Toddlers can be surprisingly good at eating fruit and vegetables but as they only eat small portions, you can face a challenge keeping them fresh.  Here are a few tips on keeping your fresh produce extra fresh so that your little ones can enjoy a healthy snack on demand:

Melons: they are delicious but can be fiddly to prepare.  Cut the whole melon at once and put the chunks you don't eat straight away into an airtight container.  Whenever you fancy a snack it's ready prepared for you and will keep for up to 5 days.

Peppers: if you only need a portion of lovely red, green, yellow or orange pepper, keep the seeds, stalk and inner membrane intact and the pepper will stay fresher for longer.

Spinach: if your spinach has gone a bit limp, refresh in ice cold water and it will revive.

Cool food: to cool food quickly, simply place on top of picnic ice blocks and you'll find it cools down much quicker.

Carrots: to stop them going mouldy, wrap in kitchen paper in the fridge and they will keep longer.  The kitchen paper soaks up any condensation which is what make the vegetables turn mouldy.

Fruit: apples stay fresher in the fridge, so do tomatoes and broccoli.

Paper bag: keep a paper bag in the bottom of your fridge where you store your fruit and vegetables so any moisture will be soaked up.

Research has shown that parents are not providing enough fruit and vegetable in their children's packed lunches; 3,500 children had their lunches examined and the findings showed that nearly half did not contain any fruit or vegetables at all. The School Food Trust said that at least 2 portions of fruit and veg should be included in everyone's lunch box in order to get the children towards their '5 a day' requirement.

Jamie Oliver did great work improving school dinners, and now school dinners are better than ever at helping to provide children with a balanced and healthy diet. But nutritionists fear that lunch boxes have been ignored and are very not nutritionally sound. Healthy packed lunches are a great way to help children reach their five a day requirement, they claimed it was a "missed opportunity".

The trust carried out their research two years ago, in 2009, so hopefully things are better now, but still of the 135 schools researched, so many children did not have a healthy, balanced meal to eat. Only 58% had a single item that could be counted towards their five a day - many had nothing fresh at all.

The World Cancer Research Fund has pointed out the value in eating fruit and veg from an early age and that not including fresh items in a lunch box is a missed opportunity. Healthy eating at school promotes a healthy living and parents should be provided with information helping them provide a healthy lunch for their children.

Here are some ideas to add fruit and vegetable to your children's packed lunches:-

• Put fresh salad inside sandwiches
• Add finger fruit and veg such as grapes, cherry tomatoes, celery, carrot sticks etc.
• Give them a little pot of processed fruit, available from supermarkets
• Add easy to manage fruit such as satsumas and bananas
• Prepare a pot of fork salad rather than sandwiches with grated carrot, coleslaw, potatoe salad etc.

All parents and childminders worry about what they feed to their children, and yet it can be surprisingly difficult to get a real idea of how healthy food products are.  That's all set to change as the EU has agreed to enforce food labeling standards.  There has been demand for the EU to enforce the 'traffic light' schemes helping consumers see at a glance how foods fare, but that isn't the route they are going.  Instead the EU will require the breakdown of Calories, carbohydrates, sugars and fats.

Most foods already have these breakdowns, so what's new?

To date there hasn't been a standard in the way that labels are displayed.  This has lead to various 'tricks' used by food manufacturers to hide certain facts about their food when they aren't entirely complimentary.  For example:-

• Sugars are carbohydrates but many sugar-laden products only display a carbohydrate count, masking the sugar content.
• Many foods high in saturated fats (the more dangerous type of fat) don't display that, simply showing the amount of total fats. For some products, saturated fat can account for almost all of the fat content.
• Values are often broken down by 'portion', but a portion is often unrepresentative. For example, 500ml bottles of fizzy drinks are usually broken down and displayed as 2 portions, whereas many consumers will drink a whole bottle at once.  Some 'portions' of soft drinks can contain 30% of the adult recommended daily amount of sugar, but by consuming the whole bottle, you are consuming 60% of your recommended sugar limit.  The EU regulations will ensure values are presented in a uniform way making it easier to compare foods directly.
• High salt levels are often masked as 'Sodium' values.  For actual salt levels, multiply sodium by 2.5 and you're just about there!

The new rules will also cover ALL packaged foods so you will start to see labels on products that you haven't seen them on before, such as prepackaged fruit and meat.

The more information we are given as consumers, the more informed are our choices.  Of course we can have the odd treat, or we can choose to ignore healthy foods altogether, but at least we can make that choice. When it comes to feeding our children, we often go that little bit further, buying more organic produce or foods with established provenance.  The more we know about our food, the easier it is to feed our children the way we choose to!

