Toddler won't eat at the table anymore because..

[Mee_Mummy]

He's learnt to turn the tv on so he wants to eat in front of the tele!!

He sits on a dining chair with no booster seat & he'll pick at a little bit of food and then winge to get down. If I don't help him he'll get down by himself anyway. Then I'll put his food on his "little table" like a kiddies table but he won't sit at it. He will either take the plate into the front room or take a piece of food into the front room, eat it & come and collect another.

If don't put it on his table he'll either take it off the dining table or just not be bothered that he's not eating.

At the moment he is teething badly over a back tooth so is being fussy with food anyway but this has been going on a while and I don't know what to do about it?!

My options are -

- put the booster seat back on the chair & refuse to let him out of it.

- put his highchair back up and refuse to let him out.

- put his childs table in the living room and let him watch tv whilst eating dinner.

- refuse to give him any food unless he's sat in the table.

Should he be in a booster seat or a highchair?

Do I have any more options?

What would you do? HELP! Xx

 

[QTPie]

Very personal choice. I would think "long term" what are you happy with and go down that road (I take it you don't always want him eating in the living room?).

We have a TV in the kitchen (which we also have half as a play area). I do tend to have it on all of the time, but it is usually on the news (BBC News channel). He has kiddie TV from 5 to 7.30pm, but that is normally it (unless he is properly ill, then I will put it on more). So he watches TV (from his high chair) at dinner, the other meals the TV is on but not on kiddie tv...

The other thing you may want to consider is how much TV (and control) you want DS to to have? Not just at meal times? Set TV times? Just certain programmes?

QT

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I'd not let Ruby watch telly during many meals tbh because she doesn't usually eat properly, she eats realllllly slowly and then the food goes cold and she doesn't want it. But atm we are in the middle of packing up to move and our dining room table has been dismantled so she eats at her little table and we sit on the sofa. If she's been watching telly while I've been preparing dinner then it'll just be a meltdown if I turn it straight off, which I cba with at 38 weeks pregnant, so I just go with it. I try and only let her watch things from the sky + that last about 10 mins so once it's finished I tell her TV has finished and there's no more programmes.

 

[mum2b2009]

my son went through this stage of not wanting to sit at his table to eat. tbh i just let him carry on and he soon realised it was far better sat at the table and eats there fine now.

 

[Mee_Mummy]

I just made him eat at the table and he ate -

A pasta shell, a little stars yoghurt & 1/4 Organix soft rusk.

 

[freckleonear]

I would just unplug the TV during mealtimes.

 

[ginab]

Its def a personal decision and im sure you will get differing views..

if it was me.. id let him eat in front of tv for now... its prob just a phase anyway as these things usually are.. maybe mix it up a bit, try and sit him down for at least one meal of the day perhaps?

also, I did read that you cant force a child to eat or sit at the tabe when they are still young.. young enough not to understand table manners..

 

[hattiehippo]

I'd let him eat in front of the TV unless you want the battle of fastening into the highchair or booster seat so he can't leave the table. Either that or unplug the TV from the wall and tell him its broken when it doesn't turn on for him - hopefully then he'll get bored and come back to the table.

Tom eats at the dining table but we turn the TV round so he can watch it at the same time. He eats far more than without it on. He knows how to turn it on and off but I unplug it when I don't want it on and he doesn't know how to solve that yet!

 

[fairy1984]

personally i'd go with the "strict" option of saying no food unless you're up at the table and take the plate away if he got down so he couldnt keep ferrying it back and forth.

he is hungry and wants to eat but knows he can get away wiht what he's doing a tthe moment so i'd let him have a few tantrums over it until he got the picture.

we've had situations where i've let my LO get away with someothing once and she's cottoned onto it and pushed each time after that for the same thing (they're little cheeky devils sometimes arent they!)

not the same thing exactly but same principle is that i let my LO have a nap with me on Thursday as i was sooo tired and she was refusing to get in her bed even though she was tired too. oh and i'm pregnant by the way. and it was bliss being able to just sleep and know that she would too.

next day she asked to go into my bed again and screamed for 15 minutes when i said no so i made her go into her bed and eventually she got to sleep. this messed up her whole day as she went down later and then wasnt tired for bed etc.

shes asked each day since the same question but i've said no and shes now only making a minor fuss (in comparison to fridays meltdown) so we're making progress.

Its hard and they LOVE to test at this age. dont let anyone tell you that the terrible 2's start at 2...its a good few months before

 

[RachA]

I would think long term - what do you want to be doing in the future? If you don't mind dinner in front of the tv in the long term then don't stress about it now. If you don't want it then you need to start looking into it now.
For the time being i would unplug the tv and only put it on when you want lo to watch it.
Then get out the highchair or booster seat if lo won't stay at the table. Yes he'll kick up a fuss but long term he'll be fine. If you want to watch something in front of the tv then you can always move the hair with the booster seat on it into the living room.
I would tend to go down the hard route as a lot of habits they pick up now they carry through with them.

 

[Mee_Mummy]

Well I think I will be getting his high chair back out or his booster seat & try and keep him really entertained at the table. Try and make it a fun experience for him.

As for plugs my DS knows how to plug and unplug plugs

I'm going to turn the tele off and be strict about keeping meals at the table only & see how it goes.

At 19 months would you use a highchair or booster seat? X

 

[hattiehippo]

I'd go with a booster seat rather than the highchair at 19 months.

 

[fairy1984]

we went for booster seat at that age too but only because we wanted hte floorspace back in the kitchen rather than any other reason

 

[RachA]

Depends on the highchair - we have a Babydan chair that converts to a chair so we won't be putting her in a booster.
I think 19 months is fine to use a booster though. They do take up a lot less space and are obviously good for taking out with you if you need to.

 

[Windmills]

I make her eat at the table with everyone else. I wouldn't let her eat in front of the tv away from the family when shes 5, so why would I now and it'd be harder to get out of the habit than to avoid it in the first place.
Family mealtime is important to me, even though generally its just me and her, I think it's really important we eat at the table and not on the sofa. If we have visitors we sit at the table too.

 

[Windmills]

Daisy knows how to plug and unplug aswell but she's definitely not allowed to touch plugs. I put covers in if something is unplugged, otherwise I just keep reminding her when she goes near it.