At 15 months, my son ate pesto and black olives. Now, at 15, he makes sushi, miso soup, and zucchini chocolate chip brownies (thanks to the recipe posted here on the Kitchn). Early days his solid food was home-make pureed zucchini, but daycare in a Sri Lankan home intoduced him to curries and other exotic flavors - and he ate well.

I know too many kids that will only eat chicken nuggets or pb&j, plain cheese pizza, and plain whatever else and it makes me sad.

My kids, 5 and 7 now, will try anything I put in front of them. I like to think its because they've been brought up with parents who like to cook a world wide array of dishes. once they were able to eat solid food well, my son would only eat a salad if it had pepper and a vinaigrette on it!

My daughter the 5yo is a sushi fanatic, i'm not talking california rolls here, salmon, eel, red snapper (her fav), etc...

Have you seen that domino's pizza commercial where they bring in the pies with lots of toppings to some kids and they all go "EWWW GROOOOSSSS!"? When my kids saw that they were confused and said it looked good to them. I had to remind them that for some reason most kids don't like good food like they do. hah!

Pickiness still exists, even with kids who eat exotic foods. My 16 month old loves curry, but won't eat bread. She'll gnaw on escargot, but refuses to touch a cheese ravioli. There's no accounting for toddler tastes.

It's one of the reasons that I find kids menus useless for really little kids. Just have a few pyrex plates on hand so I can share some of my meal without fear of breakage.

We occasionally get our 20 month old his own meal at a restaurant, but usually feed him off our plates. It's way cheaper and he gets to experience what we eat. So far we have a kid who likes Italian, Mexican, Indian (the restaurant staff was amazed at how much he liked the food and how well behaved he was), Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.

I do like restaurants that understand small children. We don't go to many high end places, but appreciate the places that will bring out some munchies for him before the meal is served. It does end up making us stay longer and probably spend more.

I wish I could get smaller kids meals. My kid eats a good variety, but she's only 17 months and I hate buying her a full kids meal at a nice restaurant when she's only going to eat 1/3 of it.

Haha, and I'm with fancyd, she will eat a ton of interesting foods but not spaghetti. Or meat on pizza. No idea why.

I like the idea - while I realize it's just a smart economic decision for the restaurants, I'm sure it must be nice for parents to not have to plan to bring something else for the baby, or worry about feeding them before - though the feeding your baby off your plate sounds like what I would do.

And I was a notorious picky eater - the problem was not being to identify each and everything chunk in whatever I was eating.

I inadvertantly raised a foodie toddler. I finally let her try a cone from the ice cream truck when she was 3. Heaven. But then I let her try the fresh cantaloupe gelato at a neighborhood restaurant. Next time she saw the Good Humor truck she informed me, "That ice cream doesn't really 'taste,' did you know?" And she has proclaimed that a chipwich, unacceptable under normal circumstances, "tastes good on the beach." So yes, if you give them GOOD food, they just might get it (though some chefs complain that their own kids will only eat plain noodles).

I hate kids menus because they're heavy on junk food, and that is NOT what I'm trying to foster. When we go to restaurants, which isn't often, Madame has always gotten an extra plate and tried stuff. She is not obligated to eat it all. And we tip really, really well.

My kids are exposed to good food and they eat it well.They don't "need purees" at all althugh one of my kids liked them (and being spoon fed) and another didn't like them and wouldn't be spoon fed at all.

I know kids who are served junk and that is all they eat.

I also know families where the parents make a real effort but the kids aren't interested. The difference is that they don't give up and serve a steady diet of junk until 18.

A restaurant catering with purees is just sill. But by means have some kid friendly options.

I know people who claim to have them. But when you actually watch them eat, they generally don't touch the sushi, or take one bite and don't eat anymore, then they eat all of the rice and edemmame on the plate to actually fill up. The exotic foods their parents claim they love get picked at 95% of the time when I really watch.

Agreed fancyd! My toddler has a few "unusual" favourites but still leans towards bland. It's not like we don't offer... it's just his thing right now. There is no logic when it comes to toddlers.

So what are we talking about here, toddlers or babies? As far as I know they are not the same thing, and toddlers do not need pureed food.

I absolutely do NOT think babies should have their own menu at a high quality restaurant. There are many people who insist on bringing their babies to high-end restaurants, and apparently owners and managers are jumping on that bandwagon of catering to them.

Sure they might make some extra money on the dessert these parents will order because their kid is somehow magically quieted by the $20 steak puree they just flung everywhere. However, they will lose much more because people who don't like dropping $200 on a dinner next to a screaming child will never eat there again. Very risky from a business standpoint.

All that aside: who carts around a baby without having food on hand? All the parents I know keep a jar in the diaper bag when they know they will be out for significant period of time. So I'm not sure why serving baby food at a restaurant would even be necessary.

We just do the same thing as hoosgracie. Our two (this week) year old eats off out plates. This means that she eats almost anything and it is much cheaper than a separate meal, even a kids meal.

Toddlers will eat exotic things. When ou r daughter was 2 and 3 she loved curries -- Indian, Sri Lankan, Ethiopian. She loved sharp vinegar-y flavors, and was open to anything and everything. But her tastes changed at 4, which is actually pretty typical.

Now, at almost 8, she prefers relatively bland things (she'll eat a plate of dumplings but reject the sauerkraut which is meant to be eaten with them). She at least loves stinky cheeses, especially goat cheese, and we are trying to work back the curries and spicy foods. It I s a hard slog though, as she even dislikes Chinese food, which is relatively mild.

Our son is a buttered pasta and peanut butter sandwich tyrant. Still, we live in hope, and keep trying to introduce him to flavors and textures.

So don't count your chickens if you have a toddler -- taste buds become more acute in the preschool years, which is when pickiness generally sets in, even for the non-picky.

We never order food for my 19 month old at restaurants. He just doesn't eat enough of it. (Getting him to eat anything is kind of a struggle lately--he just doesn't want to sit still.) He's totally unpredictable in his eating. One day he'll happily eat some spicy chili and the next day the same dish gets flung across the room. I'm sure as he gets older and does more exerting of his independence it will get worse. One thing we did do on a recent vacation was order an appetizer we thought he might eat. It came out first, obviously, so there wasn't long to wait. He ate a bit and then we just finished the rest as our first course. He nibbled a bit on our main dishes too. Worked well and I think we'll try that again. But otherwise I think we'll be waiting at least a year or more until he's eating enough to make a kids meal worthwhile. I don't see anything wrong with offering creative choices, though I just don't know that most kids would want to take advantage of them.

I wouldn't dream of thinking a restaurant should have food around especially made for babies. Then again I work in a kitchen and don't have children.

The wine bar and restaurant I work at serves a milk "flight" on the kids menu. It is even served in wine glasses and comes with a 1/2 glass or regular, chocolate, strawberry and caramel milk.