At what age do you stop taking food for your baby to a cafe/restaurant?

[TheDetective]

What age is acceptable to take food with you? Does it make a difference if it is puree, or finger food?

What if your child has an allergy or intolerance to a food, or several foods?

Any opinions?!

[usualsuspect]

Most cafes won't mind you taking food for him ,if you explain about his allergies.

[mikkii]

Just one suggestion, you can easily make your own mayo using a hand blender, then you can use any oil you want (assuming he is ok with egg), if you want, I can get DH to ell me what the quantities are.

[MissPlumBroughtALadder]

If he's CMPI he should be fine with butter as there's no protein in it. Or rather, there are trace amounts which would only bother someone with a type one allergy. Ironically it's margarine which is more likely to elicit a reaction as it's made with milk so contains both lactose and protein. Butter contains neither. My DS is quite severely CMPI but absolutely fine with pure butter.
Sorry to slightly derail there OP! To answer your question: he's 22 months now and mainly eats from our plates but I always have some fruit or buckwheat crackers in my bag (yep, he's gluten intolerant too).

[TheDetective]

MissPlum he has an allergy test next week, so for now we are sticking to completely dairy free.

mikkii we don't keep 'proper' oil in the house as me and DP cook using frylight. And don't eat mayo. So would probably be little point in us making a mayo at this point!

[sharond101]

My DS is fussy with food, one day he will eat something the next day not. I always take something with me and have never really thought of there being a problem with it. Sometimes though I just give him something light before we go the he eats off of our plate or as soon as we arrive I give him his food as we order. The last time we went out I gave him some filled pasta and no-one batted an eyelid. He will always eat something off of our plates and I would hate having to order him one of the children's meals which has to come with chips and be in the form of a nugget or fishfinger.

[melonribena]

The detective, my 13 mth ds is allergic to dairy and I'm so jealous of people who can take their children out for meals and dont have to worry about it.

Now ds is properly off purees, what I generally do it take a few bits with me, e.g cucumber sticks, hummus, breadsticks, cold sausage etc that could pass as a lunch but supplement it with bits I get whilst out. Eg salad, the odd chip, carrot stick etc.

If anyone complained, I would say that the choices for ds were pretty slim pickings! A dry jacket is not appetising!

I find it easier to find bits from a hot meal selection than cold. Sandwiches are always going to be out!

However, in John Lewis at the wkd, the list all ingredients in every single baby/child's hot meal and ds could literally have had any meal, none had milk in. He ended up with roast herby chicken, chips and peas. He loved it!

I also go to new places with a packed lunch for ds but inquire as to possibilities for ds in the future. Ikea were very helpful in this! It means I can build a list of places I can take ds to and not need to take food but also know where I need to take food (sainsburys!)

[hazeyjane]

Ds is 3 and has quite a limited diet, I usually take his own food (unless I know they serve something he will eat), and ask the cafe if it is ok, it has never ever been a problem.

[mrsmartin1984]

Have 6.5 mo DD and have never taken foods into restaurants. And never will. She can have whatever everyone else is having

[hazeyjane]

if the cafe have no problem though, mrsmartin, why would it be an issue?

[TheDetective]

Yes Melon. I get very upset sometimes over how restricted his diet can be, and how eating out will be tricky for as long as this lasts.

Okay, so it isn't the worst thing in the world. But it's still crap, and can make things quite difficult.

I shall put JL on the list of places we can go safely!

Did you know some chips even contain sodding dairy?! Some meats do too.

I can't even say I blame the eating establishment if they say something is dairy free. Because until you have to deal with it, you just don't know! I have to check every single little thing. I wouldn't like to put that responsibility on a cafe/restaurant. And I wouldn't want to embarrass them/me by asking to see packaging.

I think it will be easier to just take something suitable along.

[TwelveLeggedWalk]

Also one for future ref, .Carluccios have a book of ingredients/allergens in all of their dishes they can check for you - mum is coeliac and they took it VERY seriously.