The new EU regulations have been established this month and large food manufacturers have 3 years to comply, smaller food producers have 5 years to comply.  We won't see a massive change overnight, more a gentle evolution of current practices over the next few years.

The idea of cooking with children might fill you with horror, what with the mess, the organisation, the dangers and the unappetising results, but, with a little planning, careful thought and a bit of patience, you can all have a fulfilling and fun time in the kitchen.

Cooking actually covers various areas of the EYFS development programme and so it is a great focus activity.

• Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy - count, weigh and measure ingredients together.
• Physical Development - health and bodily awareness when talking about  healthy foods and using new and exotic tools to cook with.
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development - great sense of achievement when it's finished; personal hygiene when washing hands and preparing and learning about safety in a kitchen.

While cooking: Show your children the recipe and get all the ingredients ready in advance. Guide and direct the children through the cooking and keep them engaged so they don't get distracted and do their own thing.  Use tools and bowls that are the appropriate size so they feel in control and able to do the task.  Allow them to do as much as you can themselves without endangering them.  Talk about the dangers and hot areas to avoid (oven, hob etc).  Encourage them to help clear up and taste the food afterwards.

Why should they cook?

• Introduce new foods and ways of eating.
• Explain how foods and meals are made.
• They learn numbers, counting and measuring.
• They have to listen to instructions and carry the instructions out.
• They have to understand sequencing - you have to break the egg before you whisk it!
• They can make some great creations!
• It's fun!

Having a child with a sweet tooth, is not necessarily a problem, if you handle it well; the secret is to handle sweets, chocolate and all things sugary not as a rare treat, a reward or something exciting, but instead treat it as something just like all the other food groups you offer your child.

• To start with, introduce your baby/toddler to unsweetened foods and postpone offering sweets until they are older.  Offer sweet fruits and yoghurt for dessert rather than sugary things.
• Sweeten food with honey or fruit.
• If your child is old enough for sweets, and if a relative comes round to visit with a bag of sweets, allow them to have one or two and save the rest for later.  Try not to allow them to eat them all.
• Keep a note of how much sugar your little ones has in a day.  It should be no more than 1-2 teaspoons each day and this includes all sugar in foods.
• Read the labels on prepared food - even toddler food.  There is often a great deal of sugar in pre-prepared meals.
• Talk about sugar and the harm it can do if eaten in excess.  Talk about fruit, vegetables and other great tasting foods that are also so good for you!
• Allow your child to choose which fruit and vegetable to buy at the shop.
• Drink water before bed and never sugary drinks.
• Try not to use sweets as a bribe.
• Lead by example and avoid snacking on sweet things yourself...

Weaning, for most parents, is approached with trepidation and a sense of fear!  Oh no, it's time for solids: mess, tantrums, choking, lots of cooking for the food to be thrown across the room, lots of washing and not much food being eaten!  But, it doesn't have to be like this at all!  With these quick tips in place, you will  both enjoy the weaning time without tears and have some fun on the way.

Prepare: even though they can't speak to you, begin the run up to weaning, by telling your child they're going to be eating purées and being a grown-up and things are all going to be great!  They little ones may have seen others eat solids, so tell them they're going to be like their big sister or cousin and how exciting it's going to be.  This may help you prepare for it too!

Have the right equipment: get some shallow weaning spoons, little dishes, lots of wipes and bibs and a decent high chair with a little table etc.  Perhaps some high chair toys if you think you may need them.

Be safe: never leave your child alone with food or the spoon just in case they choke.

Don't rush: weaning takes time, so don't rush them, or yourself.

Portion control: start with tiny amounts of baby rice and milk.  Just make up small amounts so you don't waste.  When you move on to purée vegetables etc, again use just a little bit of your supply each time so you don't spoil it and waste it if it is dropped etc.

Encourage, don't force feed: if you are worried that your baby is not eating enough speak to your GP or health visitor.  Don't force feed.

Eating with friends: try to make meal times a social event.  Eat with your child or invite others over to eat with you so they see others eating too. Watching other children eat can be a great advantage and really help little ones learn to eat.

New flavours: if they don't like apple today, try it tomorrow and the next day and the next day!  Sometimes it takes a few tries to get them to try and eat a new flavour.

If they gag: stay calm and rub their back to try to get the food out.  Keep things very smooth and milky to start with.  If they continue to have a problem speak to a health professional.

