Hellobee Boards

I know we've talked about this before but what does she do and what have you tried?

We bring an iPad with his apps on it. When he gets antsy we bring out the iPad.

We can go out to lunch, but we choose places that are self serve, meaning, we divide and conquer. I head to the table and my husband places the order. We eat, and then we get out of there.

We've tried a brick oven pizza place, and it was surprisingly un kid friendly.

@mediagirl: I feel like the problem is the longish wait to get the food, so it's limiting...but there are options. I was just thinking a tapas place might be good, but my son's not a good eater, so it's a waste for us.

Also a diner where you can order somethng to come out quickly or a place with a buffet.

@mediagirl: yeah we have to get him some food right away to entertain him. If it's breakfast they bring out a sweet cake. Dinner it's chips and guac. That usually entertains him for 10 mins. Cups with ice. Getting a booth so he can stand and walk around and peer at weird people. We bring his cars and trains and some books. If it's an important dinner (family member bday or something then we would whip out the phone for him if he gets too antsy. If we do dinner at 530 it's usually ok. Breakfasts are the best. Lunches are hit or miss but usually decent. We had a horrendous dinner out in Saturday night because it was 7 by the time we got our food. Horrendous. We always try to take him to loud restaurants because all the people are interesting to him.

I think it was around age 2 that it finally started to get better. She hates the high chair so we let her just sit in a regular chair and kneel so she can reach the table (or we sit in a booth). Peeling straws usually keeps her busy for awhile. So do appetizers / breads that bring out early. Lately I've been letting her watch full episodes of super why on the iPad. That keeps her happy.

Like many of the other moms have mentioned, we usually try to feed our 19 month old a small snack before we leave for the restaurant, and then once we arrive, we order his meal right away (with our drink order). Dining out can be hit or miss for us, but we bring along toys/books and we make sure to have our iphones with us in case he REALLY gets fussy.

We order the kids' food as soon as we sit down, and until their food gets to the table, we use crayons, cups of ice and a bread plate, and a tiny bit of water in a cup with a straw. Once the food gets there and they start slowing down with their eating, we break out the tablet with a video. For us we just see it as a necessity if we want to eat out. We want to be able to eat our food and not worry about our kids disrupting other diners' meals. If we didn't want them to watch a video while they ate, we would just stay home.

We also ALWAYS choose a place to eat where there is space for them to run around after the meal. It's great for getting their energy out post-eating, and if all goes to hell, one of us takes one or both kids to run around while the other pays the check and packs up the food.

Restaurants are probably the place we are most likely to let LO play with the iPhone. Other places are the car on a longer drive and the airplane.

We also have found that getting a booth and letting LO kind of have her own space works. She's only 18m though so climbing around the booth is still entertaining for her. The more people around to talk to her and amuse her, the easier it is.

Also, we do the opposite of what's mentioned above... We want LO to be hungry so she'll just want to sit and eat!

I just realized I never answered the actual question Sorry!! It got easier around when Wagon Jr. was 3.5 years old. But by then LMW was 1 so...

I don't have personal experience with this, but I have friends who use a special lunchbox just for eating out. Their daughter gets to pick the lunchbox and thermos and they fill it with special/favorite snacks, crayons, coloring books, stickers, etc. that she can only use at the restaurant. Sometimes they pack her a complete meal from home that they know she will love if they are going some place where they know it will be harder to find something for her to eat. They make the meal/snacks extra special by using fun shaped sandwich cutters or packing a cute bento-style meal or something.

Once they get to the restaurant, they make a big fuss about her being a big girl who gets a special big girl restaurant box. The plus side is that she gets something to eat and drink right away without waiting and she's usually occupied with food and activities while the parents relax and have a glass of wine. I remember being struck by how genius an idea it was. They gave her the blank side of the paper placemat and told her that big girls get to eat at restaurants with placemats and that she could decorate her very own. So she got to work with her stickers and crayons and had a blast. She sat there the entire meal (plus a long wait time for the food to come out) without any problems.