Eating Out in Restaurants: Tips for Baby-Led Weaning Away from Home

Rula (0s):

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Katie Ferraro (1m 30s):

So you can either bring your food from home or you can order something from the menu if you want to. I have a cousin who does this. I watched her the other day at a California pizza kitchen order. A $10 chicken breast just for her baby drove me absolutely crazy for a number of reasons. But I kinda like the third option, which is you order exactly what you wanna do and then we modify parts of that meal and make some of those foods work for your baby. And here's how you do them. Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor, and mom of seven specializing in baby-led weaning. Here on the baby-led weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (2m 22s):

Alright, let's be real. There is nothing more obnoxious than a screaming baby at a restaurant and when it's your baby, even worse, okay? You just wanna disappear under the table, right? But here's the thing. Most parents at restaurants don't realize it's not the baby that's the problem. It's the parents who prepared the wrong way for that particular restaurant outing with their baby. Today I'm going to share with you the simple restaurant strategies that make baby led weaning away from home, calm, safe, and actually enjoyable for everybody around you. Now, I like to start out these solo training episodes with a baby led weaning tip of the day.

Katie Ferraro (3m 2s):

And today's tip is, when it comes to restaurants and what your baby eats, you have three options, okay? When it comes to the food, you can either one, bring your baby's food from home, two, order your baby something from the menu, or three, modify what you order and offer that to your baby. Now, hang tight because I'm gonna walk you through each of those scenarios and options so that you can make eating at restaurants with your baby a reality and do what works best for you. And again, make that an experience that maybe you'll go back to enjoying again. So I wanna start out with a quick story. I'm gonna tell you about my friend Geneva and her baby Skylar. So Geneva and her husband live on a boat here in San Diego where we live.

Katie Ferraro (3m 43s):

We did a whole series together on Instagram, all about how to make simple finger foods in small spaces like a boat. Like I basically wanted to show you don't need fancy food equipment or a gourmet kitchen to make food safe for your baby to eat. So Skylar did our whole a hundred first foods program. She ate a 100 foods before she turned one on the boat, and then their family went traveling to Europe. So Geneva's husband is in film and video. He was actually my very first videographer. Geneva has been a virtual assistant for us for a number of years, and then she has Skylar. So we always stay in touch and I'm like, you know, how's it going? They were traveling, they were in Paris. She messaged me that they were out at a restaurant, okay? And that people in France, perfect French strangers were walking up to her and her husband and commenting on how amazing it was that Skyler was sitting in her high chair at the table eating all of the same foods at 12 months of age that the rest of the family was.

Katie Ferraro (4m 33s):

I mean, think about that, right? Americans are always obsessed about like how the French eat. And here we have French adults just fawning over an American baby eating real food at 12 months. I love it. So let's dive in and talk about some strategies for eating out at restaurants and tips for baby led weaning success away from home so that this can happen for you too. Step one for restaurant success is getting comfortable with the idea of eating away from home. You probably used to like eating at restaurants before you had kids, okay? And I promise you that joy will return even when you decide to take them with you. As far as your mindset goes, it is totally normal to feel nervous about eating out with your baby, right?

Katie Ferraro (5m 15s):

I know you've worked really hard to create a safe setup at your home, right? You've got your high chair, you've got your routine, you've got your safe finger foods, and suddenly a restaurant feels like unknown territory. But eating out is such a valuable learning experience, not just for your baby, but for you as the parent too, right? It helps you build confidence and teaches your baby that food and family meals happen everywhere, not just in the perfect setup in your family home, in your kitchen. So the key is to adjust your expectations, okay? Maybe your baby's not going to eat as much as they usually do when you're out. They might be distracted by the lights and the sounds and all these new people that are around when they're eating, and that is okay. Think of the restaurant meals as practice sessions for real world eating, okay?

