How We Made Mealtimes Special (From the Very Beginning)

Me and my partner are huge foodies. We love eating, cooking, baking, and sharing food with others. So naturally, I was excited to start this journey with our son.

I’d seen countless parents turn mealtimes into a battlefield, and I was really determined that I didn’t want that for our family. Food has always been something joyful for us, so from the very beginning we made a conscious effort to make mealtimes feel special, calm, and shared.

Even before we had our son, we loved going out to eat and enjoying food together. That didn’t change when he arrived. From the time he was tiny, we took him with us to cafés, restaurants, pubs, and food shops. We definitely ate out more when we lived in England, where it was cheaper, but since moving to Belgium (where eating out is very expensive), we decided to bring the joy of eating out home instead. I’ll come back to that in a minute — but first, let’s rewind to the baby stage.

From the start, we always ate around our child. We’d pull the buggy up next to the table and enjoy our meals with him present. He first showed interest in our food at just three months old, so by four months we began offering tiny tastes — a little off a spoon or from our fingers.

As soon as he could sit independently (a key benchmark for eating in England), we started offering proper foods. We followed Ella’s Kitchen weaning chart (which we loved and found really helpful), but we also felt we could go a bit further. We decided to start with vegetables first, as we wanted to avoid developing a sweet tooth too early. Looking at our now one-year-old, who eats almost everything we give him, we’re really glad we did.

Once he’d tried a wide range of vegetables, then fruit, then some meats, I found myself thinking… what now? And that’s when we discovered the 100 Before 1 Challenge. I love a good challenge (see our previous post about taking part in the 1,000 Hours Outside challenge), and seeing how other families approach them really helps keep me motivated.

So we began documenting all the different foods he was trying — and honestly, we loved it, even though we were constantly Googling “can an 8-month-old eat…?”

One tip that really stuck with me came from a parent whose child has severe allergies:
Try major allergens in the hospital car park.

And that’s exactly what we did. We’d drive to our local hospital, let our little one try the food in the car, then go for a walk nearby while keeping a close eye on him. Thankfully, we haven’t had any major allergic reactions so far — just a slight reaction to strawberries and tomatoes, which feels ironic considering he was born with a strawberry mark 🍓

So, how do we make food special in our house now?

We don’t eat anything we can’t make ourselves.
Yes — this is where the “trad wife aesthetic” sneaks in a little. But honestly, we just love making food. Over time, we’ve pushed ourselves to see how much we can create from scratch. We don’t buy granola, jarred sauces, pre-made dough, or bread. All sweet treats are homemade. We’ve recently learned how to make pasta and curd ourselves too — and this year we’re challenging ourselves even further.

Our baby loves being involved. He stands at his learning tower while we cook, washing vegetables, mixing ingredients, or “helping” cut fruit and veg. He’s right there with us in the kitchen, soaking it all in.

When he turned 14 months, we stopped using a high chair. Instead, he now eats at his own little table next to ours — still part of the family table, just on his level. I originally introduced it at snack times, but soon he wanted to eat all his meals there.

I won’t lie — the moment he realised he could get up from the table whenever he wanted was… wild. Free will is a big thing for a toddler. My partner found this stage harder at first, but we talked it through and agreed that this learning has to happen at some point — whether now or later.

Now, at 16 months, he still gets up occasionally, but he’ll usually hand us his plate and table mat when he’s finished, or sign that he wants more of something. That feels like a big win to me.

Dinner time is sacred in our house. We sit together, no technology, no distractions — just us. Now that the evenings are darker, we dim the lights and eat by candlelight. After dinner, we clean up, move into yoga, and then it’s time for our child’s porridge before bed.

While he eats his porridge, I read to him. We started with poetry, but now we’ve moved on to board books — currently loving the Little People, Big Dreams series. He’s recently started having raisins in his porridge, and we joke that he’s like a little old man.

So I’m proud to say that mealtimes aren’t a battle in our household.
(Teeth cleaning, on the other hand… if you have advice, I’m all ears.)

I hope this post offers some reassurance or inspiration if you’re navigating mealtimes with little ones. Every family is different, but food doesn’t have to be a fight — it can be connection, joy, and shared experience.

Thank you so much for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask