It goes without saying that after having your first child your life will never be completely the same again. A baby is a life altering milestone in your life and to be honest, most of the time, It personally feels as though you’re plodding along and going with the flow, not really knowing what you’re doing! Is anyone ever really completely ready for a baby? So, along with a baby follows the big changes; the sleep, the going out of a nigh time, the socialising, the romance in a relationship etc. But apart from the large, quite obvious changes, come the little not so spoken about changes. Such as going to the toilet in peace, mastering the art of a 3 minute bath, eating out at restaurants and the list goes on for a rather long time. 

If there’s one thing we absolutely love doing at Oh Lilla it’s to go out for a nice meal. We love food - who doesn’t? and we generally enjoy going out with our families and stuffing our faces full of good food. Eating out with a baby can be fun. But it can also be challenging, stressful, disastrous and can turn the plan for a nice relaxing evening meal to a quick fast food get up and go kind of meal! 90% of the time the little ones are great. They will sit in their highchair whilst the grownups eat and amuse themselves. But there happen to be the not so good times when we wonder to ourselves why we even bothered attempting to go out in the first place - I’m sure we can all relate? Right? 

I’ve personally only (luckily) had that one terrible experience - and to be honest - with a little bit of confidence in preparation it actually wasn’t that bad! Dealing with a grumpy baby whilst attempting to eat can be easy if  you come prepared! It’s such a lovely way to bond and a fun thing to do as a family so when it does go to plan it’s a nice feeling. Here are a few tips that we’ve put together in order to make life a little easier when eating out with a baby! 

1. Make sure you are able to heat up your baby’s food/bottle. In some places they can be a little fussy about warming up a baby’s bottle - which is a little silly! But it’s definitely something to briefly check up on. If not then bring your own baby bottle warmer. I think as parents we would feel terribly guilty eating in front of our little ones knowing they are hungry! Another tip that goes alongside this one is to check that it’s child friendly and the right sort of atmosphere for a baby. Check there are baby changing areas too!

2. NAPS! Without a nap babies are just so grumpy and very uncooperative! Try to arrange a time to eat around the time they have napped during the  day. Otherwise it just really isn’t going to be worth doing - not fun! 

3. TOYS! FOOD! SNACKS! Bring lots of these. That is most probably our number one tip. It is probably a bit of an obvious one, but we’re sure we could probably all agree that without plenty of toys, food and snacks that a bored baby would not be good company at a dinner table! 

4. Temperature. It may be something as small as the temperature in the room that’s making your baby uncomfortable. Make sure you’re not sitting next to a cold draft (ie. by the door) or that they are not overheating sat right next to a hot radiator. 

5. Chat! Lots of chatter will make a baby feel at ease and make they feel like they are really involved in what’s going on. In a restaurant there is generally a lot going on around most of the time and so that helps too. Most babies are nosey and like to just sit and watch the world go by. Chat to your baby about everything going on - the food, the babies on the other tables, what they are doing etc. 

6. Take it in turns. If your baby gets so grumpy that it affects being able to eat your dinner, try taking it in turns with your partner or whoever you are out with so that one of you can eat your dinner whilst the other one amuses them. It may not be the most ideal way to eat out but if it comes down to it then it’s easier than rushing off and paying for a meal you’re not going to eat! 

As most of you probably have already learnt, it’s all about the preparation. Come prepared for all situations and you’ll never find yourself stuck. Organisation is key! Think about packing your babies bag the evening before so you know you are 100% prepared. Sometimes even with all the preparation in world it can still go wrong. Not just eating out with a baby but most situations. Everything is just that little bit harder and little bit more stressful when a baby is involved (not so much a bad thing though! as usually it’s just more fun!) At the end of the day though, babies are unpredictable and every single one of them is different. The thing that matters most is using mother’s instinct, that good ol’ super power we have that can turn most situations back around for the better! 

Why not share your bad restaurant experiences with us?