I have a 2yo DS. He is surprisingly competent with cutlery, recently he's even been cutting properly with a knife and fork. He always uses a spoon or fork to eat. However in the last couple of days he's been refusing to use his fork at all. We are eating meals with gravy or sauce so definitely not finger food. DH is not willing to tolerate this at all and so it's becoming a bit of a stand-off situation. Left to my own devices I think I would simply ignore it and just pile on the praise when he does use his fork.
I think part of the problem may have been me overloading his plate a bit which I'm going to try to sort out but also he seems to suddenly be quite interested in texture so will pick up beans and squish them between his fingers in a way he never used to like.
We have been taking his dinner away after a couple of warnings to use his fork but I'm not sure it's helpful and he's not bothered. I should mention that there's no tantrum taking place at all, it's just a refusal to do it as we want. So is this a fight worth having? I'm torn because we do want him to develop good habits but I also don't like having so much negativity at the dinner table.