Baby Bargains
You’ve seen a bunch of people recommend this book, and I’ll give it a recommendation as well.
My next long post is going to be on toys. I’m still working on it, though.
For discussion today, let’s talk about how we feed our little ones in a restaurant. When GG was too small to eat restaurant food I fed her food to her while we waited, and then used the little stick-on place mats and put Cheerios on it for her to self feed once our food arrived. She had a small four ounce bottle she could handle that we kept water in.
Once she was old enough for solid food, she ate regular food on regular plates just like everyone else. Well, we fed her food to her at first, unless it was finger food. But other than that, we didn’t take anything special except her bottle and her spoon.
Oh, when we were out we used disposable bibs. At home we used cloth or plastic bibs.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Good choice! I’d also highly recommend her book (she co-wrote it with Dr. Ari Brown, a reknown pediatrician) Toddler 411. It is an amazing book and spells out most of the questions toddler parents might have on a variety of issues. My book is becoming worn out already!
I believe they also wrote Baby 411 but I haven’t read that one. I didn’t need that one for my daughter. :)
Kathi
DH Robert
DD Angeline, 29 months, home 9/27/07
June 29th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Our girl, was about 13-14 months when we started eating out. It was very rare we couldn’t find some food on the menu we could make work. And we would pick places where we knew there would be stuff she would/could eat. I did bring one jar of baby food, in case there truly was nothing she could eat.
We also would pick places that had a salad bar if possible. That way she could start grazing right away.
If there was no salad bar, we ask for the bread while walking to the table. And have cheerios to tide her over until the food arrived. Between that and her no mess markers she is pretty good at waiting for the meal to arrive.
Between the baby food, soup and salad bar we could make a meal work. Most restaurants also have a pasta offering. Until she could eat totaly on her own and real size food on her own. I would order and share with her.
I still don’t like the offerings on most children’s menus and usually end up ordering off the appetizer menu for her. That and some sides and we give her a bit of our meals and we are good to go.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:44 am
We likewise used to bring food and feed our son while we waited for our food. Now at 16 months he just gets food off the menu and eats with the rest of us. We often will request that his food be brought out as soon as it is ready rather than waiting for the rest of the dishes. We bring his sippy cup, spoon, and disposable bibs.
If DS finishes eating quickly and we are not ready to go, he will entertain himself for a long time with a cup of water and straw. He gets completely soaked, but stays happy and allows us to socialize. And water dries.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Our son is almost 4, and we always order his kid’s meal or an appetizer when we order our drinks. His food comes early, we can help with cutting, blowing, etc, and he is a happy kid. And he is still dawdling when the adult food arrives, so we get to eat in peace. Many times he eats a portion of our meals, and when he has to wait we always have the IPod ready for games and photos.
I highly recommend The First Years disposable/reusable sippy and straw cups. We get them at Target, and they last forever. And they are so cheap that if you forget one, it’s no big deal. Our son had a cleft palate and couldn’t use a regular sippy cup, so we used a bottle opener to punch open the holes in the sippy spout to make a drippy cup. He could carry it around and have liquids, and it didn’t spill too much if it fell over. And then afer his surgery, we just threw them all away because 4 cups had cost about $4 all together.
Susan
June 29th, 2009 at 9:27 am
We’ve taken our kids to restaurants since they were babies. They love going out to eat. When they were toddlers, we used to take a sippy cup and our own toddler fork. The sippy cup was very important since many ethnic restaurants don’t have plastic cups with lids and straws. A toddler faced with lots of milk in a tall glass glass is a dangerous thing! Now that our kids are older (9, 7, and 3), we bring a special backpack filled with “activities” – coloring books, sticker books, all those little crayon packs that they get at birthday parties, etc.
I’ve never understood the concept of feeding kids early in a restaurant. In fact, we tell the servers to just bring the kid food at the same time as ours. Otherwise, we end up with bored antsy kids just as we are trying to enjoy our food. While we wait for the food, the kids pick activities from the backpack and do those. We also try to choose appetizers that everyone can pick at.
June 29th, 2009 at 9:29 am
When eating out, I always appreciated a waitress who was considerate of our baby. One brought food for him right away at the time she brought our waters and introduced herself. It was just a dish of applesauce, but boy did we tip her big.
