Stop throwing your food on the floor!

[Jacqui]

My son is 13 months old and loves to throw his food on the floor, it is really driving me and my husband crazy, especially when we have spent time making him such yummy food. He will just take hand fulls of food and throw it on the floor. It isn't a sign that he is done eating as he does it throughout the meal. He will take a bite, then throw the next handful on the floor, then take another bite. We try to redirect by taking his hand and telling him that we "eat our food" and model eating. anyone who has been there have any ground breaking ideas?

[dislocator3972]

DD has been doing the same thing and so far our strategy has just been to end the meal and let her try again in 5 minutes.  This is not a perfect solution, but the frequency seems to be decreasing.  Also, we've cut back on how much is on her tray. 

here's what dinner looks like:

She gets a small portion put on her tray, she takes a few bites, throws a handful on the floor.

We ask her if she is all done, she says no and takes another bite.

She throws more on the floor.  We say "ok, you must be all done" and get her down.

Pick up the food from the floor, leave the rest of her portion on the tray.

After 5 minutes of her waiting around trying to sit in our laps and eat our food, we offer to let her back into her highchair.

She accepts, the process repeats.

The food throwing seems to be lessening, but this is a work-intensive solution.  (then again, nearly every solution for toddlers is pretty work intensive)

Anyone have any other suggestions?

[crunchy_mommy]

I am STILL dealing with this with my 21mo, I thought he'd outgrow it by now, he is much better though. I imagine that if he was more interested in food he'd be less likely to throw it... Anyway, now we have very tiny plates (they are about 3" diameter) and we just put about 3-5 bites worth on it. He doesn't eat a ton, especially earlier in the day, so he's often done after that, but at dinner he eats more & so we just refill his plate with food from our plates. It has cut down a ton on the throwing & as long as we catch him before he's done, he doesn't throw, but if we give him too much or miss his signs of being all done, the floor is ambushed!

[Marissamom]

we ignore it for the most part. I see it as her experimenting with gravity, and I've seen way too many times where the parents reacting made it a game for their child, and when that happens it really extends what is a normal developmental phase all kids go through.