Still feed them milk: weaning babies still need about 500ml of milk each day so keep them on milk too while weaning.

Ideally wait until 6 months: government guidelines say wait until baby is six month before weaning.  Breast milk until then is ideal, or formula milk.  If you have a history of allergies, waiting is especially important.  Speak to your doctor to get their advice if you are concerned.

Don't give up: keep trying in small amounts until things become easy and progress is made, but don't expect things to be easy from day one!  They may cry, they may spit it out, they may make strange faces, they may refuse all together, but be calm and persistent and you'll win them over!

If you are looking for inspiration to tempt your little ones at lunch time, here are a few ideas to make lunch time less boring!  Whether lunch is normally at home, or at nursery or school, there are lots of easy ways you can make lunch more exciting and tasty than the same on sarnies!

Different bread: try little rolls, neatly cut in half or different types of rolls such as brioche, twisted rolls or bagels.  Tortilla wraps or pitta is another good and cheap idea.

Go French: try filling croissants with some ham and cheese for a continental lunch treat.

Pasta: cooled pasta with some chopped vegetables and cubes of ham is easy and tasty to eat.

Dippy: try cutting cucumber, carrot, celery into sticks and include a pot of hummus in the lunch box for some dippy treats.  Add some pitta bread to dip too!

Finger food: cubes cheese, ham, vegetables and fruit need to be eaten with fingers.  They can be a tasty and healthy lunch option.

Couscous salad: couscous is the easiest food to prepare.  Make a portion the night before and cool.  Cut some cherry tomatoes, cucumber, hams and peppers into tiny pieces and mix well.  Pop into a lunch box with a fork for a great lunchtime snack.

Crackers: get hold of some cheese biscuits or crackers for another option.  Wrap tightly so they stay fresh and serve alongside cheese slices and apples.

Research published by the School Food Trust has confirmed that children who eat school lunches are more willing to try new foods that they would not normally try at home.  Over 1,000 parents were surveyed and an amazing 80% said their children had tried new things at school and some 50% said they were asked to cook new things at home, that the children had eaten at school!

School dinners therefore were a great way to encourage a varied and wide ranging menu for children.  Seeing friends eating and tucking in to un familiar dishes is a good way to tempt little ones.  Even children who were labelled as "fussy" by their parents found that their children ate well.

Tips for getting children to eat:

• Get them involved: grow some vegetables, get them to pick them from the supermarket shelf
• Take a step back: go to visit a pick your own farm or a farm where crops are grown.
• Be creative: make the food look nice!  Use different coloured vegetables and make the meal attractive
• Think outside the box: name things in a more attractive way.  Try offering Squiggly sausages, monster mash and squeaky peas rather than sausage, peas and potatoes.
• Get the children helping: they can chop easy things, help lay the table, choose a plate etc.
• Keep portions reasonable: don't overload the plate it can be very off-putting.
• Find out their favourites and use them if you can: if carrots and peas are top vegetables, then use them along with others and introduce new ones gradually!

Bon appetite!

Don't have a battle at mealtimes, everyone at some point has a bit of trouble with a fussy eater in the house so the first thing to remember is keep cool about it.  You are not alone in your struggle to get food down a stroppy toddler or a moody and tired pre-schooler. Don't think your child will starve if they don't eat properly for a few days... they won't!  They may be genuinely not hungry or a bit poorly, so don't get angry with them and claim they are being defiant or naughty, this may not be the case.  And, don't blame yourself.

Many fussy phases pass, so don't worry for the first few days.  If eating is becoming a problem on a frequent basis and some difficult habits are forming, then try some of these tips:

1. Play with food: allow your toddler to handle the food and roll peas or fly carrots like planes.  If it gets them eating then allow it!  Don't be too strict.
2. Give small amounts of lots of choice: so have a few sorts of vegetables for them to choose from.  Try using a compartmentalised plate or a muffin tray and fill each hole with something different!
3. Try giving 4-6 smaller meals a day rather than the usual 3 large meals.  Healthy snacking is just as nutritious and possibly better for smaller tummies to cope with.  Grazing minimises low blood sugar so will lessen any undesirable or difficult behaviour too.
4. Make the food fun.  Cut bread into strange shapes (eat your mountains or bread crown sounds a bit ore fun!).  If you can cut into shapes of use cookie cutters to make sandwiches or toast then do.
5. Or get them cutting things themselves (give plastic, blunt knives to cut cooked carrot) and the food is more likely to disappear. Or, get them spreading their own spread onto bread.
6. Use fun plates and even get some party plates to serve a meal on.  Pretend its a party!
7. Call in an older cousin or friend who eats well and have a meal together.  See if any good eating habits rub off!
8. Sitting on a chair with dangling feet is something that toddlers don't enjoy (try sitting on a stool for a whole meal) so place a step or box under their feet to support them.  This may keep them still a while longer and many help them concentrate more on eating and less on wriggling.