June 29th, 2009 at 9:54 am
My favorite restaurant trick was utilizing the plastic ring loops to attach some washable toys or washable books to the high chair or baby seat…I also often carried a banana to dice up as an additional “finger food” to the cheerios.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:06 am
We’ve been taking DD out since we came home with her at 10 months. Back then we’d take bottle, bibs, applesauce, cheerios with some toys or books. She would eat some of whatever we were having…mashed potato, pasta.
Later we needed the table mats, snack trap (love those things!!), had a plate with a snap on lid and plastic spoons/forks, crayons, goldfish, sippy cup and she would either eat off the kids menu or share our meals.
Nowadays we still pack a bib and a straw cup (just in case) and I usually have crayons and books in my bag. I used the disposable bibs for a bit but she did not like them and would rip them off once she was 2. I have a couple of the Bummis bibs that have a cap sleeve and pocket–they are really soft and keep her pretty dry. She is fine with those.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am
My DD was 10.5 months old when she came home but had no teeth…until she got some, I would bring baby food, but once she got a few teeth, she would eat some of whatever I had. She LOVED tomatoes, so if I got a salad, I would take the tomatoes and croutons out of it for her (they will also usually bring you a little dish full of croutons for the baby if you ask-my DD still loves them as an appetizer), and cut the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces for her…she would have fits until I set them in front of her. I would bring a bottle/sippy cup, then when she learned to use a straw, I would bring her own straw cup, since it was harder to spill that than the restaurant cup, and I didn’t mind her brining her cup in the car when we were finished with the meal. I would bring a little set of toddler spoon/fork/knife that came in it’s own case…those stayed in the diaper bag all of the time-I had several and am disappointed that they’ve apparently quit selling them. I liked to give them as baby gifts but can’t find them anymore. I always brought a bib…usually one of the plastic-coated ones – I preferred those pretty much all of the time. She would usually make a huge mess, but I tipped extra for that…I would have felt guilty for leaving such a mess without a really good tip. And yes, some waiters are much better “baby waiters” than others…do NOT set the hot dish (nor the glass full of liquid) directly in front of the baby !
June 29th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I forgot to say that although I would order DDs food when I ordered my own, we usually went to restaurants early, because that was when she would eat best and also to avoid “prime time” when it was likely to take a lot longer to get our food.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Since we’re on the subject of food, can I ask which you think is best? Soy based formula or milk based formula? First time mom here (and very nervous). My hubby and I went out to buy somethings for our upcoming trip (no referral yet, but we should be next, I pray, with a 3/22 LID!)… so we’re preparing. Wanted to buy powder formula, but I didn’t realize there were the two types.
Other than formula, baby crackers, and cheerios, is there any other food we should be bringing to China for our little one? Thought of Gerber’s baby food, but I’m afraid to pack that in our suitcases… and I’m sure we can find this in China, right?
All these “eating out” adventures sound like so much fun. Can’t wait for those.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
This is so timely. I was just having a conversation with a co-worker of mine who was telling me that they can’t take their 2 yr old bio son to restaraunt because he doesn’t behave well enough. I thought that was strange. We’ve always been able to take our now adult children out to eat.
With little kids, I don’t push it though. We try to order right away when we get there and I do get her food first. Dd is 18 mos and still requires help with many foods so I feed her the fork stuff and then when our food comes she self feeds on the rest of her meal shares with us. I always have snack foods available ie craisins, goldfish, cheerios, etc.
She’s great for about an hour or so and then she’s bored and its time to go. That works for us and her. One thing I’m a stickler on is that she MUST sit in the high chair. Occasionally she’s wanted to get out and dh has given in but it never works out well.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Another big one is we make sure our girl is rested. As in not missing nap time, or out past bedtime.
