Experiment with different fabrics? Maybe try putting him in something with sleeves too long, and make sure his hands are in there? Another thing might be if with the mittens, you have to separate his thumb from his fingers maybe a sock on his foot would be more tolerable for him. (If he likes rattles, and you can stand the noise, putting some rattle thingies on his mittens might help them to be more fun... just make sure they're not going to be a choking hazard).

Acrylic fleece fabric sometimes feels weird. Wool can feel very itchy. Check the way the seams are placed inside the mittens (basically feel the insides of his mittens against the inside surface of your wrist and see if they feel like they could be comfy or what might cause them not to feel comfy).

aside from those, 17 month olds do still mainly touch and feel to explore and understand... so mittens can really put a huge damper on them and some crying would be normal(you might be able to distract him with mitten toys or having toys he can play with and use even with mittens on; and even then he still might need pep talks about how he can do this, and how you can sympathize)

If you're sure they're NOT hurting him, then yes--I'd say just hang tough. After all, it is NOT an option!

He's young, so he's just getting the idea that an "it hurts" cry gets a response faster than an "I hate this" or "this feels funny" cry. Also, he's young enough that he might not always be good at realizing that "I hate this" doesn't mean "it hurts." Hang in there until he does. There's a point at which those cries will change from pain or whatever to anger--and then you'll be able to be even tougher.

My 17.5mo has been the same way. We haven't needed mittens much, but the first couple times were torture.

I let him play with my gloves in the house - putting them over his hands, doing the bear says "grrrr" with the gloves out, etc. He thinks it's great fun. I can't say that it's completely solved the glove fight, but it has helped to reduce it, especially if I wear mine too.

In the meantime, I agree with Talley-Sue. I've noticed with my son that consistency and follow through are HUGE right now. If I say he's wearing mittens, he's wearing mittens, come h$ll, high water, or 90 degrees. It only takes DH to come along and vacilate and give in (and then go through the battle six times over) to convince me of this!

I think letting the child look at the mitten and even YOU perhaps playing with the mitten, and even putting them on a doll or stuffed animal and making nice comments to the doll/stuffed animal would be a good idea. Also if YOU have a friend with an older child that has mitten let your little one see this child wearing them.
You might even play a peek a boo game with the mittens and the baby. You will just have to see how the child responds if you try some of this.
Good luck!
Lynn

When DD was very young, we had our first snow. She fought wearing gloves, because like the earlier poster said, she couldnt explore with them on. So finally I let her take them off. She honestly had no concept of how cold snow is.

The look on her face when her little fingers hit that icy snow. She couldnt put them back on fast enough. To this day, she has no problem wearing them.

We too often assume that toddlers understand concepts (like hot and cold) or that they will take our word for it (wear them because mommy doesnt want your hands to get cold), but sometimes a quick science experiment to demonstrate the concept to them sticks with them for a long time.
17 months is definitely old enough to teach 'why' we wear gloves.

great ideas all, thanks!