High chair rebellion, Need your help!

Mrs.Handy

So Baby Handy has decided recently that he hates his high chair and doesn't want to be there for more than 5 minutes at the max. I was thinking of purchasing a little table and chair for him to eat at. Has anyone done this?

I'm not sure what to do to make him eat in his high chair. We took off the shoulder straps so he is just strapped in on his waste. Even if we offer him his favorite foods (yogurt, cheese, fruit), he whines and cries until we let him out. Then he runs around and we chase his trying him to get him to eat something! He has never been a big eater. 

The reason I thought a little table and chair might work is because we went to a halloween party a few weeks ago and we sat him in a little table and chairs and he had a plate for him. He was gobbling up everything on the plate. It was amazing!

Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Hey Jellisy

Maybe he is ready for a booster seat at the table.  We have a little table and DD loves eating there as well (we got it when DD was 21 months).  Usually lunch, snacks and breakfast on weekdays.  But I prefer her sitting at the big table for family meals like dinner and breakfast on the weekend.  Mostly because she gets up and moves around a lot more from the little table than when she is in the booster. 

Sofka

you should get him one of those booster chairs (there was another thread about it with links), it has a tray table or you can just move him closer to the kitchen table and he'll eat at the table with you but will still be strapped in.

DD sits in a regular chair and has for a long time but she gets up a LOT, walks around, opens the fridge, etc, it's pretty annoying but she's an independent soul

 

AgrippaRidesAgain

When DS started hating his high chair at 9 months, we moved him to a booster seat like this

https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Healthy-Care-Booster-Green/dp/B004C43JJ4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320675588&sr=8-2 

and just pulled him right up to the table instead of using the tray.  That worked for a while.

He was also just a really busy guy.  He has always been a terrible eater.  DD currently eats more than him!  From about 11-18 months old or so, we'd sit him in the booster seat at meals, try to get him to eat, and then move his food to a special spot for him to go and get after the meal was over.  For us, that was a kitchen cabinet with a pull out shelf.  We put one of those plastic disposable placemats in there, and then put things like cheese, raisins, non-messy fruit and veggies, etc. in there for him.  The only rule that we had was that he couldn't walk around with food.  So, if he wanted to eat from the cabinet, fine, but he had to stay there until he was done.  As he got older, we started extending the amount of time that he had to stay at the table and decreasing the time that food would be in the cabinet after a meal.  Eventually, it worked.  Not an ideal solution, but it really worked for our busy guy. 

ETA:  He may have stayed at the table and chairs b/c of peer pressure.  DS did things like that when other kids were around, but it took lots of work to get him to stay at our little table and chairs in our house when it was just him.  DD will stay, but that's only b/c DS is always there too. 

mssaint

Mrs.Handy, I don't have any input for you, but babyhandy has the most gorgeous eyes! That is such a great picture.

WinesNot Whines

The booster seat worked for us, too. My likes sitting at the table with us.

smacb

We stopped using the high chair around 18 months.  DS refused to go in it.  We bought a booster, he refused to use it.  We ended up getting a child size table and chairs and having him sit in a regular chair for family meals.

Mrs.Handy

Thanks mssaint! He gets his eye color from DH. Mine are brown, so I was pretty happy they ended being blue.

We will have to try a booster seat first. We actually have one of those high chairs that sits on top of a chair and turns into a booster. But I was worried putting him up to the table that he will kick himself over using the table as leverage. I guess our table isn't very tall. We'll have to experiment with the height. We have a few boosters that we could try out already. But we might need a new table...

I definitely it agree it could be peer pressure that led him to eat so well at the little table. We'll start with the booster and go from there.

Thanks for the advice!

2vthokies

We have a Stokke and around 18 months DD1 refused to sit in it.  She also refused to sleep in her crib and slept on the floor (her preferred location) until we got her a real bed.  She would never sit in a booster at a restaurant so we let her just sit on a regular chair on her knees at home.  Oddly enough, the other day she just asked us for a booster seat (she's 3 and little).  I guess 1.5 years of sitting on her knees is enough