Throwing food....?

[Jewell]

My LO has started to throw his food on the floor, followed by the plate/bowl and sippy cup, now I've read Tracy's book on BW for toddles and she says to take them out of the high chair as soon as they do this...my problem is that our kitchen, dinning and lounge are all one big room and if i take him out of the chair and put him on the floor he just crawls over to a toy and starts to play....now I'm thinking that this will only led to him thinking..."hmm i don't want to eat that so lets throw it on the floor and i can go play"  ;)how then can i stop him throwing food?

[binxyboo]

At that age, I think I mostly just put one or two pieces of food on Riley's tray at a time, so there wasn't really much for him to throw. I know having too much stuff on there just overstimulated him and he would end up swiping everything off.

[Jewell]

hmm that's true the only thing with our LO is that he gets bored very quickly so we are always trying new things to keep him interested...the funny thing is that at dinner he's fine...loves his veg's and will sit still and just scoff them down no food throwing...it's breakfast and lunch.

[Freya'sMum]

Eryn (14.5 months) still chucks food on the floor, it's her way of saying she doesn't want it, and I just ignore the behaviour and say "fine, you don't want any more", wash her hands and face and take her out of the highchair - I do it as soon as she chucks one piece because I am confident about what she is telling me by doing it. Sometimes I offer an alternative first, incase it's that particular food that she doesn't want, but if that gets chucked too, I just finish the mealtime.

I tend to advocate that babies know when they are hungry and that we should trust their instincts, because they have an innate survival mechanism that won't allow them to starve themselves, so if he isn't interested at lunch or breakfast, he might just not be hungry at that time, and if he eats a good tea then he is at that time. I'd go with Michelle's suggestion of limiting what's on his tray at the smaller appetite meals and let him get down when he expresses his boredom and that he's had enough by chucking it on the floor.

HTH?

Ax

[taygensmom]

I would look at your feeding/drinking schedule and make sure he is really hungry for meals. With my LO, I try to make sure that at least 3 hrs have past between the last meal/snack and the current meal. In between these I only offer him water, not juice (which depresses appetite) and not milk (which can fill him up). I instead give milk with all meals and water in between. If a snack is offered, I keep it small and closer to the mealtime prior to the snack, if that makes sense. So for a morning it may be breakfast at 7:30, snack at 9:30, and lunch at 12:30. By putting the snack closer to the breakfast and then leaving a bigger gap until lunch, I know he is hungrier and motivated to eat.

When he used to throw food, I had to assess whether he was experimenting, testing, or just plain full. Usually I would remove his food tray or plate/cup and say calmly "no throwing" and then just wait for about a minute and try again. If he did this 1 or 2 more times, I would end the meal. HTH

[Jewell]

thanks for all your replies...i think that now that DS only has a bottle before his one nap and at nightime that it's beena bit hard trying to get all the calories into him and what time to put them at...since i've stopped stressing so much about him throwing food and using this as an indication that he is telling me he is full DS has been so much better.

He now knows that i'm listening to him rather than trying to get him to do what i want  easy when you know how 

[October]

I'm having the same problems with my almost 11-mth old. He was slow to take to solids 4 months ago and he's been picky ever since. Lots of food goes on the floor and he really only wolfs down a few select food items (not veggies !). The spoon is hit and miss.....hit usually means it's got cereal or yoghurt on it    so I guess I'll do the same.

Stop encouraging him for as long as I do (I also get on with clearing up, prepping my lunch, etc. to give him space) and take the food away sooner if he doesn't want it.

I'm finding it pretty stressful trying to work out what I can feed him........ On top of this he wont' drink enough water ...even from the bottle and I glug the stuff all day to set an example !!

Deb

[taygensmom]

With your 11 month old you might also want to look at his feeding schedule including when he takes any milk/juice and how much he drinks, as this can decrease the appetite depending on when it is presented during the day. With my LO at that age I started giving milk with every meal/snack via a sippy and then only water in between. Some LOs aren't keen on the sippy yet, so you could give a little via bottle or some moms prefer to just do milk morning and evening as well. I also tried to leave 3 hours between each meal/snack, so he would be truly motivated to eat. HTH

[October]

Thanks ! We've just had a disaster of a tenny weeny dinner but I did only give him 4.5oz 1.5 hrs before ! Just how it worked out after his nap. I only dropped the am bottle 2 days ago but think the pm bottle has to now go otherwise I'll be stuck with him rejecting his solids meals.

He is definitely testing me too. When I try to spoon feed he grabs the spoon to, not put it in his mouth, but to play with the food or throw it on the floor. Is he really saying he doesn't like it or he's not hungry ya think ? 

[Freya'sMum]

Deb,

If your lo is about 10/11 months old, he still needs to have a minimum of 20oz babymilk until he's at least 12 months old, the milk has the greater proportion of the nutrients babies need for healthy growth and development rather than the solid foods, and altho they need both milk and solids, and their milk intake will gradually decrease, it shouldn't drop below 20oz!

I have a different routine to Taygenmom which uses milk as a snack between meals, offering water with the meal, like this (dd is 14.5 months):

5.30am bf (nap)
7.30am solid breakfast & water
10.30am milk
11am nap
12.30pm solid lunch & water
3pm milk
4.30pm solid tea & water
6.30pm bf (bed)

She always eats more at breakfast and tea than lunch, and her appetite varies day to day depending on tiredness, distraction, teething, illness etc. She has been introduced to solids using a baby-led weaning approach so we don't spoon feed her, so if the spoon is a problem, could you increase the amount of finger foods you offer instead, and again accept his refusal if he indicates he's finished?

You could also teach the sign for finished if you'd rather he 'told' you than simply discarding what is on his tray!

Ax

[Jewell]

You could try giving him a spoon or two to play with while your trying to get something into his mouth...we tried this with our LO and now he's starting to feed himself (sometimes it evens reaches his mouth LOL ) that way your giving him some control over his meal times but not too much

[October]

Oh the spoon goes on the flooor if we give him one. He also grabs a food-filled one sometimes and throws that too. It's all a game to him at the moment...he has no intention of feeding himself.

Finger foods it is then.

I'll keep the bottles for a bit and drop the amount per feed but we are also trying to switch to a sippy and that's a whole other fuss. I've just started cutting the slits in his bottle teats to get the holes bigger and eventually put him off. He's v. attached to the bottle, probably more so c'os he was premature.

Deb