Curbing behavior in a 13-month old

[emilyjace]

I have a darling son who likes to throw food on the floor. Now I know that this is developmentally appropriate behavior but I don't think that I have to live with it. He's also started putting his feet on the table. So I'm raising a monkey. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[homemademom]

Does he throw it on the floor when he sits down to eat or is it toward the end of the meal? Maybe he's just full and then, gets bored?? You could also try putting less food on his plate at a time.

Also, if he gleefully continues to throw food on the floor, you could take him out of his chair and say, "Oh, it looks like you aren't hungry any more," and put him down on the ground. If he decides he wants more to eat, put him back in his chair, but remove him again if he throws food. When my kids were in the hitting stage, I would put them down when they hit me. Not angrily at all, but it taught them if they wanted to be held, they needed to not hit the person doing the holding.

The other thought is just to redirect. Every time he puts his feet up, gently put them down and say something like "tables are for hands, not for feet."

And then, with the food issue, you might invest in one of those "splat mats" that go under a baby's chair to catch all the stuff that gets dropped. Even without actively throwing, a baby is going to drop food sometimes.

Good luck. I found that most of these little phases didn't last long.

[Linda on the move]

Get a dog!

Our golden retriever really bonded with our daughter during this phase. He just parked himself right under the highchair, and waited for the food to fall!!

But seriously, I agree with the previous poster. Only give your child small amounts of food at a time, and end meals when the dropping begins.

Most kids are monkey at this age.

[blessedwithboys]

Yeah, you kinda do have to live with it, but just for a little while. The PP gave some great advice, but other than that, you just have to wait out this phase...and wait to see which one come next! haha

[emilyjace]

OP here. Thanks for your input. We do have a dog! That's part of the problem--darling child will throw food specifically to the dog. He thinks it's hilarious. Me, not so much. I've been pulling him away from the table when he starts throwing food and putting his feet up on the table. Guess I'll keep at it. Thanks!

[treeoflife3]

haha kiddo put her feet on the table too... but she also has a bit of a foot fetish... she puts her feet on EVERYTHING and loves shoes and other peoples feet. So funny.

she also drops her food too.. usually when she is bored though. nothing stops her... putting her down results in crying and angry throwing when I let her back up to continue eating haha. She does it a lot less now than at your kiddos age (she is 17 months)

[Learning_Mum]

Agree with the other posters and just wanted to add with the dog problem, maybe it would help if the dog was put outside or in another room while you were eating so that your DS wouldn't be tempted to throw food to the dog?

[Honey693]

[QUOTE=Learning_Mum;15763629 maybe it would help if the dog was put outside or in another room while you were eating so that your DS wouldn't be tempted to throw food to the dog?[/QUOTE]

We have to do this a lot. DD gets halfway done with her meal then starts to either feed her food to the dog or yells at him not to steal her food and gets too distracted to eat.

[milkybean]

Originally Posted by emilyjace

OP here. Thanks for your input. We do have a dog! That's part of the problem--darling child will throw food specifically to the dog. He thinks it's hilarious. Me, not so much. I've been pulling him away from the table when he starts throwing food and putting his feet up on the table. Guess I'll keep at it. Thanks!

Keep the dog out of the room entirely during mealtime. It can be your secret if you let the dog in after the meal is done and after DS is out of the room.

DS was messy with food when he started eating, but didn't throw it (but he was a couple months older when he actually got into food, as we had delayed solids to a year (he agreed with that until he was just over 11 months old, LOL, when he changed the rules on us) and had a brief flirtation with fruit, then went back to more mama's-milk-only for a few more months. He sure was messy, though!

[TiredX2]

Moved to Gentle Discipline

[OkiMom]

We don't have a dog anymore but when we did I had a rule she wasn't allowed where we were eating. Otherwise I know my daughter would have fed her everything. I found at that age the girls really liked to test gravity and would throw things to see if it always fell. So I would give them activities that they were able to throw things off the table/chair/couch/whatever but dinner time everything had to stay on the table. It took a couple of days but the throwing stopped.
As for the feet, we have the rule that hands/arms/heads can be on the table but butts/legs/feet can not be. If something that doesn't belong at the table gets on the table it gets removed. This took about a month to be understood but we are good with it now.

[mamazee]

You can't really get a baby to stop throwing food, but throwing food often means that they arent' hungry anymore, so you could check for signals like that. Also, you can only give her one biteful of food at a time on her highchair so she doesn't have extra around to throw.