This is hard to describe so please bear with me.
My 18mo LO has few words, mainly dada. 80% of the world is dada. So he gets frustrated trying to communicate and sometimes it veers into tantrum.
We have noticed at lunch/dinner, but not breakfast so far, when he is sitting in his high chair, that he will sometimes cry (no rolling tears but tears in eyes and red face) and rub his hands or wrists as if they hurt him.
Specifically he will touch and rub his wrists or back of hands, putting them up to his mouth or holding them out to me for kiss-better. If I start kissing them he seems to calm down at times but can bring them back for seconds or thirds.
The pain in his face seems so genuine, and he will be eating happily only to down tools and start crying and rubbing.
His hands and wrists have no marks or rash on them. We don't pull him or hold him by the hands ever. He is well past crawling and has no other ailments that we know of.
What could this be? Googling the terms doesn't bring up anything except growing pains.