Katie Ferraro (5m 58s):

The goal is not a perfectly balanced plate. It doesn't matter. It's about letting your baby participate in a social meal in a new environment. And remember, you are allowed to enjoy your meal too, because one of the benefits of baby-led weaning is that it allows our babies to participate in family meals from their first bites. And some of those meals are gonna take place at restaurants. So you can do this. Alright? Now, what to pack and bring with you. Let's talk logistics. What do you want to bring with your baby to the restaurant so that the experience feels somewhat calm and predictable, if that's even possible. Here is my short list of restaurant essentials. First of all, I always bring a suction mat or bowl for the baby having worked at restaurants throughout high school and college, I know how nasty those tabletops are that you're cleaning.

Katie Ferraro (6m 42s):

And I also know how gross the rags are that you clean the tables with. Okay? You do not wanna put the food right on the table at a restaurant A, because it's disgusting. But B, your early eater doesn't have their pinch or grasp, right? You're six and seven month old. If you put the food straight on the table, they're just gonna smash it with their little flat palmer grasp, okay? Or their whole hand grasp and rub everything around the table, okay? You need that suction mat or bowl that sticks to the table so that your baby can rake or scoop the food up and into their mouth. I love and personally bring the easy peasy mini mat or the easy peasy tiny bowl to restaurants. They stick right onto the tables with a suction on the table provided that it's clean and dry and not a distressed surface. So it has to be like flat.

Katie Ferraro (7m 23s):

Okay? Also, here's a new one. If I don't bring the bowl or the mat, I'm really digging the ezpz tiny place mat. So this is a newer, ezpz product that they make. So Ezpz is a feeding gear company. All their products are developed by a feeding expert. My friend Dawn Winkelmann, she's a speech language pathologist, and I know you can buy like those disposable place mats, but they don't provide that all important ridge against which the babies can rake or scoop the food up. Plus they're not reusable. So lately my go-to restaurant fave the ezpz tiny place mat. So this has like a silicone roll-up place mat, super lightweight. You can throw it in your diaper bag, it suctions to the table. It's got that nice raised edge so babies can get the food up even before they have their pincer grasps.

Katie Ferraro (8m 6s):

So you can get 15% off all the ezpz feeding gear if you wanna check it out, if you use the affiliate discount code BABYLED. So if you head to ezpzfun.com babyled, I have all my favorite products lined up there, including the ones I use for restaurants, like the Tiny Place mat, the Tiny Bowl, and the Ezpz mini mat. Alright, next up, I always gotta pack a bib. I like a waterproof Bib, okay? I don't use those big heavy silicone bibs that weigh babies down. I want it to be full coverage in the sense that it's gonna cover the baby's clothes, but not so big that it reduces the range of motion. Okay? We don't do those big, huge, ridiculous tent bibs. Okay? My favorite bib for baby-led weaning is the Bapron baby bib. So this is a hybrid bib and apron, like if you're extra OCD, I also love the Bapron baby splash mats.

Katie Ferraro (8m 50s):

You put them underneath the highchair, they're made outta the same really lightweight material as the Bapron baby bibs. If you wanna check them out, if you go to Bapronbaby.com, the affiliate code KATIE10, that works for 10% off. Or you can also get Bapron bibs and slash mats at the ezpz site. And that babyled code works for 15% off. Check it out. I'm also bringing to the restaurant always a two pack of the ezpz tiny spoons. Basically, I want the baby to have something to play with while we're waiting for the food. But also if there's any soft foods like dips or purees, hummus, guacamole, et cetera, you can put that on the preloaded spoon and the baby can bring it to their mouth. So you're doing the baby-led weaning thing at the restaurant. I also will always pack baby wipes. Small wet bag for cleanup.

Katie Ferraro (9m 31s):

This makes your exit so much easier. Pro tip, if you buy the ezpz, like the mini mat, the tiny bowl, like all their suction mats and bowls, they come in a wet bag. Okay? It has a vented bag. Don't throw it out. It's perfect for throwing that bag in there to put in your diaper bag and then put it in there and take it home and do the cleanup at home. 'cause you're not gonna do the cleanup at the restaurant. You also gotta have your breast milk or your bottle supplies, okay? If your formula or breast milk feeding plan for that too, okay? You wanna offer the milk before you go if you can, so your baby's not overly hungry when you sit down. If you check out episode 327, I did a whole episode for baby-led weaning on the go, how to pack a feeding bag for traveling.

