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My almost 9 month old baby loves to feed himself. However, he is still working on his accuracy. He often gets food in his hair, in his ears, all over his clothes, under his bib, etc. When he eats at home, this is not a problem. At home I have access to face clothes and a sink and I can easily change him and clean him up. It is a bit trickier when we are out and about.

What can I do to keep my baby a bit cleaner when eating out? Or what strategies can I use to easily clean him up when he gets messy while we are out?

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6 Answers

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I use Baby Wipes before, during and after eating to keep a handle on the mess.

Also I tend to give smaller pieces of food and give LESS food at a time when we are out than at home. I've noticed this seems to lessen the mess for our kids.

My son is an exta messy eater and so dispite my best efforts to keep him clean when we eat out he sometimes gets food UNDER his bib. I usually bring an extra shirt and change him if he gets too messy. Or sometimes if I forget an extra shirt I make him eat with his sweater on and then take it off afterwards, but I guess that won't work in the summer. :)

Here's to clean eating out...I wish you the best. :)

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I normally would stick with pasta minus the sauce and butter and very soft boiled veggies, again w/o butter. I would take him to Skyline Chili (his favorite place) and since it wasn't busy, I would strip him down to his diaper and just wash him with wipes when he was done.

As for other restaurants, normally I would share my food with him and he was pretty good with it. They don't eat that much when they are that little.

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 +1 for sharing food. That is what we used to do. I – Emi Jan 30 at 7:31
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when running errands or at baby group if I was bringing snacks, I would often bring snacks that weren't too messy, were good finger foods and just wipe her up with her wet wipes.

Some ideas are:
cut up fruit such as blueberries, bananas, peaches/nectarines
puffed wheat
or baby mum mums

Baby mum mums are great because they are healthy, disolve easily and they don't turn into a gooey mess like other baby crackers.

When at a restaurant, I would also usually share what I was having. Early on, I would often order dry toast for her and she would chew on that and I'd bring fruit, or baby yogurt we like minigoes to feed her.

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+1 for great finger food ideas – Emi Jan 30 at 18:27
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You can try a plastic bib with sleeves to preserve your baby's clothes when he's eating out, or something like this smock by Baby Bjorn.

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 +1 for Baby Bjorn products – Emi Jan 30 at 20:11
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Use care in the choice of foods you feed him in restaurants - try to avoid foods with lots of sauces or that are really stickly. Then use baby wipes to clean up his face and hands. As for the immediate area, I generally don't worry about the floor too much, but I'll try to swipe the remains from the table onto a plate or napkin to make it faster to clean.

At that age with my kids we typically stuck to fast food places or would pick meals for ourselves that could easily be shared and fed to a little one.

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 I would recommend staying out of fast food places with children. I will try to avoid such places until our son is at least some years old and understands that this is not healthy food! – brandstaetter Jan 30 at 7:23
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 With so many places now offering apples, juice, milk and other healthy options with their kids meals I'm at little more comfortable with taking my kids there. Also tacos and sub sandwiches have always been fast, fairly healthy meals. You don't have to go with fried food for it to be fast food. – mkcoehoorn Jan 30 at 14:53
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I don't routinely eat out with my baby, but there are some foods I've found to be much less messy than others.

  1. Steamed carrot sticks
  2. Canteloupe sticks
  3. Boiled/broiled chicken "sticks"
  4. Well peeled orange or grapefruit segments
  5. Dry toast
  6. Goldfish crackers
  7. Cheese bits

Foods that are particularily messy include:

  1. Pears and other soft fruits
  2. Blueberries/Raspberries
  3. Potatoes
  4. Any mushed food
  5. Avocadoes

I'm kind of going here on foods he feeds himself.

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