Help! 18mth old throwing his food on the floor

[mangochoo]

I'm getting more and more frustrated at mealtimes !

Up until now he's been eating and self feeding quite well, he eats like a 'good little boy' in nursery - (I've spied on him ! As you do!), and at home over the last few days he's been throwing his spoon (filled with food on the floor, his beaker - on the floor after sips, and then his whole plate !

Now I havn't got the patience of most parents and most of the time I have to bite my tongue ! But I can't help but shout back at him and say 'NO - thats naughty.'  But saying that hasn't helped one bit, I even used the old smack on hand thing (I know I shouldn't) but that doesn't work either.  I can see that i'm angry because I do that angry face that your mum used to !  How do I get him to stop throwing everything onto the floor (and on me) ?  I thought he might be doing this because he's not been eating well due to a D & V bug he's picked up from nursery - as he's not hungry(?)

I've tried sitting him in a more grown up highchair at the table and on his old 'baby style' highchair and its the same thing.

Help please !

[Meg's Mom]

I feel your pain, this one really, really ticks me off.  DD has done periods of this several times now.  I too have flicked her hand  and she just flicks back  with a smile on her face!  so i stoped that asap.

What i did was, tell her once: "no throwing, we eat food".   the continue w/ the meal.  if she does it again, repeat and add "if you throw again no more food."  if she does a third time, i dramtically take the tray, say "ALL DONE - we don't throw food", take her quickly out of the chair and then don't speak to her while I turn my back to her and clean the food/tray/etc.  If hungry and she didn't eat much i will off a snack 30-40min later.

It usually lasts a few weeks then she stops.

HTH!

[* Paula *]

We too have been going through the same thing.

We have noticed that DS will do it when he had had quite a bit to eat during the day and he is not very hungry.

The do say that it is a sign that they are not hungry anymore.  We also just say if you throw your food then you don't want it and take it away from him. 

HTH

Paula x

[Kate A]

I agree with the above posters.  My dd does it when she's full or done eating a paticular food.  We tried the flick of the hand and saying no.  We started using the sign language sign and saying all done in the form of a question and she has started to respond with the same sign.  We take all her food off and get her down out of the chair.  Our pediatrician told us the best way to respond to stuff like this was to not give attention.  Now she hands us her food before she throws it.  It took about a week or so to get past it, good luck.

[* Paula *]

Our DS now shakes his head saying no when he does not want any more food - or puts his hands up to block us from trying to spoon in anymore.

[Nikki~]

I definitely take the "don't give it attention approach". If I see dd about to swipe her tray of food I just quickly remove it all and assume that she has finished eating (it always happens towards the end). I just ask her if she's had enough and she says yes so I get her down. I have never thought of trying to stop it though - I think giving her the words by asking her if she's finished etc will go a lot further than me just telling her not to do it.

[mangochoo]

thanks for all your replies.

He's such a good boy and it really winds me up ! 

I could understand if he did this towards the end of his meal or even halfway thru - but he does it in the first/second spoonful ! 

I'll present him with the food with a spoon and fork (like they do in his nursery) then sometimes feed him a spoon of the food and leave the rest to him (like they do to him in nursery) - but when he does it himself he'll fill the spoon and then throw it on the floor (like he's protesting !).  Now I don't know whether its a sign from him that he doesn;t like it or that fact that he's not hungry enough ! (he usually does this when I feed him at 5 - 6pm after picking him from nursery) - therefore I've come to the conclusion that he's just realised how to control his eating as he's not hungry - he doesn't eat - whereas before he just ate it all because it was there !  (I miss those days !)

I've noticed he's not so bad for breakfast - he'll eat toast and on occasions he'll throw it on the floor and sometimes he'll eat it all.  Then I usually give him something else like sausages/scrambled eggs/cereal.

On days at home I usually give him a mid morning snack of either a banana or raisens and then an 1 or so later his lunch.  So tomorrow (saturday) I'll skip the snack so he's hungry for his lunch !!  hopefully he wpn't throw it on the floor !   EEERRRRRRR   as I said before - he never throws it on the floor in nursery !  WHY AT HOME !!!?

I try and think - oh its a phase it'll pass - like the other phases he's had in the past where you think he'll starve himself etc !

Any more tips very welcome to his stressed out mum (and soon to be mum again to another little naughty boy !)

[ChasMom]

This post caught my attention because my lo's been doing this for the past couple of weeks and you're right, it drives me crazy too!
Dry foods like cheerios and toast doesn't annoy me as much but tonight we had spaghetti with sauce all over the floor and wall!
My lo will also do it towards the end of a meal or when he doesn't want a particular food.
Great advice from the prev. post.  I'll have to try it.

[Kate A]

mangochoo - he may eat better at nursery because he is distracted by other kids and it's always the same.  He knows what will happen at every meal there and when it will be done.  Maybe he is a LO that likes meals at the same time ? who knows.  good luck

[Katet]

He's such a good boy and it really winds me up ! 
Any more tips very welcome to his stressed out mum (and soon to be mum again to another little naughty boy !)

Sorry so if he does what you want he is a good boy & if he splashes food around he is naughty... He is a toddler, he is experimenting & he is only going to push your buttons more as he gets older.
I bet he doesn't throw it on the floor because he never got a reaction there... he throws it Mummy gives a reaction... be it good or bad at 18mo, Mummy's attention is a good thing... if you stop making an issue out of it, so will he...(learnt the hard way with ds#1)  my ds#2 has done it once or twice, but only when he had finished his food or I was pushing too much to him... now if he doesn't want it he literally passes me the bowl & trys to remove his bib...even if he has had one mouthful. Also as they get older they eat less too as they aren't growing so much

[mangochoo]

Well its been about a week and a half since I last posted on here, and guess what ? he's stopped his 'phase' of throwing food on the floor.  Instead I ask him when he looks like he's had enough if he wants anymore and he will actually say 'no' and will hand the bowl over to me instead of throwing it on the floor.

He seems to be more chilled out at mealtimes these days, and was probably experimenting !  There have been occasions when he will just spit food out because he didn;t want it, but then he's always been a fussy eater. (well at home anyway !).

I guess I have to just go with the flow with him - and if he's hungry he'll eat, and if not - then I'll respect his wishes !

[mangochoo]

Oh I forgot to mention that, I think he was throwing spoonfuls of food out of frustration - as he couldn't grasp why he couldn't fill the spoon effectively and didn't want mummy to take over (at all !) so out of frustration would just end up throwing it at me !  But he seems to have learnt to be patient when trying to scoop food !  phew ! 

[amomy]

I'm glad that the phase has passed!!  For anyone reading this who is still having this problem, I'll mention what worked for me.  My one year old started throwing food at the beginning of the meal when I knew that she was hungry!!  My mom was watching one day and she said "I think if you put just a little bit of food on her tray that she won't throw it".  Hello!!!!!  She was right, I think seeing lots of food on her tray before she even started tasting and seeing what she had or what she liked was overwhelming her.  Now I just put about three bites of each food on her tray at the beginning of the meal and no more throwing.  If she throws her food toward the end of the meal I just say "We don't throw food, if you're full you don't have to eat anymore but don't throw your food" and I take it all away.  I can't say that the end of the meal food fight has stopped, but we're working on it!!!!!!!!!!