Curious about the debate this might spark

Your husbands aunt has to read up more on children before blabbing her lips!
Babies are literally INCAPABLE of manipulation. INCAPABLE because their minds are no where near mature enough to understand such a complicated concept such as manipulation, much less practice it. Manipulation begins around 3-7 years of age.

I have my kid out of a high chair too :)
Eating is not mandatory. Just like for adults, eat when you want. Same thing with moms who choose high chairs, if the kid is eating and is choosing when to stop, there’s no problem!
There’s no issue with high chair vs no highchair, just your babies preference.
My baby is extremely mobile right now so she is more interested in walking and exploring than eating.

My girl does both ! Sometimes she starts in her high chair but is clearly uncomfortable being confined there, so I moved her food down for her and let her sit on the floor and eat. It works for us

I totally believe eating isn’t mandatory. He’s had cookies for dinner before. Sometimes I only wanna snack and don’t want a full meal. Why can’t he be the same? 🤷🏻‍♀️ that’s how my son is! He’s extremely mobile and I’ve learned he actually prefers to sit in my lap while he eats. He likes having me at his level. It’s gross when he comes up with those messy hands but one day it’ll stop and it’ll make me so sad

I was intermittently doing both for messy foods like yogurt but that quickly stopped 🤣

Screw them!

My 13 month old starts in her high chair, but ends up graze eating. I try to make sure she eats things like her fruits and veggies in the chair, then she gets her solids while grazing. Sometimes yogurt is in the chair, sometimes I feed it to her while she roams.

I have people trying to pressure me into her being in it constantly for eating but she just cries and won't eat no matter if it's her favorite or not. She eats maybe a quarter of a meal in her high chair but she doesn't like it so I have just let her walk around and eat then to sit in that uncomfortable chair she hasn't always been like this but since she learned how to walk she hasn't sat down for much of anything. She will be 13 months on the 27th.

It may be easier to have them actually sit at the table with you in a booster seat children will start to refuse high chair because they are less included with the family being in there own spot our son roams from meals at home but when we go nanny he has to be in a chair at the table a balance is good whatever you need to do to get them to eat is okay but you can try a booster at the table maybe a change would be fun and make them feel more included !

Mostly he eats in his high chair but half the time we pull his high chair right up to the table with us instead of a tray. He HATES being strapped in so we removed the safety belts from his high chair a long time ago and that helped a ton, we just have to watch him to make sure he doesn't fall which would be near impossible when his tray is clicked in anyway. Sometimes I will give him his snacks if they aren't too messy while he is playing or while we are out running errands but all meals are in his chair. We got a plastic table cloth protector and clipped it over our wooden kitchen table so it makes cleaning up a lot easier when he eats at the table we just put everything directly on the table. Otherwise if he gets a plate or bowl and it can't be suctioned down on the tray he just picks it up and dumps the food everywhere for fun.

My son will literally climb all over me while he’s eating lol. It just works for him. He’s so interested in everything so, if I put him in his bumbo seat he’ll just usually play with his food. As soon as he gets out, he’s eating everything. That was wrong for her to say to you. All children are not the same and it sounds like he’s doing great.

My almost 2 Year old eating sometimes high chair most times she’s roaming around. I peep she eats way more roaming around 😭

I think it's fine as long as LO is closely supervised! Maybe I'll try this with mine, he hates eating most of the time 😅

Phew I thought it was just me 😅 sometimes my daughter is cool with eating in the highchair and at other times wants absolutely nothing to do with it. On those days I just say f it and let her eat on the floor 😂

my son didn’t cry or fight but I could tell he wasn’t as comfortable as he wanted to be he’d reach and get stopped by the straps. I knew something was wrong when he wasn’t eating his safe foods!

I tried this with his high chair and booster seat but he still threw all his food. The only time he doesn’t do that is when we’re out at at a restaurant.

we eat together! I sit on the floor with him and his plate is suctioned cupped to a coffee table. he tries to steal my food all the time even though we’re eating the same thing. 😅

I wish I was still in that half phase cause the clean up is ridiculous over here especially when he has chicken and rice 😭

I’m so amazed by her! It’s amazing she can tell the difference between snack time and wanting to sit down for a meal. I wish my son was like this! The cleanup is unreal when he eats 😭

You know your Baby! Do what’s best. Don’t let the outside comments stress!