Mealtime rules?

At this age (almost one year), I know that they are still exploring and learning about food and eating. I am trying my hardest to understand that and accept that food will end up on the floor. I can put favorite finger foods on their tray and some will get eaten, some will get tossed and some will be pulled into tiny pieces and then tossed.

At what point can I teach them that food/sippy cups do not get tossed on the floor? I know that this often signals the end of meal for many, but mine often drop food from the very beginning.

Thanks

(I know I could probably find this topic in older posts, but with the search feature disabled right now, I thought I would go ahead and post.)

 

For me, mine are just getting the concept of eating rules. They are getting much better with putting sippies on the table when they are done and not throwing food on the floor, however, when they do throw food on the floor, we now tell them meal time is over and clean up. We started showing them where sippies go around 14-15 months and started at a year about no food on the floor (though I think we could have waited on that one, they are just starting to get it now...). At this age, feeding requires a lot of patience. The less of a fuss you make, the less appealing throwing food might be right now. Good luck!

 

Mine were big throwers all the time. If the sippy got tossed twice, I removed it. If the food got tossed, I removed the rest and only gave 1-2 bites at a time.

I know you have a way to go, but, I wanted to say that we moved our girls to the table at 20 months and that cut down on food throwing tremendously. So just know it won't happen forever! :good:

 

Mine threw food once (around 12-15 months or so) and thus meal was over. It was at the beginning of the meal too. They were HORRIFIED and never did it again. (yes I did feed them later........... so they wouldn't starve

 

At that age, I would just try to give this behavior as little attention as possible and try to encourage positive behavior and enthusiasm about eating successfully without throwing/dropping. That theory is all well and good, but the reality is they will probably still throw food on the floor for awhile. Just hang in there and know that it will not last forever! :hug:

 

What we did was started with sippy cups first at around 12-13 months if they placed it back on the table after drinking out of it we'd clap and say yeah so, they really liked the attention.
Food that was a whole different story. I'd only give them a few finger foods at a time for a while.
At around 15 months it started sinking in then at 18 months they got it and I was able to give them a plate of their own. So, it's a learning process and it took some time for ours to get the hang of things.
Good Luck