folks at WDW are jumping more and more onto the "healthy" bandwagon. While I don't have a problem with offering healthy options, I don't want that choice made FOR me. The end result is that many of my son's favorite foods (chicken nuggets being the top of the list) are slowing going away in favor of baked chicken, which he is less then enthusaistic about.

Here's the tip: If you have a picky eater - it's a good idea to check out restaurant menus ahead of time to plan where you want to eat, especially if you're on the Disney Dining Plan and need to make those ADR's. I have used these sites for my past three trips and, for the most part, I've been pretty successful.

Here are a couple of sites to check out restaurant menus:
WDWinfo.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28194763/
AllEars.net: http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

Take these menus with a grain of salt - Disney changes their menus without notice. These two sites do a good job of trying to keep up with the changes. A great example of this would be at the Cape May Cafe. Both sites listed chicken strips on the dinner menu as of October -- yet when I was there last week, the chicken strips were gone and baked chicken leg was there in it's place.

So parents, do your homework ahead of time and you stand a good chance of a good dining experience.