Katie Ferraro (10m 10s):

And that one has a lot of extra tips on like what to put in the bag. You don't need to overdo it, but I am gonna talk about maybe packing affordable high chair in a second.

Kidsy (10m 17s):

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Katie Ferraro (11m 52s):

So nice segue into next up, where and how should your baby sit at a restaurant? This is one of the most important parts of her safety. So you always wanna use a high chair if there is one available. Now, if the restaurant high chair looks a little wobbly or the straps don't work, and let's be honest, again, having worked in a lot of restaurants, I'm like, why do they even put straps on these high chairs? They're always broken, okay? And we know that the high chairs at restaurants, they don't have footrests. Like there's a lot of deficits to high chairs in restaurants. And I mean, if anybody needs a really good business idea, could somebody please invent like a ubiquitous highchair for a restaurant that actually has an adjustable footrest or even a footrest? Okay? That's why I bring my own portable seat.

Katie Ferraro (12m 34s):

You can bring a small portable highchair to your restaurant, and we'll talk about that in a second. But basically what matters for your baby for safety, when you're sitting in the highchair, you want your baby sitting upright at a 90 degree angle. We do not want them reclining or leaning back. Your baby's back needs to be flat. Ideally, their feet should be supported, okay? Either on a footrest or a bag or a box, or you can take your adult table or a stool, put it underneath their feet if you need to improvise. But we don't want dangling legs. Your baby's feet resting flat on a solid foot plate helps support a safe swallow. So your baby should be visible. A lot of times parents will put their babies on their lap, and if that's how your family eats, that's perfectly fine. But you wanna make sure that you are looking at the baby, right? Because if your baby is going to choke on food, choking is silent and you will not hear it.

Katie Ferraro (13m 16s):

So you need to be able to see it. So some families will position their baby so the baby's butt is on their thigh, and then you have the feet resting flat on like in between your legs on the seat of your adult seat. That works too. Just try to position your baby where you can see them eating. So babies, they learn through imitation when they see you using utensils or enjoying food, that reinforces that, hey, this is a normal fun activity, even if it's happening at a restaurant. So I have a few portable high chairs that I will definitely bring to a restaurant. I don't bring a few of them together at the same time. Like in my arsenal of highchair, there's a few that I'm like, ah, that's too heavy. I'm definitely not taking, but I will bring a portable highchair to a restaurant, especially I'm going out with friends. We do a lot of content. So anytime I'm taking a friend to a restaurant with a baby and we're filming for Instagram, YouTube, whatever, I'll tell you the two highchair that I definitely will bring to a restaurant, okay?

Katie Ferraro (14m 2s):

These, because these ones fold down really small and they're not like super invasive, and they'll fit into your diaper bag. Well, one of 'em fits into your diaper bag and one of 'em fits into my diaper bag because I have seven kids and maybe my diaper bag's a little bit bigger than yours. The one that fits into everyone's diaper bag that I love is the summer pop and sit portable booster. This is like a little camping chair. It's adorable. It folds down super small, okay? You can affix it to your adult chair or the bar stool at the restaurant. So it straps around the back and it straps under the seat, and then the baby's feet rest flat on the adult chair or the bar stool to support a safe swallow. It's got a crappy little tray on it that doesn't really fit any normal sized like suction mats or bowls. So I don't use the tray. Instead, I pull the chair all the way up to the table, and then we have the baby sitting at the table in the safe chair.

Katie Ferraro (14m 44s):

There's another really cool portable booster that I love. It's a little bit heavier, a little bit bigger, but it's way safer. It's called the Uni Love Feed Me Go Portable Dining Booster. And I'll link to both of these in the description, wherever you're watching or listening to this. This one is so cool because it has an adjustable seat that goes up and down so you can raise or lower it so that the baby's feet can be resting flat depending upon their size. So I've gotta discount code for that particular chair, and I'll put that again in the description. So you can always bring your own chair if you have room in your bag, which will really help you, especially early on, okay? 'cause you really want that peace of mind that you're helping to support a safe swallow. Now, let's talk about the meat of this episode. What food can your baby eat?

Katie Ferraro (15m 26s):

Because the whole point of going to the restaurant, at least for me when I go out to eat, it's all about the food, right? Namely also any meal that I do not have to cook. Amen? So we definitely have parents who want to bring their own food to a restaurant, and if that's you, fine, okay? Maybe you're just a few weeks into solid foods. So there's only like 10 or 15 foods that you know that your baby can really master. And if you have some safe foods that you and your baby are comfortable with and you wanna pack them up and bring them to the restaurant, you do you good for you do it if that's what works for you. The second option is you can order food specifically for your baby from the menu. I have a cousin who does this, it absolutely kills me, okay? I remember just recently at a California pizza kitchen and I watched her order a plain piece of chicken breast for $10 for her baby.

Katie Ferraro (16m 12s):

It was super dry, it was not even safe for the baby to eat. And I was like, but hey, she's like over the top. She's like, I have to get specific food for the baby. And I was like, Hey, do it. But like I don't feed baby chicken breasts, okay? That's a different story. We have lots of episodes on which meats are safe for your baby to eat, but chicken breast is not on that list. So if you wanna order food specifically for your baby, I guess you could, but please steer clear of the typical kids menu though, right? 'cause all those foods on the kids menu, they tend to be really highly processed, fried, low nutrition value foods. What I recommend is step three, the third option, you order what you want from the menu and then you make parts of that meal work for your baby right? Here we are modifying adult foods to make them work for your baby.

Katie Ferraro (16m 56s):

That's what baby led weaning is. Your baby's not eating every single thing that you eat, okay? Especially early on. That's not feasible, that's not safe. But I'll give you an example. I love a cob salad too lazy to make cob salad at home. Always order it when I go out. I also know that babies cannot eat raw leafy greens like lettuce, okay? Huge choking hazards. But take a cob salad. There's some things in there that a baby can certainly, there's avocado on that salad, right? There's hard boiled soft egg whites, that cool rubbery texture. There's the mealy texture of the hard boiled egg yolk that the baby can have. Let's say there's fried chicken on that salad. Okay? I can pick off the hard crispy, outer fried part and then give the soft shreddable fatty parts of meat in the middle. And even if it's chicken breast and it's been fried and there's added fat there, that added fat adds some moisture to those protein strands and makes it easier and safer for the baby to swallow.

Katie Ferraro (17m 44s):

So now the baby's got some avocado, they've got some hard boiled eggs, they've got some shreddable strips of meat. I'll put those three different foods maybe in the three compartments of the ezpz mini mat. Okay? It's not a ton of food, but that doesn't matter, right? Because the amount of food that the baby eats doesn't matter. It's the point that the baby's getting to eat a variety of different foods. They're participating in the family meal. They still have breast milk or formula that's providing them with nutrition. Now, I know what a lot of you're thinking about it's salt, right? Don't restaurant meals have so much salt in them? Yes, it's true. There's more salt on the foods at restaurants than you would cook at home with, but I don't stress too much about it, right? Restaurant foods are a sometimes food experience, okay?

Katie Ferraro (18m 25s):

Most of the foods that your baby's eating when you're doing baby lead weaning and you're going through that hundred first foods list and you're knocking off all these finger foods for your baby, you're making 'em at home. You're not adding salt to 'em, okay? At a restaurant, I'll even give a baby a french fry or two, okay? Let them go for it. Let them enjoy the same foods that you're enjoying, okay? Provided that they're not a choking hazard. So it's like a really hard, crunchy, crispy french fry. Uhuh, I'm not doing it. It's one of those gross fat steak fries. I don't love those, but they're actually a lot safer for baby lead weaning. Now, what foods do you steer clear of in a restaurant? Again, I'm not gonna offer any hard, crunchy, crispy, or fried foods that and early eater could choke on. So I don't do small pieces of food for early eaters, okay?

Katie Ferraro (19m 5s):

We do those longer pieces of foods, the ones that are shaped about the size of your adult pinky finger, that's ideal for an early eater. Okay? Again, you don't need to dip into the kids' menu 'cause those foods aren't for babies, to be honest. They're not even really good for older kids. What about bread for older babies? If your baby's done bread successfully at home and you're comfortable with that, sure, go for it. Yeah. Bread is high in salt and it can be a choking hazard for early eaters, especially those who have not had a lot of experience with different textured foods yet. So personally, I'm not letting a six month old on restaurant bread 'cause there's a big boils of soft white, starchy goo that could get stuck on the roof in their mouth. But heck yeah, once they've had more experience, especially if that bread is good, go for it.

