Dumping / spitting out drinks on purpose, at my wits' end

[dantesmama]

DS1 is 22.5 months and had been drinking out of regular glasses for about 6 months. Then he realized how fun it can be (apparently) to turn the glass upside down, getting water or juice everywhere. After a few weeks of trying to deal with this, I gave up and went back to sippy cups. And then he figured out he could still make a mess by spitting his drink out of his mouth instead of swallowing it. : OK, once in a while is fine. But this is every time he has a drink, with or between meals. He doesn't play in the puddle or anything, he just leaves it. I've really had enough of constantly cleaning up water and juice and changing DS's clothes because they're soaked. How do I deal with this?

[LilyGrace]

Ground rules time.

-Drinks stay at the table.
-If you make a mess on purpose, you are saying you are done with the drink.
-If you make a mess, you clean it.

Little ones are very good at learning logical consequences. If he spits it out, say, "Oh, you're not thirsty right now. I'll put the cup away." and hand him a rag to help clean the puddle. Offer the cup again later.

However, you may want to invest in a few small cream pitchers. Toddlers can have a lot of fun learning to pour back and forth first with beans, then rice, then water, and gaining a new skill to boot.

[LynnS6]

:

I'm a firm believer in logical consequences for this. If you're spitting, you're playing with the water, you're not thirsty. That's OK, let's just find an appropriate place to play with water -- such as the bathroom sink. You might also teach him to spit at the sink - so for toothbrushing time.

Toddlers LOVE to pour. Montessori catalogs sell all sorts of reasonably sized pitchers, etc. Pouring, filling and dumping are still favorite activities of our 3 year old.

[nascarbebe]

DS starting doing something similar around that exact same age. He would drink some of the water and let it all come out of his mouth and blow bubbles. At first I let him do it because I thought it was important to let him discover this "skill." However he got to the point where he wanted to play this game all the time. Now I only give him a teeny tiny bit to drink and if he drinks it and wants more I give him more. Sometimes I have to do this like 3 times. If he starts to make a mess I immediately hand him a washcloth for him to clean up and he does it. I don't get mad or anything. I got set of 12 khaki washcloths on sale for less than $5 just for toddler messes.

Since he likes to play with water we have several plastic containers in the tub and sometimes I give him a spray bottle. But he understands he can't leave the tub until he puts them all back in their spot.

[Ruthla]

Another logical consequence is that if you spit water on your clothes, you have to wear wet clothes. You don't HAVE TO change his clothes every time he does this, if the constant changing is irritating you.

I'd also stop offering any drink but water between meals (excluding mama milk straight from the tap), so the messes are less sticky, and the REALLY messy messes will occur at the table or highchair.