Laravel 5: add data to $request->all() - database

Question

I've been trying to add the id of the current logged-in user into a field in my DB.
But, nothing is stored. I have tried the following methods:
public function store(StoreChildRequest $request)
{
$user = Auth::user();
$child = $request->all();
$child->merge(['user_id' => $user->id]);
$child = new Patient($child);
$child->save();
}
But the StoreChildRequest always returns the user_id is not passed.
Also this didn't work:
public function store(StoreChildRequest $request)
{
$user = Auth::user();
Input::merge(['user_id' => $user->id]);
$child = new Patient($request->all());
$child->save();
}
The same error.
Even if I try to do so with fixed data, the merge won't happen:
public function store(StoreChildRequest $request)
{
$user = Auth::user();
Input::merge(['user_id' => "01"]);
if($child = new Patient($request->all()))
{
$child->save();
return response()->json(['succes' => 'Child saved.']);
}
else
{
return response()
->json($request->getMessageBag()->toArray());
}
}
EDIT
I have noticed that when I remove the StoreChildRequest (the validation) the code works just fine. So I'm going to add the rules:
StoreChildRequest:
public function rules()
{
return [
'name' => 'required|max:255',
'givenname' => 'required|max:255',
'street' => 'required|max:255',
'streetnumber' => 'required|max:255',
'city' => 'required|max:255',
'postalcode' => 'required|digits:4',
'email' => 'required|email',
'birthdate' => 'required|date',
'sex' => 'required|max:1',
'user_id' => 'required'
];
}
The error has to be in here then?
Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

You could do something like this:
$user = Auth::user();
$child = $request->all();
$child['user_id'] = $user->id;
$child = new Patient($child);
$child->save();
Also, you could try:
$user = Auth::user();
$request->request->add(['user_id' => $user->id]);
$child = $request->all();
$child = new Patient($child);
$child->save();