Table behaviour

[Loops81]

My 2.3 year old is not a big eater (we're working on it, slowly...). But the thing that is driving me nuts at the moment is her behaviour at the table. She might eat happily for about five minutes, but as soon as she's full or bored she demands to get down, watch TV, or starts making a mess with her food. And it's hard to reason with her at this point - it quickly descends into whinging/crying. In any other situation I would remove her from the scene when she starts playing up, but in this situation that's exactly what she wants, so it's like rewarding bad behaviour. We try so hard to make mealtimes relaxed, all eating together and chatting etc. I don't expect her to sit quietly for hours - just learn that dinner time is for eating and talking, not bloody Peppa Pig. Has anyone got any tricks for getting the message through?!

At this age, it's wise to either let them down once they've eaten or have them sit on someone else's knee if you're in a restaurant...or just allow them a couple of little figures to play with.

We never expected our children at 2 to sit for a whole meal at home. They're not really capable. Mine are 12 and 8 now and perfectly capable of sitting nicely through a long meal.

This is also why some people feed toddlers separately at home...rather than letting them join in with a family meal where they can't cope.