Keeping a 1 Year-old Busy When Out to Eat

I don't bring anything extra. Dining out is time to eat, not play. If the restaurant has a coloring page and crayons, that's good enough. Then again, my son is a 15 month old, growing boy, who LOVES food!! Lol. So, that's all that he'll be interested in anyway.

1 mom found this helpful

A small magna doodle! When my little guy had a hair cut about that age they gave him one to play with. It has been great. We also have a couple of (plastic/bath) books that we pull out.

We eat out a lot with out boys and have since they were born!!! Some fun things that we bring are little tubs of playdoh with playdoh toys. They especially love the playdoh scissors (not sharp at all) and the tool that squeezes the playdoh to make "spaghetti". Also we take a travel aquadoodle (write with water), wind up toys, stickers and paper to stick them on, color wonder coloring books, 3 little cups and a small buzz lightyear toy to fit under the cups (the "guess which cup buzz is in game" is so much fun). I also bring the standard crackers, sippy cup, etc. and offer that. I am a firm believer in keeping kids in their seats at dinner and not walking around with them or holding them in your lap. What's the point of having dinner out if you can't enjoy the meal too? I always bring toys for my kids. I think its way beyond their ability to sit through an entire meal waiting for food and expect good behavior. Once the meals arrive, the toys get put away at our table. Hope this helps and you can enjoy eating out with your child!!!

I used to give my daughter puffs. I would bring books, they would keep her occupied for awhile. I'd also bring like toy keys or rings.

I like bringing a sticker book for my one year old. He gets a kick out of the stickers being stuck to his fingers and likes to put it back on the pages .

snacks are good, and we always liked to go places (like mexican or italian) that provided chips or bread to munch on.

Those are all great ideas, but what my daughter always kept her busy the best was the things on the table - the nonbreakable things! She loved to stack the creamer or organize the sugar packets. We always brought crayons or the travel size magna doodler or her fav toy from home, but the table items always made her the happiest. Just remember its ok to let her walk around the restaurant or play with things...we were very worried about "bothering other people" and I feel as long as she is not screaming or throwing things it's ok for her to have fun! But we did always order her food immediately when we sat down, because she takes forever to eat and that was the best way to keep her happy. Good Luck!

Poratble DVD player has been a life saver for us! Stickers were a big hit too...just letting them stick them to paper is fun for some reason ;)

Stacking cups (Target or even Dollar store) were easy to bring and were entertaining. Not only could they stack them, but you can play peek a boo with a small object under the cups.

We never take anything too messy...like play dough.

I'll bring some of my son's little toys from home, say a little car, rattle or book. They work for a little bit but he honestly always ends up the happiest if he has something that's on the table...like a fork or spoon that he can bang. Once the food comes he's great, he loves to eat!

We used to have a little metal lunch box for each of our girls. Inside we kept age appropriate "things". The reason it was metal was we have the magnetic plastic numbers & letters and they could just put them on and take them off. Since she is only 1 what about putting in finger puppets, some Cheerios in a little container that she can open and close, some stacking type of blocks. It's been a while since my girls were 1. Use your imagination. As she gets older, you can just take out the 1 year old things and add to it. Such as magnetic "paper" dolls, crayons, paper, etc.

Hope this helps stir some ideas!

My son is 18 months and like you i love to eat out, been doing it since he was a baby. But I understand you, how to keep them busy while you wait for the food. I always take snacks for him to munch on, and or crayons to color, a doodle pad. But when the food comes, he loves to eat, so that's all he does. It's the waiting that is no fun. But at that age, IDK... try the gerber puffs, since they put everything in their mouth at that age.