Well, it happened. We successfully toured WDW and made it home alive and with our sanity still intact. And thank you…yes you, for perusing this blog post to find out how the trip with a Ketogenic Diet child turned out. Instead of giving you all the exciting review of the Ketogenic Diet and the process needed to prepare Jake’s meals, just head to this link and check it out:
https://themickeydudes.com/2016/07/14/touring-with-a-special-diet-child-part-1-the-planning/
We went into this trip actually a little worried. We didn’t know how Jake would react to having the prepared meals and none of us eating with him. Or if he would go nuts when he saw a popcorn stand and couldn’t enjoy a bucket of the buttery goodness. Questions went through our heads like: “can he do it,” “can we do it,” “will he eat,” “what do we do if he doesn’t eat,”…and we hadn’t even left for the World yet! In short, we had plans in place that actually worked and plans that failed miserably.
Plans that worked: Pre-cooked items and frozen Keto pizzas used as much as possible. Yes, Jake had pizza every night (who wouldn’t want that) and he loved it. Pre-made “puffs” were great for breakfast and snacks and cut down on the amount of meals we had to prep, saving time. Instead of leaving at the ‘crack of a rooster crow’ for the World the start of our vacation, we left in the late afternoon of the day before. If we would have left on the morning of a big travel day, we would have stopped numerous times for meals and snacks. By leaving the day prior, Jake would have already eaten most of his controlled meals and all we would have to stop for would be dinner. Yeah, we got in late that night, but we had a full DisneyWorld day the next day.
Plans that failed: Rope dropping Epcot on the first day of the trip after a long drive the day prior. We were all tired, having less than 5 hours of sleep and were kind of miserable. No one was at each others throats, but we were moving at a snail’s pace. Trying to go a full day at DHS was probably the biggest failure of them all. We thought we could get there early in the morning, go with no breaks, and call it an early evening. We also thought we could actually all eat together at the ABC Commissary…and it would be fine as long as no one got fun food like nuggets and or fries. We were WRONG!!! Lunch time is when the wheels fell off. Jake didn’t want to eat and was throwing a Biblical size fit. My wife had to take Jake back to the room while Tyler and I toured a little while longer. He did eat while we was back at the room, and commenced to take a 3 hour nap. I was kind of jealous of the nap.
The Room: We were lucky enough to score a 1 bedroom Villa at The Wilderness Lodge on a last-minute request so that we could take advantage of the kitchen. It was amazing and a God send. We were able to prepare all of Jake’s meals on the stove and microwave and were able to have something other than Pop-tarts for Tyler.
Lessons Learned: We can’t go all day in the park. Breaks are needed and will be taken. We have to take time for ourselves (parents). This was accomplished by a parent taking Tyler to a good meal while the other stayed with Jake. And the biggest lesson of all: Yes, it can be done and Yes we can do it again. Jake will be on this diet for a least 2 years and there is no way we are going to keep family fun-time out of WDW for that amount of time.
Thanks to our hundreds of thousands of fans who have read this. It was brief, but I hope you have learned something that will be helpful to you or to a loved one. If you have any questions about touring with the diet, or just diet, please feel free to contact me.
Twitter: @turkeyleg1
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