Q: - When were children's menus introduced in America?

A: - The earliest references we find in print to children's menus in America (developed specifically for children, not a separate list of choices printed on the adult menu) surface in the early 20th century. The development was a perfect convergence of period scientific, social, and economic trends:

1. Domestic scientists promoted the new discovery that healthy, growing children required special nutrition and foods. They were not just tiny adults, as previously thought.
2. It was acceptable for modern women to dine in public during without male accompaniment during the day.
3. Savvy marketers capitalized on a brand new market: selling to parents via their children.

Children's menus were offered by department stores, fancy hotels, railroads, and catering companies. Colorfully decorated menus featuring games and nursery rhymes where developed by companies hoping to upsell wealthy people with small children. By WWI, indoor play spaces & tea rooms encouraged modern upscale homemakers (or their nannies) to bring their children to department stores while they shopped and socialized.

"When children rode the train, special efforts were made to add to their dining pleasure. It might begin with the steward, cookie jar in hand, passing through the train handing out complimentary between-meal snacks. When he seated children in the dining car, he might hand each one a peppermint stick. The colorful children's menu, sometimes with a happy story or interesting facts included, often named the meal as to enhance the fantasy children experience when traveling by train. So chicken soup, a broiled lamb chop, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks and ice cream became the "Engineer's Special Dinner." Children's mealtime favorites included spaghetti, a broiled hamburger with French Fried potatoes, and French toast...Every effort was made to ensure that all children ate and enjoyed their meals, and that memories of the experience lingered with them. They were, after all, the next generation of riders."

---Dining by Rail, James D. Porterfield [St. Martin's Griffin:New York] 1993