18 month old meal times/ table manners

[thenightfeed]

Hi all, would appreciate some guidance from anyone who has been here before! 18 mo DD has, over the last couple of months, been completely refusing her high chair for mealtimes at home (but accepting one out and about).
She goes to nursery full time and eats at table and chair there so we bought a little table and chair for home and for the first week or so things were great, she was eating so nicely at the table at the end of our table. We always do family meal times, no TV on or anything.
Over the past couple of weeks though she has started messing around a lot, getting up and running around, pushing the table and chair around the room, running off and banging her fork against the wall etc. Obviously she is super little and it’s normal to be exploring, wanting to play etc. We just wonder how others would deal with this as she’s our first so we don’t have prior experience! Should we just let her get on with it and gently try and reinforce the preferred behaviour and hope the phase passes? Or be more strict? Not sure whether making a big deal out of it will make things worse. She definitely understands the word no but is a cheeky one and finds it funny. Should we try and force the high chair again? We are not expecting miracles but also don’t want to create bad habits for the future. Any advice appreciated! Thanks!

I personally woikdnt make a big deal of it. Attention spans are short at that age. She'll sit longer soon enough.

(Caveat: my eldest had great table manners... my boys don't. So perhaps I'm not an expert!)

Thanks. That was generally what we are trying to do, was just getting worried it was the wrong thing!

I would remove the table and chair to somewhere she can't reach it and take the fork and plate away. Ignore her and eat your food then when she comes back ask her if she's ready to sit nicely Keep repeating and she will get the message

We didn't go down the route of a small table and chairs for this reason, I think it's much harder to enforce manners, which I do think you have to be consistent about and teach. Plus I like our daughter sitting at the table with us. She was a high chair refuser so we swapped to a booster seat which worked for a month or so then she started refusing that so we let her just sit on a standard chair and kneel up. Has to have her knees or bottom on the chair. We've had the occasional meltdown over it but generally she sits really well at the table. I think just pick whatever set up you want long term and stick with it. If she gets down she gets a warning the food will be removed and if she doesn't get back up it's taken away. No walking around with food at any time so there is no confusion.

The only thing that keeps mine at the table is hunger.

So we do no snacks well before dinner and he's very physically active so he's ravenous come dinner time.

We have a Stokke Tripp Trapp chair at the dining table. I don't see how a separate little table would work. Then she's not at the same table as you, let alone the same height so how are you sharing your meal together?

The Tripp Trapp would give her the freedom she's looking for. But if she's not properly hungry she'll want to eat a few bits and then get down. We don't bother about that. He's 2 and a half and says "I want to go play please" and we let him. Most of the time he sits with us for the whole meal though, because he's properly hungry.

Is the running around etc during a meal or when she’s finished?
if it’s during perhaps take the fork and plate away (to your table) and use a phrase like if you want to run around that tells me you have finished your food.
keep consistent she might then understand that food and cutlery stays on the table even though her body doesn’t have to. She will then eat leave the plate/ fork etc hopefully on the table.

My 28 month is doing this lately, its annoying. She moved out of her booster seat and into a high toddler chair (so like a normal dining chair, but with the seat closer to table) almost 2 months ago.

Half the time she climbs down and starts running around whilst still eating, tries taking her plate/bowl with her, which we don't allow. But often she'll go play whilst chewing, come back for a bite, then off again. Or odd with her sppon/fork. Tbh, we kind of ignore it, because it's already often a bit mad with 11 month sister and me/us eating too.