Feeding Your Baby at A Restaurant

Dining out with your baby can be a very stressful situation. This is very true most especially if you are taking your baby out to eat for the first time. However, if you can anticipate your baby’s needs ahead of time, you can usually get away with nary a scratch from such an ordeal.

If you are a first timer, here are some fantastic tips that you can use in order to make dining out with your baby an actually enjoyable experience.

  1. Choose a child and baby-friendly restaurant. First of all you want to go to a place which actually welcomes children. Unfortunately, fine dining won’t be an option for you anytime soon. the good news, however, is that there are a whole lot of child-friendly restaurants nowadays. It’s just up to you to choose!
  2. Check out the facilities of the restaurant. You want to make sure that the restaurant is equipped to deal with your baby’s needs. Some good basic things to look into is whether or not the place has a high chair, as well as a restroom with a special stall for changing your baby’s diaper. A place with a breastfeeding room also gets plus points.
  3. Be prepared with your baby’s basics. It is only natural that you bring along your baby’s diaper bag which is already jam packed with baby’s essentials such as water, milk, extra diapers, clothes, medicine, and such. However, if you are eating out, you may want to bring along baby’s personal dish and utensils to be safe.
  4. Bring along a lot of entertainment and snack options for your baby. Your baby definitely won’t care if you are eating or not once boredom sets in. That is why it is essential that you have with you some distractions that will delay your baby’s tantrums until you are safely home.
  5. Plan your meal time. If you want to avoid a screaming and crying baby while you are eating, then you should try to schedule it so that baby is eating while you are. That is sure to keep your baby busy for the time being.
  6. Keep your baby in the high chair. You may be proud that your baby can walk, but letting him or her walk around a restaurant is very dangerous indeed. Also, keeping your baby in a high chair is the best way to teach him or her patience – a wonderful quality that everyone should have.
  7. Keep an eye on your baby at all times. Of course, as always, your baby’s safety is of prime importance. Therefore, it is imperative that you always keep an eye on him or her. That way, you’ll monitor whether your child feeling, whether its boredom, hunger, or he or she is about to start a tantrum.

As you can see, there are a whole lot of things that you can do to really make sure that you and your baby get the best experience out of dining out. It may seem hard at first, but pretty soon, you’ll be a complete expert!

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Posted by Admin - April 21, 2013 at 4:10 pm

Categories: Advice/Tips, Food   Tags: , , ,

Fine Dining Etiquette 101

Once in a while, there comes a time when you get invited to some soiree or occasion which will require you to go out and eat at a fine dining restaurant. It could be a meeting, a birthday, or any other special event. This kind of special occasion is wonderful since you will get to practice good fine dining etiquette. Also, it can even provide a certain kind of charm that you won’t encounter in just any other type of dining establishment you may usually go to.

However, there is one very crucial thing that you will have to equip yourself with before you enter a fine dining establishment. That is fine dining etiquette.

Given the fact that regular folk like us don’t usually eat at such posh places, it is important to learn some of the most basic things that you should keep in mind during a fine dining meal.

Here is a little tip sheet that you should plant firmly in your mind.

  • Dress to impress. Fine dining means eating at a posh place, so make sure to set aside your sneakers and t-shirt and throw on something more formal.
  • Before taking your seat, make sure to greet those around you at the table, including the people across you.
  • Make sure to have proper posture when seated. No slouching! Also, definitely no propping your leg up on your seat or removing your shoes even discreetly.
  • The general rule in the table setting is that solid foods are on the left, together with the utensils to eat them with, and the liquids are on the right, together with their corresponding utensils as well.
  • Use the cutlery from the outside in as the meal progresses.
  • Wait for the host to begin eating. The signal to look out for is when the host unfolds his or her napkin.
  • No elbows on the table.
  • Do not start eating until everyone at the table has been served. However, the host may urge guests to start eating, in which case it is okay to start.
  • The napkin goes onto your lap. It is NOT supposed to be used as a bib. Do, however, use it to gently pat your mouth instead.
  • When cutting your food, only cut out 2-3 small pieces before resuming eating. Do not cut up all your food before eating.
  • Do not talk when your mouth is full. Also, chew with your mouth closed!
  • If you have to go to the restroom, softly and politely excuse yourself and get up, leaving your napkin on your seat.
  • If a woman gets up to leave the table (ie to go to the powder room), all the men at the table should stand up until she is out of sight. When she returns, they again have to stand up and one of them may assist her with her chair.
  • The meal is over once your host lays his napkin on the table. You should do the same and lay yours neatly to the left of your plate, showing the clean side of the napkin.

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Posted by Admin - April 21, 2013 at 4:09 pm

Categories: Advice/Tips, Food   Tags: , , ,