Heating baby food in cafes

[mumofjoseph]

I was very disappointed yesterday when I went to the cafe in John Lewis in St David's centre, Cardiff to be told that they would not heat my baby's food. Their reasoning being that their microwave was behind the counter and they could not take responsibility for food I had brought in. They claimed that they "could be shut down!" I responded with my feet and walked acroos the road to Debenhams where they have a micorwave especially for reheating baby food with a clear notice that it is not their responsibility if the food is too hot etc.
In my opinion this is health and safety gone mad!! However, my main issue is that John Lewis set out to have an image of being a family store (see all recent ad campaigns) yet they have built an incredibly expensive, state of the art shop in Cardiff which does not have facilities to feed a child. Of course, the joint parent and child toilets and breast feeding area are very impressive but I found myself a long way from home, struggling to feed my son. Yes I could have bought a jar somewhere in the shopping centre but I actually, I want to give my child homemade food and in 2012 I believe it shouldn't be a problem. Also, if stores such as Debenhams and Pret a Manger can find a way around health and safety rules then why can't other stores such as John Lewis follow.

Hmm can't say i find that that awful, i think bfing room is much more important. Doesn't your son ever eat food at room temperature?

I have 2 small children and I have never ever had to heat any of their food , and we eat out a lot. but YANBU, as it does sound like health and safety gone a bit mad when they don't trust you to use a microwave safely and think you are going to sue them if your baby gets burnt.

I think heating up home cooked food is problematic because how do John Lewis know that the food has been prepared in a hygienic environment, how long it has been stored, at what temp., etc. Surely leaving themselves open to being sued if your child got ill afterwards?

I don't get the heating up baby food obsession anyway - if you are out, can't baby have chopped up veg. , sandwiches or something?? DD used to have rice cakes/ cold jar of baby food/ or a bit of what I was having!

I've found such disparity between places that I now take pouches when we go out as I can't be sure where will heat frozen homemade food. Most places will give you a wine cooler full of hot water which will adequately heat pouches though.

I love John Lewis in Cardiff though so am disappointed to read that but would suggest you write to them suggesting a microwave parents can use themselves as JL are normally pretty good at customer service so it might just be that you encourage them to make a change there.

its the "leaving themselves open to be sued" that is so depressing. OP I am with you on this. I got flamed on here on my first ever AIBU post about a GNER train refusing to heat a bottle for me - lots of people said I was wrong to have expected that I should be able to get help to do something so relatively simple. If it is indeed the case that a) they could be successfully sued and b) anyone would actually do that then I really despair. In a couple of places where i have met with the same issue, they have allowed me to stand the food in a jug of hot water at the counter(but not to take it to the table in case I spilled it - quite how that's different from coffee I don't know)

Mine had sandwiches or rice cakes and cream cheese or something when small, or just stole some of my food. They are right, they cannot be held to account for food that is not theirs.

Utterly ridiculous. A presumably sealed container in a microwave for 30 seconds will not bring about the zombie apocalypse. Obviously it's your responsibility to check it's not too hot.

This kind of thing makes me facepalm. Stupid.

It's not JL's fault though - it's the grasping litigious public!

A sign saying 'brought-in baby food is the responsibility of the parent or carer' or similar should negate the oiks though, Baroness.

I agree that far too many people (mostly mums ) seem obsessed with 'hot dinners' - I never heated up my baby's food when I was out and about - and shock, if he was having formula out (I mixed fed - as usual having to justify this to the Breast is Best brigade) I always gave him milk at room temperature.

Far too much of a faff to have to heat food uo when you are out and about.

People will, and do, sue for the most ridiculous reasons so I don't blame JL at all.

Surely they just don't want the hassle and would rather you actually bought food from the cafe. I can fully support them in this, although I'd rather they'd just say it.

Don't assume the reason given by the staff member is the actual reason for the policy.

I agree that I would rather have nice BFing facilities than a microwave for food. DD could just have a banana and some of whatever I'm having.

It really gets on my wick, you know. Sorry. Frothing a bit, I know. But everything that is good and right and common sense is being ruined by idiots who think they are entitled to more and hold the government or big companies to ransom because they are afraid of losing money. Time to fight back.

The problem is they don't want to risk that possibility of being sued, different places interpret the law differently, so Pret might think having a microwave/sign is fine, JL may be more concerned about the risk. You can't really blame them for wanting to cover themselves.

We complain in Morrisons regularly, they heat up jars for you, in hot water but always comes way after our food.. like 45 mins after ordering no matter how much you ask them to hurry up.. ridiculous.

Ikea are best, they have a microwave and a bottle warmer thing on the end of the drinks island in the cafe.

Best thing I found was to rely on pancakes/rice cakes/banana etc instead of a main meal, or give extra milk and real food for dinner instead if just weaning.

It's your problem, not theirs.

In spite of how I probably always go on about breastfeeding on here, I used cartons of formula when out too, and always at room temp - Never understood why formula has to be warm either!

This is nothing to do with health and safety - insurance companies possibly, but not health and safety.

I think given the serious amount of money that John Lewis make from families, it wouldn't be a bad thing if the Cardiff branch set up suitable facilities for people to sort out their own babies' food, rather than make a big fuss about it. What a silly company. Compare this with common practice at practically every other large business in the entire country, and they look even sillier.

Some very interesting thoughts! I didn't add that normally I would just take a sandwich as suggested but found myself in this situation as my son has been ill and become very fussy. In that difficult phase when you want to just get anything into them and they will only eat one thing - homemade puree. My criticism with the hot water method was that it won't heat food containing meat adequately, however they are happy to do this for you as you can't sue them if you don't heat food enough and get food poisening.
Also, I would love to have a baby who drinks room temp milk and food but some just won't. I'm sure many people will say, if they're hungry they'll eat anything. NOT always the case!

Struggling to see where the "breast is best brigade" have asked you to justify anything Ragwort

It is sad that people would sue because baby food was not heated enough/was too hot. Some babies just like their milk warm, it's not that difficult to understand. It is a shame JL didn't have facilities to heat the food. I usually go to Debenhams and they seem to have a baby food heating area (although DS just has sandwiches etc when out).

Don't forget that in kitchens they have industrial strength microwaves so the "30 second blast" wouldn't be the same in them.

it's not an either/or though is it? they have room in the stores for both a baby food prep station and a bf room, and I would have thought that a chain of JL's size would be keen to do both. It's surely no great expense to stick a shelf with a microwave on in the corner of the cafe?

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Aw, Psammead, won't it?

No. I tried it. Sorry.

I thought you could give puree at room temp? I give all DDs bottles at room temp and had forseen doing the same when she starts weaning. Is there a reason it has to be warmed?