Nursery comment

[sarah0106]

My little boy hasn’t long turned 2 and has moved into the next room at nursery, when I collected last night I was told he is struggling to “sit long at mealtimes and tooth brushing he just wants to eat his meals or brush his teeth then go do his own thing” I was then told they’ve spoke about putting him in a chair with straps in until he knows what’s expected in that room.. I don’t know what to make of it.
I understanding trying to get him to follow routines but to put him in basically a high chair until he learns not to run from the chair at mealtimes seems abit much

Ahem...no. Just no. Wtf are they thinking?

I wouldn’t be happy with the threat of strapping him into a chair.
How have you found them generally?

Goodness - strapping him down isn't appropriate.

A just turned two year old isn't meant to be good at sitting still for long!

I'd ask them for further information.

How are they encouraging them to stay at the lunch table? Are they positively engaging with them to make meal times fun and enjoyable?

They sound like they're finding him an inconvenience and want to strap him into a chair to make it easier for them. Not acceptable.

Dear Lord!!!! I’m horrified

I know nurseries often use the lower style chairs and tables for meals but I don’t see why it’s controversial to strap a 2YO into a highchair for lunch if he’s too little to understand sitting still yet. Don’t most people use a highchair and use the straps for a child of that age at home? It’s hardly a medieval restraint system anyway and personally I’d be pleased they’re trying to make sure he eats his lunch. Or am I missing something?

I assume they mean a high chair? Does he use a high chair at home?

If not just say you'd rather he learn to sit at the table with the others.

We had low chairs at a nursery I worked at . They were not high chairs just normal little chairs with straps. We would strap in children who couldn't sit for lunch. Just waist straps nothing sinister! Helped them to get on with lunch rather than bobbing up and down.

Some children do find it difficult and others obviously eat on the run at home and haven't learnt what is expected of them in a group setting. You can't have 6 or 7 children walking around eating.
It's just like a low high chair and most 2 year olds still have a high chair st home.

They put my DS at the back in between people to try and wedge him in as he was the same. He’s 3 and is still the same most of the time now, they just don’t force him to remain seated until everyone else has finished eating (which is what they’d also been trying to do before).

Thank you for explaining so clearly @1543click. That makes a lot more sense

The EYFS has recently been updated and there are specific mentions around snack and mealtimes and that children must be seated and be watched by staff at all times. https://www.thesaferfoodgroup.com/knowledge/eyfs-2025-safer-eating-in-early-years-settings/. These rules are mandatory by September but settings are being pulled up on it now in routine inspections. Others have described the kind of seats they may be referring to. To stay within the guidelines, practitioners must stay at the table and be watching those eating and cannot go after a child who has left the table. This goes around in circles as if the child has left the table with food in their mouth, they must be supervised too but practitioner cannot leave the table!

Imagine if you had a room full of 2 year olds who all fancied wandering around while eating their meals. It would be carnage. The nursery will be encouraging good social skills and manners by gently persuading toddlers to sit for the duration of the meal. It will be 15 mins max and if they use a waist strap or a captains chair to encourage that then so be it. There will quite likely be staff sat alongside to model and guide on required behaviours.
No one would bat an eyelid if you sat a 2 year old in a high chair with straps yet because it’s a chair at a table with a strap then it’s wrong.
These are the small steps to becoming a well rounded and good mannered child.

DD is 1 and while they have low chairs with a little bump at the front (so they don't slide off), they don't have chairs with straps at her nursery.
If the kid cannot manage to sit still for that long, perhaps they have to consider whether their mealtimes are perhaps taking too long. Perhaps they have to organise them differently. Surely, he won't be the first or only child to have ever had that issue. What's next? They tie him to the potty if he takes too long to potty train?

I’ve worked in a school nursery where the children who wanted to wander around at lunchtime had to sit in high chairs with straps. If they weren’t strapped in they would lean out and fall. You can’t have one staff member focusing on one child who keeps getting up. It’s not safe from a choking point of view and the other children need their share of the adults attention.