If eating problems persist and really do become a barrier, then you may want to seek medical or professional help, but on the whole, eating fads come and go and this is a normal part of growing up.

Eczema is a condition found in about 15-20% of children where dry, itchy patches of skin become uncomfortable, irritated and sore.  There is much discussion about the reason why eczema is so common but scientists do not know definitively why or how it occurs.

There is also much talk about how we can prevent eczema or make it less severe even before a child is born.  It  appears to run in families, suggesting a genetic predisposition, and scientists are researching whether anything can be done to prevent or reduce it: should we avoid certain foods, or are there ways to adapt our lifestyles to reduce the impact?

Here are a few tips:

Breastfeeding exclusively for the first four months of a baby's life may help to protect against eczema.  Research has shown that this is the case and that longer term breastfeeding protects against other allergies too.  The Government recommends breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of a baby's life.

Cow's milk can have an allergic reaction and cause eczema in children.  However, if you fear this may be the case, you need to discuss it with your doctor as cows milk shouldn't be removed from a child's diet without careful consultation.  Even formulas that contain cow's milk could induce an allergic reaction, but again consult your doctor.  Soya based formula and goat's milk formula are not recommended but again, the doctor can advise.

Certain foods you eat while breast-feeding may result in a flare-up and if you suspect certain foods to be a trigger, you should consult your doctor.  There is no conclusive evidence to support this, but it may be the case.  Don't change your diet unless you have first discussed it with your doctor.

Probiotics as a supplement or in food such as yoghurt has been shown to reduce the chance of your child developing eczema.  Research continues in this area.

What can be done to help the situation?

Keep a diary - to help identify if food or other activities or environments trigger a bad reaction or flare up.

House mites are believed to trigger eczema although the evidence is inconclusive.  Try to reduce dust in the home by using a damp cloth rather than a dry one when cleaning.  Use cotton sheets and wash them at a high temperature each week.  Vacuum the mattress weekly and air the room frequently.

Wear cotton clothing as synthetic fibres may make things worse.

Keep cool and avoid overheating as this can make eczema more severe.  Keep homes warm but not hot.

Keep nails short to prevent children scratching too much.

Eczema can be a very difficult condition to live with, at best it's uncomfortable whilst severe eczema may have a severe impact on your child's ability to develop normally as they will be constantly distracted by the pain.  Whilst there is no final cure, follow the advice above and you may be able to relieve the symptoms.  Can you tell us any other tips that have helped relieve symptoms in your own children?

Food safety advice tends to vary over time - some foods deemed unsafe to eat at one time may become positively beneficial at others, but there is always advice on some foods that should be avoided during pregnancy.  Mostly such foods suffer increased exposure to dangerous bacteria, and if not stored properly between manufacture and consumption, they could pose a serious health risk to a pregnant mum to be.

Until August 2009, government advised that pregnant women should avoid peanuts for fear that consumption might be a cause of intolerance in children.  This advice has changed now because science is not certain that this is a causal effect of allergies, indeed there is growing evidence that consumption of peanuts during pregnancy may actually reduce the likelihood of babies suffering peanut allergies.

Some foods such as soft cheeses and pâté should be avoided because there is an increased risk that they may carry listeria, a very dangerous bacteria to pregnant women.  Pâté also contains high levels of vitamin A, a vitamin found in liver, which is also best avoided during pregnancy.  High levels of vitamin A may have a negative impact on your baby's neurological development.  For the same reason, you should avoid taking fish liver oils and eating liver in any other form.

Pregnant women should also be cautious against eating raw or undercooked foods, especially eggs, meats and shellfish.  These all pose a higher risk to bacteria and viruses, such as salmonella.

Finally, certain sea fish may contain harmful levels of mercury to an unborn baby - avoid tuna, shark, swordfish and marlin whilst pregnant.  High levels of mercury can affect neurological development in your baby.

