So my little toddler (I guess that what she is now that she's 1, tear), doesn't love to sit in her high chair and eat right now. This really is just an issue for dinner time because she eats breakfast and lunch at daycare. She will sit and eat a few bites and then start to throw her food down and make a mess, sometimes she even will use sign language to tell us she is "all done". Next thing we know though she is begging to come up to us at our plates and eat our food, or wants to walk around and snack on things. I don't know if we are supposed to only let her eat in her high chair because we don't' want to teach her bad habits of walking around and eating, but I want to make sure she's eating enough (we are trying to wean some of the breastmilk right now). Any suggestions?
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Occasionally, LO wants out of her high chair and because it's so seldom, I will take her out and we'll sit on the floor together and she will eat from my plate. But it's sit on the floor or nothing.
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I let Lo eat while she roams sometimes.
Banana and yogurt she eats first thing in the am while she plays. Her eggs and sausage she eats sitting at the table with us in her booster.
Lunch depends. Sometimes in her chair, sometimes roaming, sometimes at restaurants.
Dinner in her booster.
We haven't had a problem yet with her not wanting to be in her booster. -
Nope, you sit or you don't eat. No roaming around.
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Yeah, I have to agree with @Looch. I'm still pregnant and don't have a LO yet, but this was always the rule in my house growing up and Hubs and I plan to do the same. If she gets hungry enough, she'll figure out that she needs to sit nicely in order to eat.
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I'll let her roam around for snacks but never for dinner. I've given DD a timeout for not sitting down to dinner.
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True meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) we require everyone to sit at the table, no roaming. If you want to roam you are done. Snacks we allow to be more free range as in you can stand at the coffee table in the living room and eat there or be in the kitchen and eat there but that's the most leniency we give.
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We didn't make this rule, but we needed him to eat as much as possible (weight gain issues). This is a normal stage for kids to go through. Kids won't starve so making her sit won't be a problem.
Have you tried a small table for her? That may give her enough freedom to stay were she should.
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I don't know...I understand why you need to have your toddler sit at the table and finish their meal. But on the other hand I can never send her to bed hungry either. My BIL and his ex are really strict about this rule and I've seen them send their daughter to bed hungry numerous times and she's yet to learn the lesson.
So I'm not sure where the middle ground is.
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My sister in law had issues with her toddlers not eating enough, so she would let them eat while they walked around because at that age, you would rather have them full than send them to bed hungry, I think the child has to be much older than a 1 year old to fully understand this lesson.
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The problem is that food can become a control thing for kids, they can't control much, but they can control what they put into their mouths. This is where I am careful to monitor the behavior.
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Do you think it's the high chair? DD (she's 2) started getting resistant about sitting in her high chair, but once we gave the option of sitting in the booster seat, she was more willing to stay in her seat.
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@Honeybee: It could be a bit of the high chair. The problem is we don't have a table, we just eat at our bar so I don't have the option of a booster. She's not quite big enough for a table of her own yet so I think we are just stuck in a weird limbo state.
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You could also try sitting her at the table so she was more involved. Our highchair can fit under the table. Also, offer spoon and fork for more challenge while eating. My son was much happier eating when he could use a fork and spoon and be like us.
If there is a long wait between dinner and bed, I would definitely offer a snack before bed every night. We eat right before bed because of our schedule so we don't offer a snack.
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She has to sit until I'm done eating (whether she eats or not), but I will let her snack later so she doesn't go to bed hungry. She can snack on fruits & veggies, or her unfinished meal.
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Will she sit in the chair? What kind of chairs do you have, are they high? I have bookmarked two options for boosters down the road:
http://www.keekaroo.com/booster.html
http://www.amazon.com/Kaboost-Portable-Chair-Booster-Chocolate/dp/B000V44B4G
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