heating food when out and about....what do you do?

[sjcmum]

Hiya

Maybe I'm being stupid here - but none of the books etc tell you what to do about heating home made food when out and about. A couple of places I know have a microwave that you are free to use (but not cafes that I particuarly want to eat in myself).

The books say you must heat things until they are piping hot.... so do you rely on a helpful person in a cafe etc to help you out (obviously not an option on a picnic)? Do you heat it up before you leave home (especially if frozen) and then just give it to them cold? (because one thing you are told is not to reheat a second time) Or do you heat before you go out, and then try to keep it warm in some kind of insulating bag etc? (although my instinct thinks this might mean that bacteria could multiply more easily etc?)

Sorry for the waffly long email - but I'm confused about this and no one seems to be able to tell me what you should do??

Thanks

[McCadburysDreamyegg]

Either I use my small thermos pot - good if we're going to eat relatively soon after leaving the house. Or I use a smaller pot and get a bowl of hot water once I get to whereever we're eating.

[kittypants]

i used to either heat the food and put it in thermos bag to keep warm or take out food such as avacado for when out and about to make it easier.

[nailpolish]

it does no harm for it to be eaten cold. babies dont mind. or sometimes what i would do would ask the waitress to heat it up - although some places refuse incase they heat it up too much and baby is scalded and you sue

sometimes a jug of water can be used to warm things up

places like debenhams restaurants have a microwave for customers own use. they also provide bibs and wipes

[SenoraPostrophe]

I solve this problem by simply not heating food when out.

You don't actually need to reheat food till its "piping hot" if it's only been in the fridge a day or two (or if it's been recently defrosted): you can eat it cold instead. It's leaving food standing around at above between 20 and 60 degrees C that's the dangerous thing . And even then, I only really worry if the food contains meat - most of my baby food is vegetarian (partly for this reason)

I just take things out of the fridge in the morning and by lunchtime it's about room temperature. It helps if you don't heat food too much at home so they don't get too used to warm food.

[SenoraPostrophe]

oh - if its frozen, then I defrost overnight in the fridge, then take out the next morning.

[nailpolish]

its the same with bottles of milk, theres no need really to heat it up

[chocolateshoes]

I used to either heat it well at home first & put in thermos bag to keep it warmish although DS would happily eat it cold. Now he's older I try to give more picnic finger food that doesn't need heating. I also had one of those bottle warmer mat things from Mothercare that you plug into the cig lighter for car journeys - I used to wrap it round a beaker of food for 10 mins or so.

[NoBiggy]

I remember one time, we heated a little tub of butternut squash in an ornate soup bowl of hot water at Blenheim Palace, she had fruit puree cold, but once I realised she could manage a sandwich (albeit cut into tiny mouth-size cubes) that was what we took out with us. Hard boiled egg yolk and cream cheese most often.

[SoupDreggon]

I never have warmed food out and about and no child of mine has complained

[tassis]

with ds i used to mostly do meals at home

dd OTOH frequently eats out and about (had lunch today in the church hall sat in a bumbo while everyone had tea and coffee). I just don't heat things up - she doesn't seem at all bothered.

[cece]

I used to give it cold.... Also their bottle was always cold too.

[sjcmum]

Great - thanks everyone for the advice.... my guess is that dd is just at the slightly awkward stage before we can do finger food as a main meal out and about - but they change so fast it won't be long before I can do that. In the meantime... I think cold will be the best way forward!