Eating out

We have eaten out a handful of times since we started baby led weaning with Indigo, and it has gone really well. The first time we took her out we ordered tapas, Indigo chose falafel, lettuce and the tomato dipping sauce that came with the falafel - what a mess, but she had a wonderful time with it and we got to eat our dinner whilst it was warm.

The practicalities of eating out:

For the seating there are three options: highchair, buggy or lap. When we have tried the provided highchairs we have encountered the same beast of a chair every time (pictured below), which is obviously not made for a 6 month old as it is quite big and hasn't got much back support in particular. We have handled this by putting a rolled up blanket or jacket behind her, and this has worked really well. The buggy is comfortable to sit in and can most of the time be pulled up to the table, but it does get smeared with food, and If all else fails, there is always mum or dad's lap - but since daddy doesn't share his food it's typically mum's lap;-)

Out of the 3 options we prefer the highchair, if suitable, this way we don't get the buggy or my trousers smeared with whatever's on offer at the dinner table.

The infamous highchair (left) with rolled up jacket and a blanket for back support. Oscar and Indigo (right) having lunch in their buggy's, on this particular occasion they had some fish pate... nice and smelly.

At home we use the long sleeved bibs, which work great, but I have only got around to buying two so I haven't got a spare one for the changing bag yet, so when we have eaten out I have used a muslin square as a bib. I just tie it around her neck and because it's so long it covers her legs as well; It has actually worked surprisingly well, so much so that I am not going to buy any more long sleeved bibs for the changing bag.

Indigo featuring her muslin bib.

Then of course there is the gagging, but I will cover that properly in another post. It has pretty much been a joy all around taking Indigo out to eat; no need to pack spoons and jars of mush or waiting for baby to eat whilst my plate of food goes cold, we just enjoy our food together.