All inclusive

[strawthatbrokethecamelsback]

Seriously I thought it was the easy option! Currently on holiday in Menorca, lovely hotel, food is generally good but my 4 year old twins hate it.

this is our first time abroad, we usually get a cottage in the uk so of course I do all the cooking. The breakfast cereal is not the same - we have shreddies, bran flakes or weetabix. Wouldn’t entertain cornflakes or the “sugarpuffs” either. That then led into not eating anything and sitting and crying.

lunch no better, bit of bread & butter eaten, cheese not the same colour as ours - you get the picture.

and then having to run around the food hall 16 times to get their food, then your food so no one is actually eating together.

massive stress

someone tell me it’s gets better as they get older

Pancakes are a good option for fussy eaters

There's always lots of fruit options ! Toast in the morning with jam etc

For lunch/evening meal yes it does get the same but they're on holiday, let them have chips, pizza, nuggets and then head to the dessert area 🥳

It will get better during your holiday. Think how new and exciting it is for them. It's overwhelming and they're trying to make new decisions on foods etc. Our daughter didn't eat much the first few days, just go with it and they'll find their rhythm 😀

Sorry but if they’re hungry they will find something “agreeable”. Set some meal boundaries and don’t spoil your sitting by bargaining with them all the way through

When did you get there? If you’ve just arrived I suspect they’ll settle into the new food soon.

That sounds awful. Are you there with another adult? Go together and get the kids stuff, presumably once you've been there a day or two you'll get a routine of what they will eat, then take turns choosing your own.

I'm not an AI fan if I'm honest -however I do understand why many with children are.

I found with young kids that villasand apartments or even Eurocamp tended to work better - with a meal out every night and no running round buffets etc

You can't usually go wrong with fruit and toast and chips! How about getting a box of their usual cereal in the supermarket and taking it down to breakfast with you??

Hopefully it'll improve. We're just back from our first AI holiday with young kids. They lived on ice cream and pizza, but oh well.

They're probably just a bit unsettled at the strangeness of it all, it probably feels very foreign when you're 4! Hopefully they'll settle soon.

I regret to say that you will likely continue to find the buffet a horrendous experience for the week though - treat yourselves to a few dinners at other restaurants.

We tried that, they were both crying when we got back as they didn’t like being left alone 🤦‍♀️

this is only our 2nd day so hopefully it will improve

I have a DS with autism and before going away I used to prepare him that the food would be a bit different.........special Spanish cheese, cereal etc. We would taste it to compare with our food at home and sort of made a game out of it. We tend to go self-catering in Spain now and he loves going to the supermarket to look for Spanish versions of food! (especially crisps)

Do you let them pick what they want from the buffet?

Great minds 😂 that’s what we’ve done, got some cereal from the supermarket and hopefully they will be a bit happier.

so my girls do love veg, but I do carrots, Brocolli & green beans (typically) all of the veg here is mixed all together in a big dish - so of course they just recoil like it’s poison. If they just said no moved on it wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s the tears that follow 😳

on a positive note they’ve had 2 hours at kids club this afternoon and absolutely loved and I feel slightly less frazzled

Take one child each and let them pick. If they want dessert on the same plate so be it.

Most ai's have things like pain au chocolat, pancakes, waffles and huge pots of Nutella. Serve with fruit to lessen your guilt. Hot chocolate usually is popular to drink.

They come with me but I think they find it overwhelming, it’s a big hall with lots of crying children/babies.

Honestly OP, it's only for a few days, I would just let them eat cake for breakfast!

We always have that the first couple of days. Once it stops being to overwhelming choice-wise they’ll figure out the bits they want to eat. God bless cucumber slices and crusty bread when we went this year!!

My littlest wouldn’t even eat pancakes and Nutella - they were delicious. I still maintain he was just being an arse.

Now my eldest is almost 7 she’s finally more useful at serving herself at the buffet - being able to choose her own makes a big difference.

Can you buy a few bits from a local supermarket which they have at home so it feels a little familiar? We did that recently with branded weetabix and pom bears in Spain.

Been here, OP. Kids can be right little pricks about food sometimes. If I live to be 1,000 years old, I’ll never forget sitting in a pool bar in Spain with my (then) 3yo son, trying to convince him that the chicken was just chicken in a sauce. Eventually, my husband just sucked all the chicken clean. My son ate it all then, declaring each piece to be “fresh from Daddy’s mouth”.

Other people looked on with a mix of sympathy and disgust.

Now that my boy is 9, it’s actually become a 360 threat. “Eat your lasagne, kid. Unless you would prefer it fresh from Daddy’s mouth?”

Definitely gets easier. Mine can now go round on their own and get what they want. Sometimes that's chips, bread and donuts but hey ho.
I must say when we went to spain they struggled more as there just wasn't much to eat. We went to turkey and they loved it. There is always something they will eat as the offer is just so much better and the snack bars are often open to supplement if they struggle with main offerings.

@DownWithBreadsticks that really made me laugh! I can only imagine the desperation!

We always go all inclusive, when the kids were younger I used to leave my husband at the table to order drinks and walk round the food hall with the kids to decide what we wanted. Load up plates and then send husband in to get his when we sat down.

Now they are older they can choose thier own stuff but the 3 of us still go first. It does save a fortune when they want ice creams and slushies all day.

Hope it gets better

@strawthatbrokethecamelsback - a wise choice!!

Our son didn't like AI- but I think he was an unusual one-

Don't feel bad if you need to use the supermarket- if it smoothed things over

By the time they are 8 they are usually more than happy to live on pizza, chips, hotdogs or spag Bol and deserts!

We used to go to 5 star AI that cost a fortune and my 2 used to eat plain boiled rice,bread and chips for 2 weeks!

It’s only day 2, you and your other half will be sick of the sight of the same old options by the end of the week.

For me as a kid, it wasn’t the actual cereal that was the problem, it was the foul milk.

If there's food you know they'll eat off the buffet (bread, chips, potatoes etc) I would just let them have that.