I have a little girl is 14 months old who has been in my care since January. It took her about a month and a half to get settled here. She still cries sometimes if I leave her sight for a second, especially if we are in the downstairs play area. She has been teething the entire time she has been here (has gotten 8 teeth in so far, 3 of them molars) and I know that this has been a source of some of her discomfort here. However, 2 weeks ago she was sick and missed 3 days of care, plus the weekend. Once she came back last week, it was like she had never been here. Constant crying, freaking out if I put food on her tray while she was sitting in her booster chair, wouldn't eat or take her bottles. Apparently at home she was being really difficult as well.
So here is my problem. Mom drops her off today and says she is back to normal except that she wont sit in her highchair with out crying. The mom says they tried letting her CIO but she started screaming, so now mom sits the little girl on her lap to eat. I put her in the booster chair to eat lunch today, and she started crying, threw all her food on the floor and same to her bottle (she was doing this last week too). She has a little hissy fit kicking her feet, screaming, etc...Finally, I just put the little girl in her play pen to go to sleep, and she still cried for a bit.
My question to you all is: what other options or tricks can I do to get her to sit in her booster. Her mom gives her toys, but I don't really want to get into that because then all the kids will want toys and it is extra clean up for me. I do allow her to hold onto her blankie, but that only helps sometime. I will not sit her on my lap to eat as I have other children that I need to feed etc... I need to have her contained to eat as I do not want her walking around eating as that is unsafe. I'm really starting to get to the end of my patience with the little girl, and I feel horrible that I'm feeling like that...but I can only take so much, and she often starts off the other kids in my care as well so that they are all crying at meal times.
Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.