BebePods

Since my son is on the small side, he doesn't really fit in restaurant high chairs - this really is a drag if my husband and I actually want to eat our meals at the same time, without having to hold a baby. We've figured out a temporary solution, however. We just lug our BebePod around with us. Actually, we've just been leaving ours in the car, and bring it with us to restaurants. We have the fancy version with the seatbelt, so Baby stays pretty secure in the seat so far. We've learned that placing the BebePod on bench seats, in booths, or on banquettes work the best, since it's less likely for the BebePod to fall of the chair. When we have to put the BebePod on a chair, though, I usually keep my left arm on the chair (because of new-mother paranoia) and am still able to eat with my right hand. After all, new parents learn pretty quickly how to do all sorts of things with only one arm.

There are plenty of travel-friendly high chairs on the market. The ones that I've seen clip on to the table (for example, the Chicco Caddy Hook-On Chair for approx. $40 or the Phil and Ted's Me too! Travel High Chair for approx. $50). I've refrained from shopping for one of these chairs because we tend to frequent hole-in-the wall Chinese restaurants with unstable tables, so hooking on a high chair to the table isn't safe at all. (Another plus of the BebePod option at these venues is that the high chairs at a lot of these restaurants look absolutely filthy. At least if my BebePod is filthy, it's my baby's filth, and that's always okay.) And further, I already had a BebePod, so spending money on an additional baby item just doesn't appeal to me.