Katie Ferraro (19m 45s):

The bread is crappy. I'm not gonna waste my time on the bad bread. But let's talk about the exit strategy. Okay, you did the meal, whew, you made it through your baby. Maybe got some food in their mouth. Okay, they're participating in the meal though, and that's the key. But just like you baby do have like an expiration time limit for restaurants, okay? Once they get squirmy, they start dropping the food, rubbing their eyes, it's time to wrap it up. Here's how to make your exit easier. Have your wipes or your washcloth, your wet back have it all ready for a quick cleanup. If you're using the splash mat, I like to quickly clean everything up. Take the bib, take the wet wipes, take the washcloth, whatever it is, drop it in the splash mat, roll it all up and put it right in the diaper bag and then do the major cleanup at home.

Katie Ferraro (20m 25s):

Don't stress out about the floor, okay? Do a reasonable tidy up. But remember, restaurants are used to families. The splash mat definitely helps to cut down on the mess that ends up on the floor. If you can pay your bill, you know right away so you're not waiting with a fussy baby at the end. And then of course, as a former server here, my suggestion to you is always leave a generous tip. It goes a long way towards showing appreciation for the staff's patients. So let's end on a quick win for restaurant dining with your baby. Do one meal at a restaurant with your baby just to break the ice. Don't do it with your friend that has no patience for kids or your mother-in-law. She's particularly judgy about the mess. Just go with your baby.

Katie Ferraro (21m 5s):

If you want to break the ice, the you'll find the more you do it, the more natural it becomes. You'll find your rhythm. Okay? Maybe it's the lunchtime when your baby is the happiest after their morning nap, or maybe it's early dinners after you've just nursed them or given 'em a bottle before the rush. The point is dining out doesn't have to end just because starting solid foods began. In fact, it might actually become one of your favorite ways to explore new foods together. Okay? I'd actually encourage you to use dining out as a way to try some new foods that you wouldn't normally make at home. So let's say you have my hundred first Foods list and you've been avoiding, I don't know, Arta jokes or some of the other like wackier whole grains that you see on the 100 First Foods list.

Katie Ferraro (21m 45s):

If you see them on a menu at the restaurant, order it and can you modify that and make it safe for your baby to eat? Okay? Use that dining out experience as an opportunity to try new foods that you're probably not gonna make at home. If you need to grab a copy of my original a 100 First Foods list, I give it away to everybody on my free online workshop called Baby Led Weaning for Beginners. You can sign up at baby led weaning.co/workshop. Everybody on that free workshop gets a copy of that a hundred first foods list. So you can print it out, put it on your fridge, and you'll never run out of ideas of foods your baby can eat or that you can order them at a restaurant. And if you've got the list and now you're ready to get Kraken making most of those foods at home, occasionally doing at a restaurant, I have a full program that shows you exactly how to make all the foods on the 100 first Foods list safe for your baby's age and stage.

Katie Ferraro (22m 34s):

That program is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katy Ferraro. I've got all the videos and recipes and instructions on how to make all the food safe. I've also got a 100 First Foods Daily Meal plan in there. If you want 20 weeks of done for you meal plans, you don't even have to think about which food to feed next. Sign up for that at baby led weaning.co/program. And if you check the description, I've also got a code for you can get $50 off if you wanna get started today. Whatever you do, get over your fear of eating out at restaurants. Trust me, you can do this. And I hope that another family walks up to you and goes, oh my gosh, it's so cool to see your baby eating real food here at this restaurant. I'm gonna put all the links to the stuff I talked about today on the show notes, which you can find@blwpodcast.com/71, and a special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media.

Katie Ferraro (23m 23s):

If you like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave Media. We're online@blwpodcast.com/71. Thank you so much for listening and watching, and I'll see you next time. Bye.

Rula (23m 36s):

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