Vegan @ ChuckECheese Party?

March 21, 2002

My vegan, no-sugar eating 18-month old son has been invited to his first

birthday party for a 2 year old and it's at ChuckECheese. Does anyone have any

experience/suggestions on what I can do to help my son feel comfortable at the

party? Thanks!

March 22, 2002

Since my son is now 6 yrs. old, we have been to many b-day parties at various

non -veg. places. We bring our own vegan pizza slices, slice of cake,

cupcakes work well, and a jiuce box or two since those places serve sugary

drinks.

I've never had a problem with the people at the restaurants give us a hard

time.

If you want to be careful, you can say, he has allergies.

Good luck,

Peace,

Laura

March 22, 2002

On Thu, 21 Mar 2002, admartin wrote:

> My vegan, no-sugar eating 18-month old son has been invited to his first

> birthday party for a 2 year old and it's at ChuckECheese. Does anyone

> have any experience/suggestions on what I can do to help my son feel

> comfortable at the party? Thanks!

According to the Chuck E. Cheese in my area, the crust and tomato sauce on

their pizzas are vegan. Check with the restaurant (or ask the hosting

parents if they will check) and see if they can prepare a cheeseless pizza

for your son. He almost certainly won't be able to eat the cake, though,

so maybe bringing a cupcake or other cake-like dessert for your son would

be good. I would definitely get in touch with the hosts and let them know

about your son's diet ahead of time so they don't feel slighted if you end

up bringing separate food for your son.

In some ways you're in luck -- the food really isn't the point of a Chuck

E. Cheese party, the games are. 18 months is really too young to fully

appreciate the games (so is 2 years, for that matter) but he'll probably

enjoy all the lights and noises and playing in the ball pit, not to

mention dancing with Chuck E.

----

Patricia Bullington-McGuire <patricia

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered

three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the

purely hypothetical. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each

nonexisted in an entirely different way ...

-- Stanislaw Lem, " Cyberiad "

March 22, 2002

They have a salad bar, unsweetened iced tea and not a whole lot else that's

vegan. It might be worth your time to swing by and check the menu and

ambiance out before accepting the invite, as he might be scared of the

characters. My daughter was for a while... Also, ask to talk to a mgr. I

don't know what their policy is about outside food, but they might make an

exception for a young child.

Sandra

March 22, 2002

<<My vegan, no-sugar eating 18-month old son has been invited to his

first birthday party for a 2 year old and it's at ChuckECheese. Does

anyone have any experience/suggestions on what I can do to help my son

feel comfortable at the party?>>

My sympathies!

All I can suggest is have him wear his worst, darkest socks -- they'll

be stained beyond redemption by the end of the day. (Clean ones to

change into wouldn't be a bad idea.)

Most families I know wouldn't let their children eat at a ChuckECheese,

even the ones who do eat cheese (and meat), so I'm not sure you have any

good solutions there, except to fill him up before you leave the house

so there's less likelihood he'll be hungry enough to try anything.

Actually, children that young are often excited enough by the event

itself that they don't eat much at birthday parties. Here's hoping!

Liz

March 23, 2002

The last birthday party at a similar setting we were invited to - the

hostess, our friend, actually brought my son, who was 16 months old at the

time, animal crackers so he would have something to eat. I thought it was

very nice (and I didn't even make it an issue that there was honey in them

because it was so very thoughtful of her to bring my son something she

believed was vegan).

Talk to her about it. Let her know you're going to bring him some kind of

snack or piece of cake of his own. Bring something he really loves so when

he sees the other pretty cake, you can quietly say to him, " Look! I brought

you your favorite chocolate chip cookies (or whatever). " It also always

seems to me at little ones' birthday parties, there is so much going on, no