How do you take a baby-led weaning baby out to a restaurant or do BLW on the go? If you’re worried about the mess you’ll make or which foods to order or how you can eat low salt when you’re out and about…here are 5 restaurant rules for baby-led weaning!!
0:00 - Intro to taking babies to restaurants from BLW dietitian Katie Ferraro
1:08 - Bring your own high chair
2:06 - Bring your own plate, spoons and open cup
2:56 Order foods you want to eat and modify to offer to your baby
6:05 Embrace the mess…and tip well!
6:29 - Put a splash mat under where the baby eats
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Bring a portable high chair to a restaurant…sounds annoying but what’s more annoying is restaurant high chairs notoriously do not have footrests for your baby. With your own portable high chair you can ensure your baby’s feet are resting flat on a solid surface.
The 2 chairs featured in the video are the Summer Infant pop ‘n sit portable booster (pink) is so cute, portable, easy…it folds down like a little baby camping chair. It’s about $35 on Amazon and link is here (affiliate link): amzn.to/3l896tm
Also showed the Bombol portable booster. This is a fancy portable high chair with an origami style design. I like it because it packs flat so is really good if you don’t have a lot of space for a high chair, but it is on the spendy side. Bombol portable booster is here (affiliate link): amzn.to/3EZTMLD
Sharing more of my favorite portable boosters for feeding on the go in this article: www.fortifiedfam.com/home/202...
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Put a splash mat under the seat where you baby is eating. It catches the mess and you can recycle dropped food from the clean splash mat back up onto the baby’s plate.
The splash mats I like for baby-led weaning are from Bapron Baby - they also make the best BLW bibs called Baprons (hybrid between a bib and a bapron).
You can get 10% off all of the splash mats and bibs from Bapron with this bapron baby discount code KATIE10 (affiliate code) - splash mats and bibs are here: bapronbaby.com/discount/katie10
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You don’t have to order food off the kids menu or bring special foods for your baby to a restaurant. Order foods off the regular menu that YOU want to eat, and find parts of that meal you can offer to the baby.
At this lunch we had 2 adults and 3 sibling kids and the foods from our meals we offered to Baby Brayden (she is 8 months) were:
French fry
Bacon
Burger strip
Strawberry
Softened (soggy) tortilla
Cucumber
Waffle
Avocado
Sure there is more salt in some of these foods than she might have at home, but the tradeoff is getting to share parts of a family meal together at a restaurant…”I’ve never known a baby to die from eating a french fry at a restaurant.”
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Bring your own suction mat or bowl as well as BLW spoons and an open cup. Putting food right on the table is not only gross, but it’s inefficient. Early eaters like Brayden (8m here) don’t have their pincer grasp so they can’t pick up smaller pieces of food off the table. The silicone rim of the ezpz mini mat is a flexible barrier against which she can rake or scoop foods up and out and self-feed.
The short, fat, round handle of the ezpz Tiny Spoon is ideal for baby-led weaning and you can start practicing with an open cup at 6 months of age.
You can get 10% off all of the feeding gear in this video from ezpz at ezpzfun.com with the affiliate discount code: KATIE10. Click here to shop (affiliate link): shrsl.com/1s7be
Products shown in the video:
ezpz Mini Mat: shrsl.com/22rqo
ezpz Tiny Bowl: shrsl.com/295c6
ezpz Tiny Spoons: shrsl.com/251ds
ezpz Tiny Cup: shrsl.com/27bms
Bapron Baby bib: shrsl.com/3qjoz
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Embrace the mess! Getting messy is part of the full sensory experience that is learning how to eat. With a splash mat and bib, you can MINIMIZE the mess, but our goal is not to prevent the mess.
Try not to wipe your baby during mealtime as this can create a negative sensory experience. Clean when the meal is over, remove as much of the food mess as you can, wrap it all up in the splash mat and tip your server well if you left a little some mess behind!
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Want more ideas on REAL FOODS your baby can safely eat?!
Register for my free 1-hour online video training called “BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS”
Inside of this workshop I’m teaching you:
--How to safely start solid foods with your baby
--What foods to prep for the first 10 days of baby-led weaning
--Why your baby can SAFELY eat so many more foods than you might think!
Everyone on this free online workshop gets a copy of my original 100 FIRST FOODS list - which includes 20 high iron protein foods your baby can eat from 6 months of age on!
SIGN UP FOR THIS WEEK’S WORKSHOP TIMES HERE WITH 100 FIRST FOODS LIST:
workshop.babyledweaning.co/