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Baby Food Rant!

I am getting thoroughly fed up of the amount of places that refuse to heat baby food, some all baby food, some just homemade.

I am going to a wedding today, so will be out on my own with the boys all day. They normally have sandwiches for lunch and a 'meal' (pork/chix with veg) for tea. However, I have just phoned them and they refuse to heat baby food for health and safety reasons! Now, I know about food as my husband is a chef, and this is a load of codswallop! If theyre that worried then make me sign a form that says I take full responsibility for my own children's food, or make bloody homemade baby food on the premises that I can feed the boys. I pride myself on the fact that I make all their food (no offence meant but its hard with twins and working 4 days a week) so I am not going to give the boys a jar because they wont heat it!

They could have a meal there, but all they offer are chix nuggets/pizza with chips. No bolognaise or pasta with sauce, so why should I give them something I dont want to.

AAARRRGGGHHH

Rant over!

Replies

  • That IS a pain in the wotsit! What are you going to do?
  • We have this problem too. I do admit that i have given her ready made food on two occations (in her life!) neither have been v successful. Now I take things that can be eaten cold. How about a pasta salad? I put in things like tuna, avocado, chopped tomato, sweetcorn, basil, grated carrot, cottage cheese... she loves it and its all raw and fresh - v gd!!

    Em x
  • Are they providing food for the grown ups? If so you could tell them that they need to provide an extra serving for the boys (I'm assuming one adult portion would be plenty for the two of them!). They can hardly refuse if they aren't going to heat food that you bring as well. Being a wedding they should already know what will be served so you can check that it is suitable for your boys, I know they have special dietary requirements but hopefully there will at least be some veg etc that they can eat.

    How ridiculous that they refuse on H&S grounds - if they're perfectly happy to heat the grown ups food why not the children's??? They're hardly going to serve boiling hot food to the grownups either, for fear of being sued like that guy in the states who sued for the hot coffee, lol!

    Good luck!!

    C image
  • Well, I was toying with the idea of giving them their tea for lunch and sandwiches etc for dinner but they eat so much more at dinner and im worried sandwiches wont be enough for them??

    Pasta sounds good...they love pasta with tuna mayo (well, Alfie does!) They love sweetcorn too. Might get some ready cooked chicken from tesco and add that. I could then give them some of that to eat themselves, which will keep them happy.

    Oh, I dont know! Why can't people just trust mummy instincts?! One particular chain of pub wont heat the food for you but is happy to give you some boiling water to heat it in! Now, im not stupid, you cannot heat food to boiling by setting it in some hot water!! So, surely, this is worse!?
  • Thing is Charlotteb - I WOULD NOT give boiling food to my babies just so I could sue! Im not that desperate for money!

    Surely every mummy checks food isnt too hot before giving it to a baby!?
  • I wonder if they would let you in the kitchen to heat something yourself in their microwave?? Probably not, but maybe you could ask?
  • Oops we replied at the same time - I know, it's so stupid - do they really think that, having taken the trouble to bring food to be heated you would then just throw caution to the wind and feed said food to a baby without even testing the heat first??? And then turn around and blame them???? Honestly, the world has gone mad.
  • I think what I would have done with Gabe is let him have the pizza or nuggets with a few chips and take some veg sticks to go with it and fruit pot for dessert.

    I don't think it will hurt the once. Though I agree they are being very awkward!
    xxx
  • And while we're at it, why oh why do restaurants/caterers always think that a kids menu should consist of fatty stodgy shoddy food with fatty stodgy shoddy chips on the side??? It's always chicken nuggets and chips, pizza and chips, fish and chips...Is it so hard to just steam some veges and boil some pasta?!?!

    Oh dear, you've really set me off now!!! Lol image
  • hey mrs what i have done before is take the dinner out of the freezer in the morning (late morning) by the time dinnertime has arrived it should be defrosted but have lept fresh as was thawing during the day, get a jug of boiling water and put the dinners in there, you'll have to put their dinners in something other than flatish bowls iykwim so it can go in the water but it should work fine, i've donet his twice (not sure what way this works with chicken etc as m lo still onl on veg and spuds)

    charlotte b i feel for your rant, my ds1 was 4 when he had his first 'chippy' lol when he was a tot it was awful when out and about i always just used to order him a side portion of champ or mashed potato and a then give him some of our veggies from our dinner even now he'd much prefer a plate of mummies homemade shepherds pie to chips!!! (which of course I love!!!!) only exception to this is McDOnalds!!! he loves a wee treat there!
  • YMGM - Youre right. It certainly wouldnt hurt to let them have pizza/nuggets/chips once. I suppose I just dont understand why they have these on the childrens menu when were all having a roast dinner! I could give them some of mine...only issue with this is that dinner time for them is 4pm and I wanted to take something in case this wasnt when we were eating. I also dont know if I have highchairs. I asked the bride a while back but she didnt get back to me and didnt want to ask her in the last couple of weeks!