Many other foods often considered dangerous actually pose no risk at all, these include:-

• Processed (rather than homemade) mayonnaise and salad dressings will be made from pasteurised eggs
• Hard and increasing numbers of soft cheeses are also made with pastuerised milk nowadays
• Yoghurts and probiotic drinks are also made from pasteurised milk
• Spicy foods pose no danger to unborn children
• Honey is suitable for pregnant women but shouldn't be given to babies under 1 year
• Ice cream is also made from pasteurised milk and poses no risk to pregnant women

If you are pregnant, you will be looking after yourself and paying more attention to diet than usual, but most foods are perfectly safe to consume, you don't have to change your diet radically just because you're expecting a baby.  Exercise caution, but don't stifle your lifestyle!

Recent tests demonstrated that children are more likely to eat fruit if it looks good - children were offered the same types and portions of fruit served in different ways; the more 'attractively' presented it was, the more popular it was.

The researchers studied 100 children at schools in the Netherlands and Belgium and discovered that presentation really did matter.  The authors say that parents and schools should follow suit and make fruit look appealing in order to encourage children to eat more of it!  The children were aged between four and seven years old and were invited to eat apples, strawberries, and grapes.

Here are our suggestions for presenting fruit in fun ways:

Fruity hedgehog - thread fruit pieces onto cocktail sticks and pop into an orange or potato to make a hedgehog.  Add a few grapes as eyes and a slice of cucumber as a mouth.

Pretty plate - put the fruit on a special plate.  Buy fun shaped plastic plates and always serve fruit on these special plates.

Make fruit fun - serve different colours of fruit and cut into different shapes: strips, cubes, triangles, wedges, rounds.

Fruit face - have your children make funny faces out of their fruit portions

Make a scene - use fruit cut into different shapes to make a scene, maybe a boat on the waves or a house?

Get them involved - ask the children to help choose the fruit at the shop, help peel it if they can and chop it themselves!

Have lots of ideas and do things differently each time - melon boats, melon smiley face with some grapes as eyes and a nose, melon cubes made into a tower!

Do a tasting - select a few fruits and taste them together chatting about  which are your favourites.

Introduce new fruits slowly - you have to see and try a new taste seven times before you are familiar with it so research says!  Introduce new exotic fruits from time to time.

Baby is best - baby varieties can be sweeter than the larger options (ie baby tomatoes are really super sweet).

We all want our little ones to grow up fit and healthy, and diet plays an important role in making sure our children develop well.  Go back a decade and the indgredients listed on many manufactured foods were littered with E numbers, thankfully there are fewer in most foods now, and many children's foods have no E numbers listed at all.  Does that mean we are avoiding E numbers in our diet?  ...and are E numbers necessarily a bad thing?

What are E Numbers?

E numbers are codes assigned to food additives.  E numbers are assigned their number when they have passed safety tests and are deemed safe to include in food, so an E number is actually a mark of safety.  The numbers are assigned within the European Union and only apply to foodstuffs within the EU.

What do E Numbers do to our Food?

Additives designated with E numbers are there to preserve or improve the perceived quality and shelf life of the food.  They serve various purposes:-

• Flavour Enhancers are added to food to improve how they taste, they are designed to trigger our taste sensation.  Mono sodium glutemate is designated E621 and is closely related to salt, which also enhances flavour.
• Sweeteners often replace sugar as they are deemed to be healthier - lower in calories and kinder on our teeth.  Some intense sweeteners are thousands of times sweeter than sugar and used in tiny quantities (eg. aspartame (E951) and saccharin (E954)) whilst others replace sugar because they are cheaper (eg. sorbitol (E420)).
• Colourings improve the look of foods, either replacing colours washed out during processing of the food or adding an artificial vibrancy to make the food more visually appealing.  Common colours include caramel (E150a), curcurmin (E100), sunset yellow (E110), quinoline yellow (E104) and tartrazine (E102).
• Antioxidants help to prevent oxygen from the air combining with fats, oils and vitamins in the food making them lose colour, go rancid and smell 'off'.  One of the most widely used antioxidants is Vitamin C, usually listed as ascorbic acid (E300).
• Presevatives help to prevent food going off, extending their shelf life.  Foods are often treated with gases to make them last longer, such as sulphur dioxide (E220), nitrite (E249) and nitrate (E252).  Sugar, vinegar and salt are natural foods that also act as preservatives and may be used in foods.
• Emulsifiers (eg. Lecithins E322) help to combine ingredients that nomally separate, such as oil and water.
• Stabilisers (eg. locust bean gum, extracted from carob beans, E41) help prevent foods mixed with emulsifiers from separating again.
• Gelling Agents (eg. Pectin, E440) boost the consistency of foods, making them thicker to give them more body.

