Ideas to keep 18mo entertained in high chair when in a restaurant?

[Jenny343]

DS is 18mo and I’d love some ideas to keep him happy in the high chair when we are out for lunch or dinner.

Currently we get about 15-20 mins in there. He loves books so we will have lots of those, and we might get a few mins out of crayons and a colouring sheet (he isn’t able to ‘use’ them properly yet though).

After that he just wants to get out so that he can toddle around holding our hand.

Does anyone have a good idea of toys or anything really that will grab his attention for a bit longer? Thank you!

I avoided restaurants at that age - 20 mins is long enough to sit

You can sometimes get stickers books that are good for that age group - big stickers, although you may need to help get them off the sticker sheet. Am sure we had one that had a blank monster face with selection of eyes, noses etc and you could take the stickers on and off so they were re usable

Either you just accept that you need to dedicate yourself to the child when in restaurants, avoid restaurants for now, or go to the kind of restaurant where the staff waltz off with your baby to let you eat, like our local Italian in north London when DS was a baby.

It's pretty much impossible at that age, unless you give them a screen. We just don't eat out very often because it's so stressful trying to keep toddler entertained.

I think some toddlers just have the right temperament for meals out and sitting still with toys and books. Ours does not.

Maybe some chunky cars as well that can be used after food is cleared (with no choking bits).

Or maybe plastic stacking rings? But be prepared that the funniest game may be chucking whatever on the floor for you to pick up (several times...). And like pp said some kids do just want to get out and explore and don't like being restrained in a high chair!

You need to be interacting with them pretty much continuously at that age. Mine always went to restaurants and never got out but you don’t get to sit chatting with friends or your dp whilst the dc entertains them self - you need to be helping with the colouring, talking about the book, playing with them. Even then you have about an hour in my personal experience so one of us would take them outside between ordering and the food coming in the kind of places where it takes a while. I do think looking back mine were good compared to many today by my d nephew is really good so it isn’t all modern kids won’t sit still

I would take turns getting up to wander around. Sticker books were good at that age. But basically, there is a phase in life where you don’t really dine out unless it’s a pub garden with a play area. It won’t always be like this, but I’d save my money for a date night instead and pack a lunch for a day out.

Talk to him! I saw a lovely family in a restaurant recently - the child was 14 months old (I heard his mum say it). The boy had a stack of books and a toy car, but also both parents talked to him, along with feeding him from their plates. They must have been there about an hour and only towards the end, when they had finished eating, did dad lift him out of the high chair and hold onto him. Child had a great time grinning at the waiters and charming the other diners! Not a screen in sight..... this was how all my friends' kids were in the 90s. It was so lovely to see that I spoke to the mum and said how happy I was to see a child enjoying his books.

Thanks all. He is quite physically cautious by nature so absolutely isn’t one of those active explorers (not a climber, or even an independent walker yet!), but just doesn’t like being in the chair for too long.

We do of course talk with him and point things out, model how to use crayons and encourage him to copy, and of course we read our way through a huge stack of books with him. No screens.

We also asked if we could slightly stagger our the arrival of our meals, so that we took it in turns to be the one doing the majority of the interacting. We are absolutely not ignoring him 😅

Today we sat next to a family who I would say had a 12mo and a 24mo, who both sat beautifully in their chairs for over an hour! So, I wondered what we might be missing!

Some good ideas here, thank you.

They do not need a screen. Kids coped perfectly well in restaurants before screens existed!

I didn't say they need a screen. Our toddler does not cope perfectly well in restaurants though so we don't go anymore, after several failed attempts🤷‍♀️.

Continuous interaction! And also realistic expectations that a restaurant isn’t really a good idea with a child of that age. We generally avoided them until age 3ish because it’s not fair on the child or the parents.

Always take some healthy food that they enjoy.
Waiting for food can be hard for them.

Be prepared to take them out of the room if they want to hop out. Kids learn to enjoy talking, eating and being at the table more quickly if there is no option of running about the dining room.

I remember dreading taking ds 1yo out for a big birthday meal. We were sat quite near the kitchen door and he sat happily watching the goings on. And all the staff in and out..

Love the sticker book idea, I would never have thought of that. He has great fine motor skills and attention to detail 😂 so I think he’d love those. Added benefit: stickers can’t be thrown haha.

I think if your getting 20mins thats great.
What were the other family doing different?

There might be a bit of the babies own personalities at play here too. My sibling was apparently great in restaurants and would sit happily. However I apparently was a PITA.
Sibling was happy with board books, I wanted to be on the floor with stuff.

TBH not much has changed, they still read, I still faff with stuff.

If I am entirely honest. DS went through a significant health scare when he was much smaller, and I think the effects of that, combined with my own predisposition, means that I am often anxious that he is doing things ‘well enough,’ or ‘normally,’ for want of much better phrases.

So it has been reassuring on this thread to hear that actually, 20 mins is quite good, especially considering some people just avoided going out for a sit down meal entirely at this age.

So thank you to everyone for normalising this for me. I don’t really have much in the way of a village and so it’s hard to know what’s expected sometimes.

Depending on fine motor skills, fuzzy felt is good. Handy for planes also as it doesn’t make any noise.

Your doing great. And I'm glad MN has been a help. Its one of the best things about it.

I'm sure my own two were about 20mins was there limit at that sort of stage.

It absolutely sticks in my Mums head because she refused to take baby me out for Christmas dinner. And its been cost prohibitive since.

I have an 18 month old and she wouldn't manage 5 minutes if I wasn't giving her my full attention, maybe not even 2, so your LO sounds like he's doing great.

Mine likes imaginative play so I always have a little horse or a baby or something in my nappy bag. I also second stickers, mine likes the circular ones you use in filing systems, they're easier on little fingers than shaped ones I find. And she loves a fidget popper too, might be worth a try if your DS doesn't have one already.

Some things we used with our DS at that age were:
Simple 2-4 piece puzzles
Stickers - but had to be the re-usable ones
Books
Small trains/cars to push on the table
Those fruit/veg toys that Velcro together with a toy ‘knife’ to chop at the table
Playdoh
Time-consuming snacks - raisins, quartered grapes etc

Keep some of your ‘out and about’ toys separate from the toys at home so they have the novelty factor.
Take him for a walk around to stretch his legs just before the food arrives.
And have realistic expectations!

Big stickers. Tip: take off the surrounding white bits yourself first. A lot easier for them then!

Water colour books. Easy and mess free.

Busy book from Amazon.

We eat out often with a 22 month old, never used a screen. We talk to him constantly, he’s got water colouring books, small 2 piece puzzles, some magnetic animals (think they were from the Entertainer) where you match the head and the body, small books, a little truck and a tractor he likes to drive along the table, and some spinners that stick to the table. Timing is important too. For us it’s before his nap (so breakfast or brunch) and then not too close to bedtime (so late lunch or very early dinner). He’s got a very ingrained bedtime routine and woe betide us if we try to mess with it!

I was coming to say water colouring. To make it less spill-prone, you could wet a sponge and take it in a tiny tupperware, and then get him to dab his fingers and use those in place of a paintbrush.