Dining Out with Baby

One of the often-spruiked advantages of Baby-Led Weaning is that it is 'easier' to eat out at restaurants with your baby.  In many ways, this is true.  For example:

• You can easily order something off the menu for baby, pretty much anywhere you go, right from Day One of solids.  Most restaurants will do some sort of steamed/roasted/wok-tossed vegetables, and you can generally suppliment this with some sort of meat from your own, or someone else's, dish - a strip of steak, some braised meat, a piece of chicken or fish, some schnitzel, a prawn.  Some bread is generally available.  I have never, ever been caught out at a restaurant or cafe - there is always something for Tabitha to eat.

• You don't need to feed your baby.  You can eat your own meal when it arrives.  The baby will feed herself.

• The self-feeding offers a degree of entertainment for the baby.  For some time (between 5 - 30 minutes, depending on the baby), the bub will be pretty happy if left to her own devices.  This allows more opportunity for you to relax and eat your meal.

• Restaurants and wait staff generally love BLW.  Even though it is messier, I find most staff are so enamored by a tiny baby eating fists of veggies and steak that they love having these 'mini diners'.

• As baby gets older, and are continuing to eat as they always have (off the adult plates, so to speak, with a variety of spices, flavours and tastes), you can simply continue to order off the adult menu (entree size), and bypass the scary deep-fried, tomato-sauced, refined-carbs 'children's menus'.  They won't know what they're 'missing' unless you tell them.  Or until they hit school-age and their friends teach them about the joys of nuggets and fries (then you've got more of a challenge on your hands).

The only real disadvantage of BLW when eating out is the mess - sitting there spooning purees or lumpy mash into a baby mostly contains the mess the the face and body region, to be wiped down afterwards (of course, many puree-fed babies learn very quickly to grab and throw the spoon, resulting in massive mess!)

BLW babies tend to drop a fair amount of food on the floor directly underneath them.  Of course, you don't want to leave that behind, nor do you want to crouch on your hands and knees in the middle of a restaurant, quickly picking up grains of rice and half-chewed meat!

There is a simple solution - use a drop sheet.  Just bring along a bunny rug or large muslin, and pop it underneath the high chair or chair (Tabitha is often sitting on a regular chair, with her HandySitt).  Don't spread it so far behind the chair that anyone will trip, of course, but just a few inches around the bottom should do.  At the end of the meal, you can quickly gather it up, and shake it out, outside, when you leave or get home.  Easy!

Of course, BLW doesn't mean you won't face a lot of the regular old restaurant-with-babies problems.  The main problems are:

• Boredom.  I advise being out of the seat as much as possible.  If we arrive before everyone else is seated, I keep Tabitha in the Ergo, walking around the restaurant or street.  When everyone is ready to order, I sit down, order, then walk again until the entrees arrive.  Between entrees and mains?  Walk again!  Of course, passing the baby around amongst your family or friends may be enough to entertain her, without having to go for a walk, but do consider how hard it can be for a baby - a massive table of awesome things like wine glasses and butter dishes and shiny knives and tablecloths and you aren't allowed to play with them.  So sometimes taking baby for a walk is the best approach.

• Highchairs (availability, safety, cleanliness).  Many restaurants do not have highchairs.  Some do, but they are of dubious cleanliness - the nylon straps can be caked in years' worth of food, the joins of the cushions can harbour all sorts of manky damp mould.  Some chairs are just far too big for a young baby.  Generally, unless the restaurant has one of those great little Ikea Antilop highchairs (easy to clean, small and safe), I use our own HandySitt.  It doesn't hurt to carry some disinfecting wipes - I'm normally far from one of those 'disinfect everything' type of mummas, but a quick wipe over a questionable highchair tray is sometimes useful.

• Attitude of patrons and staff - unfortunately, many people forget what it is like to be a baby, and look surly if a small person dares to even venture into an eating establishment.  For us, this has been few and far between - in fact, I can't recall a single negative comment - however it's best to use a 'charm offensive', I think.  I find that making the effort to 'dress up' the baby, when going out to a nice resturant, makes a huge difference.  If Tabitha is in a pretty dress, matching cardigan and cute shoes, the wait staff and other patrons seem to fuss over her, avoiding any stern looks.  It seems ridiculously superficial, but it works in my experience, and in the experience of my friends!

When taking your baby out (or when dining out yourself, if you do not have children), it is worthwhile keeping in mind that all people need to learn, and have practice, to become polite, well-behaved restaurant patrons.  It makes sense to expose children to restaurants early, if possible, so that they can observe what goes on, and learn, through the natural 'mimic' behaviour, what is expected of them when dining out.  I know plenty of children who dine out frequently, with beautiful manners, and they were all taken to restaurants regularly by their families from a young age.  

As with all things child-related, my approach is to reward good behaviour and try to ignore the bad (of course, this isn't really relevant with babies Tabitha's age, who have no concept of 'behaviour'!)  If a child is misbehaving in a restaurant, it is often because they are bored, so do the respectful, kind thing and provide some entertainment or take them for a walk.  As they get older, they will certainly become pleasurable, entertaining dining companions.

Bear in mind, too, that even the most highly-strung of babies and children can have better restaurant manners than some adult patrons.  Over the years (including my years working as a Public Relations Strategist in food and restaurant PR), I have witnessed some truly abysmal displays of rudeness from adult patrons, far worse than most baby restaurant behavior!  I'm taking inappropriately sexual comments to wait staff, bottom-pinching, stealing of silverware, theft of whole wheels of cheese from breakfast buffets, drunken shouting, reducing wait staff to tears over a small mistake, wildly shocking 'adult' behavior under tables, throwing drinks or food for fun, drunken vomiting in $50-a-main restaurants, and general obnoxious behavior from people old enough to know better.

Bearing the above in mind, suddenly a baby dropping some broccoli and chicken on the floor, or squealing with indignation because they can't play with a wine glass, does not seem so dreadful!

My final tip?  Tip.  Tip generously.  Adding a little extra gratuity if your baby has made a mess is always appreciated, and a big smile and a sincere 'thank you' goes a long way.

Since she was born, Tabitha has been to lots of restaurants, including several 'Chef's Hat' rated establishments.  She's been well received at all of them, and is, overall, a pleasure to eat out with.  Her first 'outing' was to Ocha, a brilliant Japanese restaurant in Hawthorn, when she was just three days old (we went out for my birthday with some family and friends.  I sat on a cushion.  Tabitha slept through the whole meal in her capsule).

Here is Tabitha at Ocha when she was a newborn:

And last night, aged ten months, munching on ginger chicken: