Well, you know he's testing his limits to see how much control he has--and he's totally normal! I agree with you setting out your family meal, and whatever he eats, he eats. When he gets hungry enough, he'll join in. And, like you said, just don't have cheese or yogurt available for a while. Those are healthy, but I can see that it would stop him up. Another thing I would probably do with my silly boys is say that the cheese and yogurt had to take a vacation and they wanted to let other foods enjoy being eaten by monster Noah. Have you ever seen a show called something like Yo Gabba Gabba? I have no idea how close I am on that, but I saw one or two episodes a long time ago. It is pretty silly and cheesy but they have a funny/cute song about the food (healthy, like carrots and green beans) going to the "party in my belly". Little kids think it's so cool and they'll actually feel bad for the carrots if only the potatoes get to go to the party. I try silly games like that with my kids all the time. And my husband would say he was a shark and whatever he wanted the kids to eat, he would call that food the little fish, and he would chomp at it and act crazy eating it. Of course, the kids copy daddy and eat the food. Maybe we're over the top or too silly for some people, but stuff like that works and is fun. I certainly wouldn't sit there for two hours trying to force him to eat. You both have better things to do! Well, I hope this helps and doesn't confuse or bother you!

Oh, the other thing is he needs to know now that throwing food is unacceptable. I would probably just take him to his room if he does stuff like that, and I would probably generally ignore the tantrum so he sees it doesn't bring about what he wants.

I can't remember how old he is for sure (almost 2?), but I think he is pushing to see if he can make you give in to what he wants. Set up dinner at the table, if he starts to throw a fit or throw food, turn his high chair away or turn his chair away (not sure what he sits in) from the table and ignore him. When he calms down turn him back, if he throws a fit again, turn him away and ignore him again. When dinner is over, it is over. Don't give him snacks or let him guilt you into feeding him. He will not die from not eating one meal.

Oh, I've gone through this with 4 kids already and going through a with a 5th kid now. Addie is close to your son's age. She'll be 2 at the end of August and she does this at every meal. I've kind of become immune to it. I guess after the 1st kid you stop caring as much. If Addie wants to eat she can eat what the rest of the family is eating, if not she can go hungry and wait till the next meal.. My kids eat breatfast at 7, snack at 10, lunch at 12, snack at 3 and dinner at 7 and then sometimes a bed time snack. (they eat a lot, all are extremely active so they are always hungry caterpillars) .. If Addie misses a meal I don't worry. If she's hungry enough she'll eat and we make sure we cook food she'll like.
I'd make it into a game to get Noah to eat other things. My older kids try to get Addie to eat what's feed to her so they make up these long stories and eat it themselves telling her how yummy it is. They'll sing songs and bribe her (like they'll colour with her after dinner) and she gets a kick out of it.
I do think you should let him know throwing food is not allowed. We started Addie out on time outs when she was 18 months for 1-2 minutes and she HATES it. If she throws food she goes to time out or she'll go to bed 30 minutes early thay night or toys she likes will be taken away.


Anyway, Good luck!

Thank you eberyone for responding with such great advice! I really appreciate it!

The good news is that Noah has finally calmed down and started eating normally again! I just hope it lasts! I think when he was throwing the food he was doing it to get a reaction from me by telling him no and explaining that you put the food back on the plate if he doesn't want it, but then I ignored him the first time he threw something during a meal the other night and he just carried on eating, without throwing anything else.

@ Meaghan - he feeds himself finger foods, but with meals like spaghetti or rice, I give him a spoon and I also have a spoon and we take it it turns (he still needs a little help getting it on the spoon sometimes, so I'm still showing him how and he cries when I put my spoon down ). Thanks!

@ Alisamber - Yes, I know Yo Gabba Gabba! Great show! The games and songs sound like a good attention grabbing idea! Sometimes I have also found singing nursery rhymes to calm him down will help him to eat, too.. so that is a great idea! Sounds like your family has fun at meal times! And I definitely agree about the ignoring part, it has really helped! The hard thing is that when I am staying at my mum's house to help her out, for medical reasons she isn't very tollerable to loud noises, aka.. Noah throwing a tantrum... so I think that is why it has taken a bit longer than it should have to get this sorted out, because I try not to upset her, which usually leads to me having to give in to him. It has made it so much harder. Thank you for your inspirational ideas!

@ Reena - He is 20 months, so I guess he is almost two (WOW!). Turning his highchair away might be a good thing to try, might give that a go next time! Thanks

@ Hattie - Time out might work, I never really though he was old enough, but I guess he is! lol. Thank you for sharing!

It is so hard to get a 2 year old to stay in time out. Heck, it was crazy hard to get some of the three year olds in my daycare class to sit in timeout for 3 minutes. One boy, the evil Reuben, wouldn't sit at all, but he was actually a 2 year old that was "to violent" for the 2 year old class so they put him in my class. Insanity!