There was no changing table in the bathroom, so I used my legs to pin my squirming child to the pad I’d placed on the floor. His wails and screams, like those of someone being tortured, reverberated through one of Baltimore’s best and fanciest restaurants.

This was officially not going well.

Since becoming a parent over a year ago, I’ve received a crash course in dining out with a little one. My kid and I have gone to barbecue joints, dim sum spots, cafes, bars, fast food eateries, breweries and one high-end restaurant. We’ve had some good times, and more public meltdowns than I care to remember.

“It’s rough out there,” said Marisa Dobson, who became a mom nearly two years ago. The foodie and publicist has come to realize just how many hot new eateries are basically impossible with small kids. Many lack changing tables or don’t keep high chairs around. Maybe they’re decorated with tons of breakable stuff that your kid will almost certainly try to grab and hurl at the floor.

But there are exceptions. Dobson said Johnny’s in Roland Park is “one of the best experiences we’ve ever had” dining out with a little one. The restaurant offers high chairs and booths, and seats parents with children all in the same area. Her son, Eden, loved his “kiddiccino,” a special drink just for tots. Dobson also noted the Silver Queen Cafe on Harford Road, which is close to her and was a favorite even before she had a kid. “When we take Eden there, the host is very warm and friendly — they’re always willing to make him a little mocktail.”

My own go-to restaurant is Hampden’s Blue Pit BBQ & Whiskey Bar, a restaurant so kid-friendly that it has the most coveted item you can find in a restaurant: a changing table in the gender-neutral restroom upstairs. (As a side note, moms of the world would like to know why this isn’t more commonplace.) The food comes out fast, my son loves their chicken thighs even more than I do and their super-friendly staff never make us feel judged for spilling food on the floor.

In South Baltimore, Mindpub Cafe stockpiles kids’ toys and has a baby-proofed nook that you can close off with a gate. “I get upset when I see the random one person setting up their computer in there,” said owner Nikki McGowan of the sequestered space, a hit with neighborhood parents. (Your baby is also welcome to sit at the bar.) McGowan, a mom to seven older kids, has gone above and beyond for families, offering to hold fussy infants so their parents can have a coffee in momentary peace.

During a December trip to Columbia, my family and I stopped for dinner at the Cushwa & Rad Pies Taproom, where we spotted multiple children’s birthdays happening at once and nearly as many baby bottles as beer bottles. “Breweries are the new Chuck E. Cheese,” quipped my husband. Every aspect of the restaurant seems designed by a parent, down to the QR code ordering system that lets you request dessert to-go when your kid suddenly decides he’s Over It and needs to go home.

Howard County seems to have a high density of kid-friendly spots. When I posted on the Howard County Eats Facebook page asking for recommendations, commenters shouted out Fruitful Juice Bar, which has branches in Clarksville and now in Columbia. And the Instagram account Kid Friendly Dining, based out of HoCo, shares reviews of local spots, noting whether they have a kids’ menu and changing tables.

Others appreciate Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill in Fulton, which deserves mention for the presence of a changing table in the men’s room. “That’s always shocking to me that that’s a big deal,” said owner Brad Hudson, a father of three. His own daughter was 2 when they opened the restaurant in 2016, and he said he thought: “I have to change her, why wouldn’t I put it [a changing table] in the men’s room?” In addition, their kids menu features eight $7 options, each of which comes with a scoop of ice cream.

Parenthood can feel confining, since every trip out with a baby requires so much logistical planning (is the diaper bag packed? When is the baby due for a nap?) and it’s often easier just to stay home. That’s why I admire people like Baltimore’s first lady Hana Scott, who has taken her 1-year-old baby Charm everywhere from Jamaica to Orioles and Ravens games. Together with her husband, Mayor Brandon Scott, and eldest son Ceron, 9, the family has gone out to eat at restaurants from NiHao to Frank’s Pizza & Pasta.

Soon to be a mom of three, Scott keeps a few tricks up her sleeve whenever she goes out: “I overpack. Extra snacks, extra milk, extra entertainment.” A true parenting pro, she doesn’t offer everything all at once — “they get overstimulated very quickly” — instead pulling items out on an as-needed basis.

But probably the most important thing Scott brings is her patience. “The biggest lesson I had to learn for myself was not to feel embarrassed or flustered” when her kids would cry, she said. “You deserve to be in the space and so does your baby.”

Even if that place is a fancy restaurant.