Almost every time it is time to eat, my son (10 months) doesn't want to sit in his booster high chair. He will see it and start to hold me tight, arch his back, and everything. He will eat if I hold him though. He IS clearly hungry too. We have had this seat since he was 6 months old and he doesn't do this every single time. What should I do?
What about getting a kiddie size table chair? It might be a little more diffcult for you but if you can take the hassle out of meal-time then it's probably worth it? It sounds like for some reason he is associating the chair or table or something with bad feelings and the last thing you want is for that to end up being a bad association with food itself! If you could get the fun back into mealtime maybe you could then re-introduce the 'big' table as something exciting and what big boys do kinda thing. Maybe lunch at the little table dinner with mum dad? Or let him pick his own fun plate cutlery or something?
maybe try a regular high chair that you can sit him in and strap him in with his food right there at his level, sometimes booster seats are awkward for little ones.
Sounds like he wants to be more like you guys. Try finding a booster seat that actually sits in a chair instead. Or just be firm with him and don't give in and let him eat on your lap. A few times of getting hungry enough and he won't fight it anymore. He is probably just starting to understand that his refusing something gets him a reward and this behaviour will only get worse as he gets older. Patience and perseverance are your best allies here.
That's a tough one. My son is the opposite way. Every time he sees his booster out he knows he is going to get to eat and gets excited. You said that he doesn't do this all of the time, but has he just recently started, or has he been doing it off and on since you got the chair? Do you have any reason to believe that the chair is uncomfortable for him? Are you using the tray with it? If you are, one idea could be to push it up underneath the table so that the actual table is in front of him instead of his tray. Another idea may be that he just doesn't like being on the chair unless he is being held. Will he sit in his chair if it is on the floor? I'll keep thinking of a few other ideas. Good luck!
This might sound like 'bad parenting' but this is what I did with my first son, who did the same thing: Put his food on his highchair tray. Tried to put baby in chair; baby got furious. Let baby play on the floor by his chair, until he realized he was hungry and the food was not leaving the tray. Eventually, he will get the idea. Don't force it. Don't give in and feed him while he plays elsewhere. He'll get the idea that he eats his food in his chair after you do this a few times ( or a lot of times), and hell stop fighting. It's a 'choose your battles wisely' kind of thing. There was no use fighting to get my kid in his chair; he'd just get so upset that he wouldn't calm down enough to eat anyway, or start throwing food etc.
