Food and the little man who said ’no’

DS is 17mths, I'm starting to wonder if he's starting his terrible two's early, or OMG what if he gets worse?

His favourite word is 'no' or to be more accurate 'no no no no no'. He refuses everything, at least once, before giving it a go. Like you go to give him his bottle (he LOVES his bottle), and I get 'no no no no no' with shaking head and bottom lip out. At least once or twice, then he takes it off me like a starving man who's just found food.

At dinner tonight, everything was 'no no no no no'. Eventually we got him out of the high chair and after many more 'no's and complaints he ended up on my lap and stole my lamb steak. Apparently cut up bits of food are most offensive and he can only eat it in large chunks off my plate. While he was eating the lamb I tried offering him some of his cut up lamb 'no no no no no' and spat it out. He finished the lamb steak approx the size of his whole hand.

This is not the first time cut up food has upset him. He wants to eat just what we have, including the presentation and he wants to use a knife & fork too. We haven't (yet) given him the chance to use a knife on his own. He's just not coordinated enough.

How do I break the 'no' habit?

Do I just start giving him whole sized food? (I feel it's a choking hazard, isn't he too young for that?)

DD is just starting to learn no at 14 months

She has been getting whole food for ages and copes really well. She only had 2 teeth until boxing day which hasn't hindered her at all. I have started giving her a fork on occasion as she keeps trying to pinch mine and getting upset when I won't give it to her. DP is worried she'll poke her eye but she is much more co-ordinated than he gives her credit for.

It sounds like he is exerting his independence a bit. I'd avoid going head to head with him and as above just say "here's your bottle" and leave it where he can get it. You're giving him his independence but avoiding that battle.

I'd also give him a knife and fork (kiddies one) and whole food. You can always cut it up for him.

The whole no thing is just a stage, my boy went through it and it only lasts a wee bit and then they're onto some other equally annoying phase lol. My advice is not to get into battles about it if you can avoid it, the best thing at this age is to use distraction and making things fun and save any discipline for the biggies like hitting/biting etc.   

The terrible 2's do start early, but they seem to be bad for a couple of weeks and then fine for a while, then more pushing and asserting then easing off again. Nigel Latta calls it rattling the fences just to check that they are still there.

My 17 Month old says "nope" constantly and wants to eat with our cultery all the time. I just give her a small fork and let her go for it, and so far so good. She sits at our table in one of those Phil and Teds little high chairs, which works fine, shes up with us which she likes, but is secure. There's a plastic mat under that part of the the table, and that which does get on the carpet does come out easily.

I'd give him the whole food, he'll probably eat it in his hands biting stuff off as he goes.

DD seems to also use no just for the sake of it and doesn't really mean it half the time. I ignore it most of the time, most of the time she good at saying what she does want anyway.

*lurker* imo he's not too young... DD is 10.5 mo and been having whole foods for a few months now (although we do BLW...). I would have thought cup up chunks were more of a choking hazard than big chunks.

Sounds like you have a feisty little one!! Hopefully you can channel his strong opinions and he'll be a great mover and shaker in no time.

LOL Jake likes to eat toast that way and he opens sandwiches and eats them that way too... he is just exploring and having fun with his food, all good

We also give him his own grown up fork and he has exactly what we have for dinner, except meat because he doesnt really like it so we give him biggish pieces of softer meats (like sliced codl meats or fish or chicken) and very thin slices of harder meats (like steak, lamb, pork etc) as he wont chew it other wise (little monkey).

Mean mummy breaking his toast LOL Jake gets quite angry if I mess with his food too LOL