Do you leave your child in their highchair until they eat even a little

Question

My two-year-old has been refusing to eat enough for months now, my fiancé gives in constantly and takes her out and allows her to walk around the house while eating. I’m alone with her during the day and I don’t think that’s right, so I don’t allow that. 
Just wondering your opinion on letting them sit out in their chair. 
Now my son, he is a year younger and he piles food into him like a dump truck. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. ￼

Answer

If our kids don’t want to eat, that’s fine. But when they get down from the table, the meal is over. They don’t come and go from the table and they don’t take their food with them. We eat at the table as a family. The only exception to this is their afternoon snack, which they sit on the couch to eat when we get home from daycare.

Answer

If we're eating a meal as a family the rule is everyone sits together - but no one is forced to eat. If I'm just making a meal for my daughter and she tells me she's all done then I let her be all done. I trust her to trust her body/instinct. She has always gone through phases where she's more peckish and phases where she doesn't seem to stop eating. Lol.

Answer

For me personally it’s more important that my toddler eats. Rules and regulations about where they can and cannot eat come after. But I respect other parenting styles 🤷🏻‍♀️

Answer

Toddlers go through phases all the time. She could be going through one where she doesn’t eat much. It is normal and this probably won’t be the last time either. She will let you know when she is hungry.

Answer

She eats in the highchair. She doesnt get food outside of the highchair. He needs to stop giving her the food after he gets her out. She needs to lesrn you eat in the chair

Answer

I feel like a good compromise is that you give her food—when she is hungry and she has to sit in the high chair to eat it. That’s how to keep your house clean and your children associating it with their food.

Answer

It might be from my experience with my children being labeled as failure to thrive, but I only care if my kids eat. Now we have a coffee table with toddler chairs and they eat there instead of the full size table and I’m fine with it

Answer

We just discussed this with my brother and SIL. Both agreed we let our kiddos leave the table when they’re done but if they decide they’re hungry later, they get the meal and not a snack. They can return to the table to sit and eat. My daughter is more of a grazer. She doesn’t always eat a lot at a meal. She’s 2 so she’s learning her body cues still. If her meal has a good food for a snack bowl, like eggs and raisins at breakfast, I’ll get her to finish eggs then put the raisins in a snack bowl to finish when she’s hungry. My husband and I basically decide what we want her to eat and go from there. I never want to force eating if she’s not hungry but it’s hard to make sure they’re getting what they need. My daughter gets lots of snacks like blueberry crackers, applesauce or raisins if she needs them. When we know we’re having a meal that may not be her favorite we try to offer something we know she likes. She’s not huge on spaghetti so we may steam up broccoli on the side because she loves broccoli so we know she’ll eat that. 
It seems like we do something in between what you and your husband do.

Answer

Does she eat better when she's able to walk around? I noticed my 1.5yo tends to eat more when she's not in the highchair so I started letting her sit by me while she eats. We have a bench table so she kinda walks around the bench and eats. It's a little more messy but I just want her to eat so I live with it. She would throw her food on the floor right away in the highchair anyway so either way it was messy. I do not allow her outside of the kitchen though.

Answer

We used to do snacks in the living room or outside, just wherever we were. We still do them outside a couple times a week, but if we’re eating inside, you eat at the table (just too many crumbs, I can’t keep up) and once you get down, you’re done, usually with one reminder/warning. If they don’t eat (basically never) or don’t eat enough (rarely), we’ll, they eat 5 times in 12 hours or less. They’ll make up for it at the next snack/meal.

Do you leave your child in their highchair until they eat even a little

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