23month eating problems!

[J & J's Mum]

Hi,

My DS is almost 23 months old.

He doesn't really want his morning bottle of milk and more or less refuses to sit on his booster seat for his breakfast, but he'll quite happily wonder around the living room with some toast.  He has finger foods in the living room at lunch time at his little table and chair, which is always successful.  Dinnertimes are a no go!!  I sit with him at the kitchen table eating my dinner, but he pushes his plate away and then pulls it back for another spoonful.  He doesn't have too much to snack on in the day, so he must be hungry.

My Mum is staying with us at the moment and she said she would sort breakfast out this morning.  I was shocked to see him sitting at his little table in the living room eating his rice krispies.  He ate them all though!!

I'm so confused as to know what to do.  Do I let him eat all meals at his little table in the living room?  We're off to Australia for just over 3 weeks in March, so his routine will be disrupted.  Do I get back on track when we're back?

Help!!

[dkjokisch]

I think this is a case of "start as you mean to go on".  If you want him to sit at the table for meals, you need to put him there and expect you're going to get some resistance the first week or two.  He may refuse to eat some meals, but kids can't physically starve themselves.  I think alot of times we as parents get caught up in doing whatever it takes to get our picky little eaters to eat or we take the easy way because we don't want to listen to them fuss.

For me, eating in the living room is an absolute no as I don't like to clean food and drink from the carpet and upholstery.  We also live in FL so a stray piece of fruit or cracker under a chair is a guarantee we will have bugs.  But that is my priority.  If you're ok with him eating in the living room, fine, but if it's not something you want in the long-term, I wouldn't allow it now.

[Deb_in_oz]

In my fantasy life (you know the one  ) both my kids would sit at the table and eat all the food groups, but it does not happen in my real world.  Liv (2yrs this week) is a picky-ish eater but more so she is a grazer and if i restricted her to eating at the table she would forego a lot of food.

she sits at the table for meals, but when she starts refusing her food / asks to get down i let her. she will then often ask for food and i try to get her to come to the kitchen but she will specifically ask to eat at the coffee table or her little sofa - both in the living room. for some reason she just prefers this so i have chosen to go with it and just add some rules.  This morning she wanted watermelon and i refused to let her sit and eat it on my leather sofa (go figure) and said - if she wanted it she had to eat it at the coffee table (easy to clean up) or the kitchen. at first she refused and just sat on the sofa. but i left the watermelon in the bowl on the coffee table and 5 min later i saw her climb down and she stood at the coffee table and ate her watermelon.

some would freak out at this thought, but to me there are too many battles with a toddler and a preschooler in the house so i choose them carefully and hover with wipes