First of all, welcome
you have a great community here to call on
Hugs sweetie }}}}}{{{{{{{{ aside to adjusting to life with a newborn, this has got to be one of the hardest stages a parent has to go through with a child
They begin to realise at this age that they have a will of their own and you react a certain way to certain behaviours.........so when he does what he does with food and you react (positively or negatively) he thinks "oh look at that! when i do this mummy does that" and thus he repeats the behaviour again and again
SO one of the best pieces of advice i can give you here is that you do not offer any reinforcement to behaviour you do not want to see....when he refuses to eat, do not say a thing to him...at the end of the meal just clear his plate away and thats that. The same goes for tantrums, although a little understanding is needed here as a child of his age has so so much going on in that little head that he cannot possibly understand it all and what it means. This equals a meltdown lol. So what we do here is you acknowledge that he is angry/upset and explain simply that he cannot do this/have that. Stand firm. Let him be angry. Do not shout. What you are doing is teaching him its ok to be angry but this is not the way to behave to get what he wants. Id recommend 2 books at his age of development. They kept me sane i know that! Ok so the first is the Baby whisperer for toddlers. Do you have this one yet? It carries on Traceys way of doing things but obviously incorporates the toddler and is great! And another one which my health visitor recommended me - Toddler taming by Dr Christopher Green. Its a great book with his sense of humour about this whole stage thrown in, which does help you to see the lighter side of life with a toddler lol
Hth hun dont hesitate to let us know how you are getting on, we 're here for you