Are E  Numbers Safe?

The designation of an E number is a statement that the substance has passed safety tests and is deemed safe to eat.  However, the Food Standards Agency concedes that additives in certain combinations have been linked to negative effects on children's behaviour.  Although single foodstuffs won't have such combinations in them, consuming a variety of foods with the different additives may lead to hyperactivity and even the condition Attention Deficity Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Some additives can cause allergic reactions, inducing asthma or nettle rash.  Benzoates (E210 - E219), Sulphites (E220 - E228) and Tartrazine (E102) all carry higher risk and foods must be labelled if they contain these above a certain level.

Conclusion

Whilst parents will want to avoid over exposure to E numbers, it is impossible to avoid them completely.  Additives are not always listed with their E number, largely because consumers became quite anti them during the 1990's, but they do have to be listed in the ingredients by name.  Many E numbers are assigned to completely natural products, such as ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), sulphur dioxide (produced naturally during fermentation of beers and wine) and indeed many food colourings.  However, just because these compounds are natural, it does not mean they are necessarily fit for human consumption in large quantities!  Parents are right to minimise the consumption of E numbers as best as possible, but complete avoidance is almost impossible in this day and age.

By the time a baby is born, its taste buds are developed and a baby has an innate sense of what foods are good, and which are bad.  Breast and formula milks are sweet, and babies initially favour sweet tastes over sour or bitter flavours.  Although they may taste similar, the difference between breast and formula milk is the difference between processed and natural food.  The first solid foods that many children experience are also processed baby foods.  The packaging will tell you that the contents are healthy and nutritional, but often the truth is that they are laden with more sugar than we would use in our own cooking, and sometimes ingredients that we wouldn't be happy to add ourselves!

There is inceasing evidence that eating high proportions of processed foods as babies leads to increased consumption of processed foods throughout life, as our tastes adapt to the foods that we eat early on.  Processed foods are typically high in salt and sugar and use cheap fats with higher saturated fat content.  This almost certainly plays a part in the rising instance of obesity in children and adults.

A study published in America in 2004 suggested that by the age of 2 years, one third of toddlers do not eat fruit and vegetable in any healthy form, instead being fed a diet consisting only of processed foods.  Other research suggests that babies exposed to a broad range of complex flavours, provided by natural foods, grow up to eat a broad and healthy diet, which in turn contributes to a better lifestyle.

If these ideas are correct, then it reinsforces just how important it is to be feeding our little ones a broad range of foods and flavours from an early age.  Don't become dependent on baby jars from the supermarket, instead, look to buying a wide selection of fruit and vegetables from which to make your own purees, and wholesome meals.

Children deserve to experience going out to eat, if that is what you want for them. You have every right to take them into a restaurant and never feel embarrassed in doing so, as long as its a place that welcome's welcomes children.

However, going out to lunch or dinner may fill some parents with dread: how would their little ones behave in public? But, be bold, follow the few tips below and they may surprise you!

1. Take a few small toys to entertain while you wait. Don't necessarily buy new, perhaps find a few buried in a draw that you haven't seen for a while.
2. Go to a restaurant that has a child menu. Then you won't feel uncomfortable because if there's a child's menu, they welcome children and you have every right to be there!
3. Make sure the venue has all the facilities you need: baby change, etc.
4. Ask for what you need, don't hesitate, as the staff will be happy to help if it means a more smooth meal! Lots of napkins, teaspoons to eat with, a straw to drink with etc.
5. Order the children's meal to come first. They can start eating straight away even if your meal is not ready. In fact, order all your meals as quickly as you can so the wait for you all is not too long.
6. For little ones that may be super hungry, bring a couple of snacks or finger foods to keep them going. If you have none, ask the a little bread or raw vegetables while you wait.
7. Eat at the approximate time you'd normally eat so your routine is not too mixed up.
8. If you have a newborn, don't be shy about feeding at the table if you can do it discretely, or asking for bottles to be warmed.
9. If you book a table make sure you reserve a high chair if you need it a tell the restaurant you'll have little ones. They may reserve a larger area for you.
10. Have a practice at home: set up a restaurant and pretend one day at home!
11. Have a trial run. Go to a coffee shop and just have coffee and a muffin one morning. See how that goes.
12. Explain what you expect from your children if they are a bit older, and tell them what it will be like so they are more prepared.
13. Choose something from the menu that they will eat rather than be adventurous. You want them to eat, after all!
14. Start them young. Don't put off going out if you want to because you think your baby is too little.

Be bold!   Bon appetite!