Dinner time drama

My DS is at the stage now where he absolutely hates being in the high chair, he will scream and scream and get himself completely worked up if you put him in there. We all eat dinner together so we have tried sitting him on a dining chair with us to eat his dinner. It works for a little bit but he climbs up on the table or gets down and runs around the house and yeah hardly eats a thing. He has a little table of his own which he will sit at to eat but he won't stay there for long either so getting him to finish his meal can be really exhausting and when it's a messier meal I don't like to have him sitting at his small table. Any suggestions? Have been considering one of those fabric type things you can put over a normal chair to keep him in place but suspect he won't like that either, he hates being restrained in any way and it always results in a huge meltdown and no eating after that anyway... at present I end up chasing him around the living room trying to get food in his mouth which is just not ideal. Im sure this will pass but any suggestions in the meantime? I got a houdini stop to try and keep him in the highchair because he learnt to get out of the harness and stand up, but he still screams and gets worked up, moreso as he can't get his arms out... lol sigh...

Ps sorry this is irrelevant but I posted this same thing on huggies forum round the time DS was 18 months and doing the same thing and I was ridiculed!! Closed my account after that!

Same age here as well (though I'm sure you know that!) and similar problems. We're the mean parents though and once he hops down from the table we take his food away. We try again after 20 minutes and if he hops down again, the food goes in the bin. He's gone to bed "hungry" 3 times (I don't really think he was hungry or he would have eaten!) Now he stays at the table and tells us "all done" when he wants no more. Sometimes he doesn't eat much, but kids don't starve themselves.

Perhaps a booster seat that brings him up to the same level as you on the dinning chair might work? DS thought the one at the hairdressers was magic .

Edited by Stoked

we have patches of exactly the same problem...I have almost ended up in tears of frustration at times. We have tried ignoring, sign language, getting her down if she does it (figure kids won't go hungry if they really aren't hungry) etc. In our case its just behavioural, she does the same with refusing to have a bath. It normally only lasts a week or two (forever in toddler terms!) and then things get better. I think the best thing in my case is to get her down, and make sure she has lots of snacks during the day, and ignore the bad behaviour until it goes away...and I love the nigel latta thing - 'don't let their problem become your problem' - if they don't want to join the family for a meal, fine, that's their problem, not yours!

where do you get the booster seats from? that could solve a few problems here

Exactly the same thing happening here SB and it was totally doing my head in! If he wants to get down he doesn't get anymore food...if he wants to eat he has to be up at the table. And we also put the harness on but that often creates an even bigger struggle.
The worst bit is if DP gets up from the table when he's finished and leaves the room (I know, great manners, right?!) - DS then thinks he should be allowed down too.

I also remind myself that he won't let himself starve...as annoying as it is when he hardly eats a thing!

what about those little seats that clip onto the table? or perhaps you could try using a mei tei or similar thing to strap him to an adult chair? he might not complain so much if he is in an adult chair.

i am lucky that my little girl (same age) is still happy to go in her high chair - it's the tossing the food over the side, and spitting the food that we struggle with