Tips For Eating Out With A Toddler {Toddler Topics}

We don't go out to eat very often, and when we do, we almost never take Harper. Usually, if we eat out, it's a date night so it's baby free. A couple weekends ago we went on a little family vacation to Moncton for the weekend. We took Harper, and we had to eat out several times.

I was pleasantly surprised about how well she did at the restaurants. Even though I was surprised, I was actually quite prepared for the worse, thankfully. Harper isn't the best eater on a good day, so I was kind of hesitant to find out how her eating would be when she was tired and in a large room full of strangers.

Tip #1 - Prepare for the worst. Plan ahead. If you know where you're going, try and check out their menu for what's on the children's menu.

We only ordered Harper her own dish a couple of times, because we knew that what we were eating would be large enough to share with her, if she ate at all. The only thing we could count on her eating, unfortunately, was french fries. She loves them. I don't know why, but she'll eat them. Even sweet potato ones.

I think her best meal was at Swiss Chalet (which I don't even love the place myself). She ate from both of our plates, and ate chicken and ribs as well. If the restaurant has a problem with it, take the food away and allow your toddler to scream bloody murder until the food does arrive.

Tip #2 - Bring tiny snack foods. Just in case. Especially if it's going to be a long wait for your food. Sitting for a long time can get really bad with a 17 month old.

Tip #3 - Bring entertainment. She isn't really old enough for the colouring books/crayons. She liked to throw them on the floor though! I brought my iPad and she played with a couple of apps on there. Thankfully the restaurants are usually noisy enough that the little noise that made didn't matter much. We made sure to connect to the free wifi, just in case we had to whip baby Einstein out. That's our secret weapon.

Tip #4 - Ask for the child's food first, if you're going to order for them. Children's menu items are usually something that can be brought out fairly fast.

Tip #5 - Bring your own sippy cup. Just in case!

Well, that's all I've got for you! I hope it's helpful. I know that doing these things really saved us on our little family vacation. Good luck with future eating out endeavours!


I have no pictures of us eating on vacation, so here's a cute photo of us feeding the duck at the zoo!

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Comments

  1. All good tips! I think the more we take our kids the easier it is..they just know what to expect! And sharing food is a good one--we usually get our boys one meal to share the portions are always so big!!

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    1. Thanks! Harper never eats consistently so there's no telling whether she would need her own or not. She's not going to starve without it anyway.

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  2. AH! Why didn't I think about just letting them eat off my plate? We always order their food as we are sitting down so it'll come quickly, but you know they waste like 3/4 of it!

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    1. Exactly. Harper doesn't eat much on a good day, not much point in wasting money on her not eating!

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