Absolutely! My son is less than 2 years old and he is what the French would call a 'gourmand' -- he eats huge quantities for such a small child. A few weeks ago at a brunch party he ate half a melon.

And my daughter (aged 3.5) is what they call a 'gourmet'. People around our table always find it amusing when they see her nibbling on mussels, squids and langoustines. But this we do in Croatia more than here. Restaurants there are far more child-friendly and eating seafood tends to be quite messy.

I'm guessing from what he eats your son ain't no baby anymore

I enjoyed your comments finding them balanced and fair, specifically:

Well, not the baby in the sense of an exclusively-breastfed newborn, but a 9-month old baby can have a very healthy appetite...

But a baby ie a child under 1 year old shouldn't be eating too many foods on a restaurant menu. That was my initial point.

Food colourings, msg in chinese food, fatty and salty foods shouldn't really be given to a baby, even if they want to eat them. Chinese and Thai restaurants can't always guarantee that their dishes don't contain traces of nuts.

I just wish there were more children's sized meals without chips. Once my 2 year old sees these he won't eat anything else. We can't even say "without chips" anymore because he knows what they are

I misunderstood, I thought that you referred to quantities. I agree with you on this, although I have to say that I let my children occasionally eat whatever they want.

I actually doubt that any restaurant around here is 100% safe if you are really concerned about nut allergy.

Actually, he is 15 months old. It is never too early to start ensuring a child gets a varied diet.

Interestingly, when contemplating introducing him to spicy foods, I consulted some Indian childcare websites for recipes - and many advocate spices so long as you are not overloading on the chilli pepper.

I hate it when restaurants have childrens menus with crap like chicken nuggets on. Why can't they just do their regular dishes but in smaller portions, and go easy on things like salt? Most of the time we just ask for a small sideplace for baby then load it with things from our plates.

At the moment he is going through a bit of a "trying it on" phase where he will initially decide he does not like something that he has previously eaten without a problem. We just ignore him in this case and wait five minutes before trying him with it again. The worst thing to do is cave in and give him an alternative like a piece of bread or a cracker.

Cheers,
Nick

We take our kids out to resturants all the time - though I wouldn't take them out after 8pm as I think people paying for a nice restaurant want it kid free after that time (I have 2 kids and if I'm out after 8 I have paid for a babysitter so want kid free time :-) )

One thing that does annoy me is that, the more child friendly a restaurant is, the more it thinks that everything needs to be deep friend (what is it with that grey stuff they make into dinosaurs or fish or whatever item it is pretending to be???) Why can't they just let children have half portions from the adult menu? Though in some places the adult menu is just as bad as the childrens ones (I'm thinking off all those places in the UK where they have childrens ball pits etc)

We also started adding spices to our children's food very early on. They both love curried vegetables or quinoa, for example, we only tend to omit chillies, but keep the rest. And my daughter knows very well what she is getting as she nibbles on the piecees of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves she finds in her rice.

Both my children are fond of Japanese food and I often make them miso soup with vegetables, fish and noodles. I tend to keep it low-salt, but the rest they get the same as adults. They actually love wakame and green-tea flavoured soba noodles. They also eat sushi that we make at home with avocado, cucumber and cooked salmon (minus wasabi).

We tend to avoid ordering kid's menus in restuarants because it is mostly bad food (and here I am not so concerned about fat and salt content but, most importantly, taste). We either order extra side dishes and share everything with them or we get them a full portion of something that we know they will eat (mussels, for example).

I do not demonise any food, so occasionally they have chips and fish fingers and biscuits and cholocate cake. As long as their diet is varied and they eat fruits and vegatables, and I can tell you that broccoli is hugely popular in our home, it's ok.

As the father of an 8 month old baby with (fortunately for us) a great disposition, I personally think it is unacceptable to take either children or dogs to a "fine dining" restaurant unless said restaurant promotes itself as child and/or pet friendly (see www.gate24.ch for the extended restaurant search enabling you to select child friendly restaurants).

With regards to children, there are many who employ the services of a sitter for their own kids in order to treat themselves to a special night away from children, and to have their evening ruined by having to tolerate someone else's is IMHO unreasonable.

I also find it quite unreasonable to have to share one's dining experience with a dog. Of course precious few dog owners think their dogs stink or make unpleasant noises while chewing on their bone or dog biscuit, and consequently are quite happy to bring them to the restaurant to stink and slurp next to other patrons.

Dining out is something I enjoy considerably, and as many contributors have noted earlier in this thread, there are many establishments where children are welcome, and parents of children can feel relaxed and enjoy eating out as a family.