Strapping into a chair is a bit extreme, he is only two and can only concentrate on something fully for his age in minutes, but a conversation to yourself about promoting good meal time behaviour is justified.

I’m surprised by how many posters don’t use the straps on their childs highchair, or by how many think wandering around at meal times is okay or normal, imagine then making that normal with around ten two year olds!

Unless its 1:1 children must be and secured to eat, otherwise meal times won’t just be chaos they’ll be a huge choking hazard.

This is to try to prevent choking at mealtimes if they are wandering around when eating. My DS started choking at nursery age 3 (he was sitting) on a piece of orange but as the nursery worker was at the table, she managed to dislodge it. If he had been off on his own chewing it she may not have seen him quickly enough.

If these are the little wooden chairs with the waist straps I thought this was pretty normal. They still sit at the table with others but can’t go running off. All the chairs are like this in the little room at DD’s nursery. In the 2-3 room they don’t have the waist belts but then if one of the younger one needs it on transition what’s the difference to them being in them a few weeks earlier before their 2nd birthday?
I’d rather DD was in one of those at the table with the other children than having to sit separately from everyone else to make sure she didn’t run off.
I will still put DD in a high chair when we are at restaurants (if she fits) for the same reason. I can’t have her running riot when she decides she’s bored.

Thanks for replies, so he sits at his wee table and chair at home, only recently has he started wandering off, I understand due to staffing etc but to me strapping him in a chair has the potential to put him off mealtimes all together? He’s not one for sitting still for more than he needs too. They sit for atleast 30/40 mintues for toothbrushes then their meal. I just think it’s too long overall to be sitting at that age

Totally normal and it is in fact necessary to be compliant with the new guidance. They HAVE to be seated for mealtimes, if a child can’t manage that then they can be strapped in. This isn’t a strait jacket or a cage in the corner, it’s usually just a waist strap on the chair.

Ours are encouraged to sit down when eating, but they eat breakfast between 7.30am and 9am, for example. They aren't wandering around while eating but they might eat something, walk off to play and decide half an hour later that they are still hungry after all, so get their snackbox back and sit down again for a few minutes.
I don't think 2-year-olds should have to sit at a table to eat for 40 minutes. (Ours brush their teeth while sitting on the carpet during circle time. They sing a song and brush them together.)

In DS's nursery, they used mealtimes as 1-2-1 time and had them sit individually in a little chair with a table and an adult opposite. They then chatted with them while they ate. Similar to DD's nursery, they had 4 members of staff for 8 children in the under 3s room. (Not in the UK so Ofsted can do one...)

40 minutes is a long old time for such little kids. I don’t think even my 8YO sits for that long for her school lunch! If you’re going to talk to nursery about it then I’d definitely focus on that. Straps are totally normal though and also necessary if a DC won’t sit as 1 staff member has to watch up to 5 of them so needs them all in their eyeline to spot choking.

Extreme? He’s not strapped to an electric chair, it’s not different from being strapped into a high chair or buggy 😂

I don’t really see the issue with this- I’d rather my dc were strapped in and being supervised whilst eating than wandering off with food. Both of mine have always been strapped into a highchair or sat in a bumbo seat (on a dining chair so they can reach the table) for every mealtime. My 3 year old still asks to go in his younger brother’s high chair sometimes! 😂 30-40 minutes does sound like too long though.

What do you do at home if he wanders off from the table?

Are you sure they have to sit for 40 minutes? My kids have all been to nursery at age 2 and mealtimes were more like 15-20 minutes. I can't see how it could possibly take double that amount of time? But I wouldn't be remotely concerned about them being strapped to a toddler chair with a strap for that express purpose at age 2 to encourage them to sit for 15-20 minutes to eat their meal. Both my children still sat for meals strapped in high chairs at home and elsewhere at 2, gradually tailed off as they were turning 3.