Eating out with Baby
Eating out with Baby can be intimidating and stressful. Here are some of the tips and tricks we’ve learnt from our most successful restaurant trips and our biggest failures.
It’s ok to stagger our eating time.
I imagined the whole family sitting down and eating together, but it turns out there just are not enough hands to go around. When Baby was really small, one person would give her a bottle while everyone else ate. When she started eating solids, we quickly found that cutting and scooping food for Baby left little time to scoop food into our own mouths. Long story short, staggered eating times worked best. We would often feed Baby while waiting for our food to come out.
Finger foods are key
Finger foods, particularly freeze dried fruits (Amazon) are our best friend at restaurants. It takes a little while to break them up (since Baby still tries to bite off more than she can chew) but then we dump a bunch of tiny pieces on her plate for her to pick up one-by-on-by-one, giving us precious moments to eat our own food.
The question is where to put the food. Restaurant tables can be nice… or sticky. In a pinch we give Baby her own plate but we of course need to keep a hand on it lest she moves it too close to the edge (either on purpose or accident). These placemats are even better.
We are a big fan of this Upward Baby Silicone Placemat. It keeps the food off the table and has a food trap for catching bits from falling on the floor.
It’s okay to make a mess… as long as you clean it up
Baby gets bored during long (and even short) grown-up meals. We tried numerous toys, but the best entertainment came from paper napkins- she loves tearing and shredding them, but this left a huge mess of confetti! At first we resisted, lest we get those judgmental glares from the child-less, but in the end we gave in. Everyone has fun and it doesn’t make the wait staff’s job any harder as long as we clean it up.
Whether it’s shredded napkins, smooshed pees, or smeared purée, happy Baby means happy meal and the cleanup is still less time consuming than eating at home.
