Oh, we know all about throwing here....
I've been wondering how to tackle this issue for a while. Sometimes I know it is because F is finished - if she's been eating well for a good while, and then starts to play, and then throw. She well knows the sign for all finished, and used to always use it at mealtimes, but now only occasionally does. So throwing can be a sign she's finished which I can usually just pre-empt or at least catch early on - I'll check, using the sign, and she'll sign back to me.
But often, it's not that - as you say, Creations, it's partly the wanting to see what happens. She's really into "transferring" atm - so pegs out of the peg basket and back into it, for example. She wants to do that with her food as well. She drops it deliberately, and then leeeaaaans over the side of her chair to try and get it back! So to counter this, we encourage her to put food into her pelican bib, and then onto the tray again. She has those options: food goes into the mouth, into the pelican, or down on the tray. We try and phrase it positively (ie, not 'don't drop food on the floor' but rather 'food goes into your mouth or into your pelican'). Giving her food in a bowl sometimes works too - she can transfer from bowl to tray and back. During the transferring process, she'll eat as well! BUT she does tend to pick up bowls, plates etc and tip them over still. She has also been know to throw the whole bowl to the floor
, not sure whether that too was just to see what happens.
Sometimes it's because she has too much food in front of her and can't deal with it all. Some has to go before she'll eat the rest.
And other times, I don't know what it is - boredom, perhaps? Or just to see what our reaction is? I'd love any suggestions for good, age-appropriate techniques to deal with this
. I don't expect no throwing at all, I'm just not sure what my reaction should be when she throws food, or her cup, on the floor and I don't think it's because she's finished - ie, I think that given a little more time, she will want to eat more. Atm I tend to use positive statements (as above), remove tray if she's really throwing everything, or ignore if it's just the odd bit here or there. I certainly don't want to get into games of she throws, I pick up. And I don't want to give her a huge reaction every time either. But I'm not sure if she's old enough for the remove-from-table-at first-throw approach
. I just don't think she can understand that consequence yk?
Creations, lol about Ron! F went through a phase when we said she 'squirreled' - we'd find a little stash of food deliberated tucked in beside her. I made the mistake of laughing the first time, and she did it delightedly for a while, but we've studiously ignored it since and luckily the novelty of that particular trick seems to have worn off.