    I suppose it isnt the food they eat, more the fact that it just seems complete madness that you cant take your own food for baby (we didnt say it was homemade so they obviously dont heat any food, homemade or jars) and had it have been a few weeks ago, I wouldnt have been able to feed them there easily as they have only just started on food they can feed themselves.

    Charlotte - Hubby says the same thing about children's menus. His consists of smaller portions of adults food - homemade fish and chips/mash with veg, lasagna, tomato pasta etc. He has been more passionate about it since the boys were born too.

    moonbean - While it would work to do it that way, frozen meat dishes should be heated to boiling and cooled.
  • thats what i thought image would they eat a wee veggis dish for you on that day and at least its the worry out of your head for the day image all this nonsense because they wont heat the food honestly its a joke image
  • Just ask them for a jug of boiling water and pop it into there to heat up ...... whe i worked at a pub that served food we were't allowed to heat it in the microwave, I could of lost my job.
  • I'll join in the rant about childrens menus, it's appalling to think that we are trying to introduce healthy eating in this country and yet, we always offer them crap with chips! Whether it's pizza, burger, nuggets, etc, it's all fast convenient food that contains little nutrition. While the odd occasion won't hurt them, it's like saying we should eat something we wouldn't choose normally. While it wouldn't hurt me to eat a burger, I wouldn't choose to and would rather go without. I just don't think it's fair and think I'd prefer to take a pack meal.

    When I'm going out, I tend to heat the food to boiling, then put in an insulated bag and hope that it's still warm when I need it - normally only lasts 4 hours maximum though. Might be an option for you if those timings work. If it's for later in the day, I'd pack a cold savoury purree, finger foods or a sandwich followed by his normal fruit purree or fruit rice/custard desert. HTH xx
  • i don't know any place in town where they will heat baby food for me! debenhams here have a mircowave where you can heat your own but thats it! and also loads of places wont give you a jug oif boiling water either- in which case i just ask for a cup of fruit tea and remove the teabag and put in bottle/food!
    at our wedding we asked what children meals they done and they said we could have anything we wanted- we said no chips! the conculsion on the childrens meals were home made sausages (4 star hotel so i trusted they were good and honest and they tatsed fab!) and mash with peas. we also had fruit cocktail for the childrens starters and ice cream for pudding but you would not beilive how many of my friends said- "cant he/she just have chicken nuggests and chips?" NO they fricking well cant!! i am not paying over ??15 a meal for a child to have fricking chicken nuggets!!
    my god it makes me angry!
    Personally i would make up some mash and veg and add some cooked chicken after warming the mash and veg in hot water??
  • whenever i took my nieces out for the day i got them the adult meal, rather than child menu cr@p, and didnt bother thst they would leave half. id rather that then them eat rubbish (although all they do is eat rubbish now they are teenagers!)
  • I agree that kids menus are rubbish actually. There is so much choice on most adult menus (fish, chicken, beef, veggie meals .... pies, rice, pastas, chilli, curry, jacket potatoes list goes on .....) and all there is on kids meals is nuggets, or sausages & chips or cheese n tomato pizza!) I dont see why they can't just do smaller versions of the adult meals. The kids meals are so boring.

    My ds (2) is happier eating a roast dinner or pasta bake than anything else really. But im really laid back with his food. He does have nuggets and fish fingers and chips too xx
  • G-j-91 - Have you ever tried to heat cold food in boiling water, with 2 hungry babies? It just doesnt happen. I have done it once, in popular pub chain. I had to ask for the water to be 'reheated' 4 times before the food was actually hot enough for me to be happy to give it to them! I understand the issues with heating in a microwave, as it ends up with hot spots etc, but I WANT it boiling...then we wait for it to cool. Thats what I do at home. I have worked in the industry, as has hubby, for years so I know the power of the microwaves etc.

    The day was a disaster, as I predicted! I took some sanwiches for their evening meal, but they wanted their usual food! They wouldnt even touch the sandwiches, and another child stole half their banana (dont ask!) so they didnt even get that. Alfie ended up eating the mash off my plate, and Ryan the broccoli of my best friends! There wasnt anything else suitable for them to eat, and they refused to put some mash on for them as we hadnt ordered it!

    I really didnt know what to do. We were over an hour from home and I had 2 hungry 10 month olds. I did give them the fruit I had bought, and some from our plates but I was disgusted to be honest.

    THEN, although I had taken a flask of hot water for the bottles, it was in the car so I thought id ask if they would heat the bottles and they did! In the microwave! So they probably wouldve heated the food had I taken it!

    I will definitely make sure I phone well in advance next time as I didnt have time to make up food this morning, with a 1.5hr drive just to get there, and I only have meat dishes ready made.
  • So sorry Gemmiebaby, that sounds like a complete nightmare! Talk about learning a lesson the hard way!! (not sure what the lesson is exactly except that taking babies out for food is really difficult!!)

    Glad you're all at home safe at least image
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