Eating out with 13 month old question

[las3888]

I am just curious - we are at an awkward eating stage. When you go out to dinner do you order a children's meal for your child from the restaurant, do you order something for yourself that you know he/she will eat part of, or do you bring your own food for your DC?

Just curious what others do. We have been doing all of the above. DS won't eat veggies except for from a jar so we usually bring some veggies. We are really trying to get to that stage where DS is eating more big people food but sometimes it is slow going. It seems he likes certain foods one day and then doesn't like them the next day! We do kid's meals sometimes but it is way too much food usually.

 

[MichelleChell]

When my DD was 13 mo I would usually bring her own food and give her food off my plate. I don't think I started ordering her childs plates untill she started eating more. I think she was close to 2 before I ordered her own. She will be 3 in May.

 

[DisneyPhD]

At that age we normally just brought jar food and shared some of what might be approprate off our dishes. (or big sisters.)

We do often order DD who is 20 months old her own meal now, mostly because her sister sometimes wants foods she can't eat (food allergies). However if it is a hambuger at a sit down place sometimes they share (the order is so big.)

I don't like to waist things, I hate spending $5 for a meal my kid isn't going to eat at all. If I think they will eat it I don't mind.

At such a young age I wouldn't bother with their own meal. I don't think anyone would find it strange. Most places don't carry baby food on the menu!

 

[Fish2girls]

We'll be going to Disney next month and we have a DD 4 3/4 and DD 12 months. We are bringing our own food for DD 12 months because she only has 4 teeth on top in the front and 3 teeth in front on the bottom. So she is still on some jar foods although she enjoys trying new soft foods from our plates too. When we do go to the restaurants, plain spaghetti will be our top choice to go with her jar foods. She loves it!! Have a great time!!

 

[WIDisneyFan]

I am right there with you! My DS just turned 1 and I understand completely. For my wife and I both we try to have him share some of what we are having (when he is in the right mood he will try just about anything ) but to be on the safe side we still carry a few jars of food with us - usually one of his favorites.

As for the size of the kids meals - I would say I agree, he is still far too little to eat that much

 

[Hoosier Mom]

We are in the same boat! Our ds is almost 13 months. He likes tasting what we have, but still won't eat veggies unless from a jar. Perhaps you'd better pack a few jars for your trip. Most restaurants we go to are happy to heat a jar for us.

We are hoping by 18M, our son will be totally on table food. If not, we'll be taking jars too (to WDW). Also applesauces & yogurts.

The only time I ever order a kids meal is at Chick-Filet. I get a kids nugget meal. He eats 1 or 2 nuggets cut into tiny pieces. I eat the remaining nuggets.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[emma'smom]

We made a point of eating at a lot of buffets where we could easily find food for dd13 months. We ate at places like Chef Mickeys, Hollywood and Vine, etc. That way we could always find fruit, pasta, bread, and cooked vegetables that we cut up into bite size pieces. I find that she isn't interested in baby food any longer and prefers table food. She only has 7 teeth, so everything needs to be soft and bite size. Really, we didn't have too much of a problem and the restaurants always brought her milk for her bottle without a charge (we were on the DP, so technically she was a "kids under 3 eat free").

 

[emma'smom]

Oh, one more thing...We did carry appropriate snack foods for her. Little baggies of cheerios, veggie puffs, soy crisps, and those Gerber Graduate gummies. We gave these to her as snacks in the parks when she was fussy between meals.

 

[Kahana-ri]

When we went to WDW he ate off our plates. He just doesn't have an appetite to eat big meals. We did try at first, but after paying $8 for his meal for him to pick at, we decided we could all share.

 

[bkreitzel]

we got back tuesday from wdw w/ our 3 year old and 13month old...the 1 year old ate ALL table food just fine....she only has four teeth but will eat what we eat...we took table topper disposable placemats and she just ate along w/ us...we give her meat in bite size pieces as well as fresh fruit and soft cooked veggies (although she can eat raw broccoli too) she eats cheese, bread and yogurts, eggs, applesauce, crackers etc. i see NO NEED to pack baby food - that sounds like a big hassles. the only baby food i bought was gerber freeze dried apple and strawberry mix in a bag so we could have it in the stroller as a healthy addition to park food...we did buffets constantly and it worked great...i also find getting a bowl of chicken noodle soup or veg beef is a great idea b/c i just take out all the stuff and let her eat that...i suggest prepackaging all the bibs and placemats together in little snack size zip locks. we did that and just grabbed two every morning when we loaded the backpack..we also took fruit cups and juice boxes as well as crackers to ease the snackies...hope that helps.

 

[las3888]

Thanks for the suggestions all. I was really just curious what others with kids are doing at this age, and it sounds about the same. The only reason I bring baby food is because DS refuses to eat a single vegetable (unless you count fries and mashed potatoes), however he still eats them from a jar. It's either jarred veggies or no veggies, so I guess it's a small compromise. It works out okay for us because we can spoon feed him the veggies while we wait for our orders.

We are planning alot of buffets and I love the fact that kids under 3 can eat free at Disney. We eat at a few salad bar places around here and I'm not sure what their policy is.

I love the idea of putting bibs and such in baggies and grabbing them everyday. I will definitely try this on our next trip.

 

[Nikel]

I have a 14.5 month old. For snacks, we carry our own stuff in the diaper bag. For meals, she just eats off our plates or shares a meal with her 2.5 year old brother. Maybe it's because I'm not a first time mom, but I haven't been cutting her food up for months. For example, grilled cheese sandwiches only get cut into quaters. Up until a week ago, she only had 6 teeth. She does eat pretty much everything I put in front of her. She's also still breastfeeding, so a bottle or cup of milk is a non issue for us.

 

[mjmcca]

I was also going to suggest soup. When my kids were that small we woud get them noodle soup if we went to the diner (Its a NY thing) or mashed potatoes.

 

[R4racing]

When we took DD at 14mo she pretty much just ate some of what one of us ate, usually me. Her older sisters at 3 and 6 usually shared a kids meal, although sometimes the 3 year old would eat some of my sandwich. I tend to make sure that whatever we order them it is something DH or I will eat incase they end up not liking it. We did take some junior foods for the baby, but not much. Sometimes she gets hungry before we eat lunch, or will sleep through our lunch break so it was nice to have something for her to eat at these times.