From what age is ok to eat from the children's menu?

[pikapoo]

Just curious as to what ages people started letting their DCs eat from the kids menu - my DS is almost 1 and I have been wondering whether we should still be bringing pouches/home-made food for several months yet.
Also, is it generally understood by restaurants that the kids menu options should be made of healthy ingredients with low/no salt/sugar/preservatives, or is that something we would need to check with the restaurant?

I remember going out for a family meal for ds2's first birthday and him eating pretty much all of a kids meal.. Prior to that he had probably shared. That said he's now 10 and can easily eat a whole adults meal! (To be fair he prefers proper food to the kiddy type stuff on those menus and I don't really blame him!)

More of the crab/scallop/mussel type seafood which would likely be rejected (slimy texture is a no in her book) and I didn't want to share. Prawns are fine and might just figure in an order for her (and I might just hope she didn't want all of them...)

I'm too greedy to 'share' yummy stuff with a toddler!

Dd and ds2 got a kids meal from around 1 because they always made a good enough dent in it to justify it. Ds1 was much older and I would sometimes order a side for him and he would share ours as well. It depends on the child.
I didn't use pouches or baby type food at all by a year old with any of them so it just didn't occur to me to take anything with me apart from snacks if we were out so I'd often have to order them something anyway.

Like another poster, I started ordering jacket potatoes for my DS at 8 months. By 10 months he was eating off childrens menus - Carluccios is lovely!

He is a brilliant eater but still can't get him off that 0.4th centile

Depends on the size of the meal, some places do toddler type things. DS is 13 months and generally has a good appetite, so sometimes we share and get another side or I'll order him a starter if suitable (quite a few places do those hummus/pitta etc type stuff which he likes). Some of my friends with same age children still bring a lunch and others do the same as us. Particularly might bring something if DS is going through a picky phase - being picky for him is a classic sign of teething and lasts for a week or two so I might bring one of the things he is still choosing to eat at that point!

I have just started and my son is nearly 3. Unless he is really hungry, I share mine with him because he likes eating the same thing as me and kid's meals are normally just something and chips. Unless it is sausages, he won't eat it anyway