She was only a beast once in a restaurant but she was eating 2 hours past dinner and it was her bedtime. Never again.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
We try to decide what we will order ahead of time so we can place our full order as soon as we get there. Most restaurants have menus online so it is pretty easy to pull them up on a smart phone and decide. We have rarely had trouble eating out with our girls but you have to be prepared in case you do. There was one meal I distinctly remember that wasn’t going well so we got up and left, I sat outside with the oldest on a bench then dh did so we could both eat and she wouldn’t disturb everybody else.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
One thing we learned was that it was best not to go out with large groups of people when DD was a toddler. It usually takes a lot longer to order and to get your food with big groups, so by the time the food came, DD was pretty much done with sitting still and had filled up on snacks or bread. Now that she’s almost 3, we can do bigger groups again, as she has a pretty good attention span and we can bring activities to keep her busy. She loves to go out, and we are actually able to have much more of an adult conversation than at home, because she’s so busy looking around at everything.
We had absolutely no luck with the disposable bibs after 11 months or so– she’d just pull them off. We needed to bring a regular bib from home, and we generally brought toddler silverware and a sippy cup, too.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
We’ve taken Jason out since he was born and Jess out since she came home at 17 months. I have the kids food brought out when ours is brought out so that they’re not done just as we’re starting. Jess doesn’t always get her own meal. She sometimes shares my steak, potatoes and veggies – then I have room for dessert! Some places we get her an appetizer (her favorite at the local Radisson’s restaurant is baked brie and poached pear which she pairs with my broccolni and some of my mashed potatoes) and sometimes she orders off of the kids’ menu. She orders for herself, talks to the waitstaff and loves going out to eat.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Emily’s Mom:
Most of the time, doctors will recommend milk based formula instead of soy. It has to do with milk from a mammal (cow) being more similar to human breast milk and providing more complete proteins than soy milk. I say “most of the time” because, as always, there are exceptions to the rule. If your child is allergic to cow’s milk, has certain medical problems, or if you really need to do a vegan diet for religious or ethical reasons, then you may need to use soy formula. Check with a pediatrician for more advice.
June 29th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Right, what luvbugsmom said. I’ll add that I don’t feel comfortable giving my kids a lot of soy. I don’t think they need to be infused with estrogen just yet, if ever. Being a vegetarian family some of our protein is soy, but we do not do soy milk, and I do try to keep the soy products to a minimum.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Emilys mom,
As a mom to a Lactose Intolerant girl there are more options than Milk (cow) vs Soy.
My girl is LI, we do Lactaid at home and rice milk when traveling (can be stored at room temp).
There are more options than cow milk and soy. I am of the same school about soy and estrogens. Being “older” that I take soy stuff to replace or mimic the estrogen I am losing, I just don’t think it is good for my girl.
As far as your trip, and not knowing the age of your child, take milk based, if you can find lactose free, better still but don’t stress. It is 2 weeks it will be fine. Our girl was 11 months, doc said let her eat whatever she was willing to try as long as it was not a choking hazard. We did rice cereal and fruit in our room for bonding (she had nothing else to investigate but us) before we went to eat. Then she could graze and look around and we could eat in relative peace.
Enjoy
June 29th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Thank you all for the great advice on soy vs. milk. I will look for lactose free formula.. and yes, will try to stay away from soy. Already bought some rice cereal and oatmeal to bring with us. Will get some cheerios and baby crackers as well. So nervous about being a first time mom, so I appreciate all of your feedback, everyone!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:16 am
After only eating out in China, we had no problem eating out as soon as we came home! I found that one of those rubber placemats (by kidopotamus) worked well at restaurants. We put her food on there. When she was 18 mos, she finally stopped trying to toss restaurant plates out the window, so we could leave that rubber thing at home. She never really wanted baby food, so we were able to either share our food or order off the kids menu even as a baby. When she was very young (10 mos – 18 mos) she ate nonstop, so restaurant visits went well, as long as we brought snacks for her to eat while she waited for her food. I had to learn which restaurants didn’t serve milk (most of the Chinese ones) so that I could bring milk for her. As a baby I just brought bottles of powdered formula and added water. The hardest time in restaurants was when she was about 3 and was too tall for the high chair. It was so tough to keep her in her seat, and she wasn’t eating 24/7 like she was as a baby. At 4 1/2, she does fine if we’re not there terribly long, but still prefers McDonalds or Chik Fil-A.
And to Emily’s mom–If I were you, I’d buy milk-based formula because of the nutrients. Only use soy if you can’t use milk. We did take some lactose-free formula to China, but we learned that she was on milk-based and doing fine.