Would rather walk around and eat than sit in a highchair

[busymama77]

DS2 is 13 months and will sit in his highchair initially when it's meal time, but especially at dinner, when DH and I sit down with our meals, he starts fussing, wanting what we have and really isn't content until he's either tried what we've had or he's been taken out of his highchair and walks around we place food on the table and he takes it....sort of walking and snacking.  Is this is a bad habit to start?  Should we get rid of the highchair and offer him a booster chair at the table?  Maybe he's feeling left out of being the only one not at the actual table?

What do you think?

[lovepickles]

(nak)

We have the stokke chair and start her at the table when we sit down to eat. we taught her to point down when she is done. She usually has to insist after enticing her with food and feeding daddy. we also kill a little time by having her wipe her placemat clean with a wet cloth ... then sometimes she wants to eat the pieces she moved over with her cloth. sometimes we remind her of her sippy cup and she drinks water. sometimes i serve her meals in different courses to keep her engaged. we also try to eat at least one thing that she can so she can watch us eat. we also show her our food in our mouth while we are chewing it ... gross but educational.

we do let her eat running around if she isn't interested in sitting ... but only after we try all our stuff. we only give her food that we don't mind picking up. i don't care about habits at this age ... i just want her to eat and be happy. we have a small toddler table we lay snacks on and she just munches if shewon't sit.

the way i see it is that i don't want to give her any bad associations with eating. if she communicates that she wants down i respect it. since doing that she actually stays longer at the table ... but it is her choice.

btw dd is almost 16 months.

[crunchy_mommy]

I would put him in a booster right at the table, and give him a plate with the same food you're eating....

[TSomm]

My 14mDD is like this too.  If she doesn't want to eat in her chair at the table with the rest of us, I'll offer food in a muffin tin after the meal.

[katelove]

Does he have cutlery? Our 11m.o. was getting quite frustrated in her chair until I realised that she wanted cutlery like we had. So now, I always giver her her food and a spoon and she's much happier. She can't actually use a spoon effectively of course but she holds it in one hand and eats with the other 

[busymama77]

Originally Posted by katelove 

Does he have cutlery? Our 11m.o. was getting quite frustrated in her chair until I realised that she wanted cutlery like we had. So now, I always giver her her food and a spoon and she's much happier. She can't actually use a spoon effectively of course but she holds it in one hand and eats with the other 

He does like chewing on spoons and really always has since he's been eating solid food. I'll give that a try.