to worry about food being out of my sight?

[FionaSH]

The scene: In a hotel/restaurant etc with a baby, you need their food warming up in a microwave...do you ask the staff and freely hand over baby's food for them to do it, or tail them into the kitchen and use the microwave yourself. Am assuming the latter would make you look like a loon?
Therefore AIBU to be worried about handing over DSs dinner and letting it out my sight?

He's 8 months - and the amount he eats per meal is gargantuan... so I would be worried about the amount he'd eat if we went out to a restaurant...but I guess it's something I could try at home more.

I have no idea how to reassure you!

Don't order salty/junky food yourself?

The occasional meal in a restaurant isn't going to do any harm, surely? If you were feeding salty food for every meal that would be different.

If you are worried would it really hurt to give him pouches and breadsticks/fruit for both meals? It seems you are fairly conscientious about nutrition etc normally, so as long as you fill his tummy for that day I'm sure it'll be alright.

If he eats pasta usually then i'm sure the staff will be happy to provide plain boiled pasta and you could pop the pouch over as a sauce.

Most people that BLW do it on the basis that almost all of the meals they have (and share with baby) are made by themselves. So it is easy to just not add salt/processed sauces etc. If you are doing that one of eating in restaurants etc doesn't matter because overallamounts of salt etc are still negligable. BLW tend to take a more long term analysis of healthy diet instead of meal be meal.

However in answer to your problem, could you just take a chilled meal and ask for hot water to heat it?

muser I know you're right...

Why "ignore Aitch"?

Doing BLW at home I don't add salt or anything I'm unhappy about DCs eating. If it's a one-off eating out meal I don't worry about salt because I'm so careful about it at home and reckon that occasionally getting things cooked with a little bit of salt isn't gong to hurt.

What fats are you concerned about? I don't eat in places that are likely to use trans fats anyway, and fats are good for babies -- they need a much higher-fat diet than I do.

I did BLW - just avoided packet/jar sauces at home and didn't add salt to cooking, when we went out, I didn't worry about it - it wasn't like we were going out every day! Once a week even would probably be fine even if the food was salty. (We didn't go out anywhere near once a week, anyway)

I'm not sure why you are worrying about fat though - babies NEED fat.

Assuming you're not eating in a restaurant every day, I really wouldn't worry about it. The odd slightly salty meal isn't going to do him any harm. And at home - surely you know what goes into your cooking? Just don't add salt when you cook.

Fat is not an issue for babies - they don't need a low fat diet. I don't feed my baby (9 months) much processed food - so a little when out won't do her any harm

Spit in it

What if they spit in YOUR FOOD.

if i was getting a side of veggies though, or fries or whatever, it was easy enough to say 'they're for the kiddo, please don't salt them'.

i'm not that bothered about the ignore aitch btw. [used to it]

oh, and my granny-mither (great-gran) used to make babies have salt on food as it was good for them. don't suppose that they had so much in bread etc then, though. i always reason that the salt thing is cumulative rather than going to cause the kidneys to seize up over one meal, so a bit of salted pasta sauce in a restaurant will be diluted iykwim? but i used to scrape (or suck, if i was feeling gross) sauces off meat cos that was easy to do. easy to do being my entire modus operandi.

but yes, fiona, actually i totally sympathise with your question, having seen a jar of food near enough exploding with heat when my friend got it back, so i'd ask for hot water or serve cold food.

I really wouldn't and didn;t worry about it - must confess it never even crossed my mind to be worried! If they can manage to cook a decent meal for adults and have a good local reputation, I would assume that they are capable of dealing with a pre-prepared child's meal. Although at 8 months I think that on occasions we did share our meal with him.

Thermos cup in handbag with hotwater?

or

One of those wax wraps to heat it up?

Don't worry about what others think too much - motherhood and control freakery go hand in hand , we all have our little ways and worries.

We're off on holiday in a couple of days. 7.5 month old DD will be eating BLW-style (thanks Aitch ) with a few pouches thrown in (I tried ditching them but she seems to like mush ) I'll give them at room temperature - she doesn't seem to mind.

If you buy the organic Ella's or Plum pouches, they all proclaim to be salt and sugar and additive free. If you feed restaurant food, then as others have said, 1 day won't hurt.

I don't give a monkey's if they spit in my food MumNWLondon (obviously I'd prefer it if they didn't!)

Will go with one pouch then, and one of my meals and ask for water to heat it up in then! Thanks!

Ps to those of you expressing concern - I don't limit the "good" fats in DS's diet, but then I've made the meals and know what fat is in them....it's processed stuff in restaurants I worry about. But as has been pointed out, once in a while won't hurt...

I love an AIBU where the OP is satisfied and everyone is cheerful

[contented]

I wouldn't worry about 2 pouches/pots a day occasionally either if it makes life easier. 95% of the time DS used to eat whatever we were having at home, or if we were having steak and chips or something then he'd have a portion of bolognese or something from the freezer.
But if we were going out then that was my relaxation time, and so pots it was. Once he was about 8/9 months though he would just eat whatever we were having when we were out.

I love the AIBU forum - helps me to get a grip with what normal folk do
Well, as normal as you get on here anyway...

DS1 used to like to suck the pouches. He still loves Ella's smoothies.

It was the 'I told you so' air of Aitch's comment that BLW is the way to go that griped me. 'Ignore Aitch' was supposed to be said in a friendly manner (sigh).

It doesn't work for everyone and the OP wasn't asking for advice on how to feed her child in a new manner. She has her way, as do we all, and I was simply hoping that she wouldn't start to feel guilty that she's also not feeding her child the supposedly 'correct' way.

Wow, I'm such a timid little mouse. Didn't realise I'd cause such offence! Aitch has her opinion, and so do I.

i've never told the OP anything...

plus, the WINK. you saw the WINK? the WINK means 'please do not take this too seriously, because i am joking, dummy'.

But OP is open to new manners of feeding her child, as the lovely fluffy conclusion to this AIBU thread shows. And Aitch's original remark had a on it showing that it too was meant in a friendly manner. So we can all join hands and sing kum-ba-yah or something together. Except me as I'm tone deaf; I'll just sway vaguely in time to the music...