Sitting Still

Elle used to love reading books...we could spend ages reading.

Now she just doesn't stay still AT ALL. She isn't interested in reading ATM and doesn't even stay still to eat. Playgroups etc have a rule that kids have to sit down to eat and I can't get her to do it to save myself! I end up having to take the food off her (otherwise the leaders would) and put up with the screaming fit. It often appears to me that she is the only one who won't sit and eat. Have I just been slack in not teaching her sooner (I previously let her walk around with snacks).

If I try to give her food in her chair she squirms and cries and throws a wobbly so now she eats at her little table but squirms, gets up and down and generally just stays in constant motion. Up,down, up, down....

I do realise that toddlers don't spend much time sitting still but are other 18mth olds like this? Is it just a phase? We miss reading...and sitting still for meals!! LOL.

We called Ella the seagull because she used to be exactly like that. She'd swoop in every now and then to have a bit to eat and then take off again to play.
I think it was a combination of poor training on my part and her personality. She was (and still is to a degree) a very picky slow eater so I'd just let her do whatever she liked so long as she was eating! Plus she was always so busy and nosy she hated to sit still in her highchair for any length of time. She felt she was missing out on things.
Once Benjy came along so did a better mealtime routine. We now generally all sit down and eat together at dinnertime and its become habit for her to do this with her other meals and snacks too, yay!

I think it's the age - we had that too - and it seemed like she was the only one who did it too lol

I think a combination of attending daycare for a few hours from 2+ years really helped (all the kids had to sit still at meal times, and I wasn't there), and just getting older really.

If we're outside, she's allowed to eat while walking around - I'd go hoarse otherwise trying to get her to sit still

Edited by meow

Ella's constantly on the go, too.  I feed her at her little table in her own chair, and the rule is she's not allowed to get out of the chair and still eat - she gets told off for it a couple of times, then locked into her highchair for the rest of the meal, or if it's a snack, the food goes away and we try again later. 

...I wish I could say is was 'working' as such, but we've been keeping to this rule for some time now, and she's still determined to wriggle off that chair constantly. 

Sitting still? What's that? The gremlins don't know those words! They are up and down from their dinner table like blimmin yoyos, and constantly cruising around the house. Meh, drives me mad!

Sitting still, never heard of it LOL the only time T is still is when he is asleep :)

Lol Emma, so does Isla!

Yep Isla definatly doesnt sit still and eat either. She will eat breakfas in her highchair, but she is in there for all of about 3 mins max to down some weetbix,..then she walks about and I can shove a few bits of banana in while shes playing if Im lucky. Snacks and lunch are always on the go,..and are pretty much an on-going pick all afternoon. She will sit still to eat about 1/2 her dinner, then we play with her, and manage to get her to eat more like that!

Gina will sit still for eating but that's about it - she's on the go ALL the time too. I've given up on the reading for moment too