Throwing food at dinner

How do you stop food throwing without denying them of food? I've tried saying it makes mommy sad and even smacking wrists. I can't really take away their food because Jessy weights so little.

 

My short answer is: you can't. But they will outgrow it. It is frustrating, but developmentally normal. I do find that if I give them too much at once, they often toss it, even if they generally like it. It's like they get overwhelmed by the volume. I also find they toss more if I walk away and leave them for too long. Or if they are really overtired when they eat and get into a hyper mood. Not that you can control all of that all the time.

I haven't made a big issue out of it in our house. I tell them not to throw food, and I ask them if they are "all done" and usually at that point they say "all done" or they say nothng and keep eating. I will not punish my children for this because I know it's normal and I don't want to create any bad feelings around mealtime. When they are old enough to truly understand that throwing food is bad behavior, I feel it would be OK to warn them that if they throw more I will assume they are finished and take the food away. But at this stage, that's not where I want to go.

So, basically, I live with it, sweep, mop, and stick close by if they are eating something that will stick to the floor (i.e. oatmeal). FWIW, it's gotten way better in the past month or two. Good luck!

 

Mine throw food constantly, thankfully we have a dog who LOVES to clean up after them! I have noticed if I give them just a little bit at a time it REALLY helps, like 2 chicken nuggets, and 4 pcs of veggies, then give them a little more, and so on.

 

When mine were in the throwing food stage, I gave them a waring to stop throwing. If they continued, then the food was taken away and they were removed from the table. If I let one do it, all 3 would be doing it. I found it to be a short lived phase. They normally did it also when they weren't really hungry. Did they starve until the next snack? nah I don't think so.

 

My girls started food throwing at about 11-12 months. I always gave them a warning and if they continued they get a smack on the hand. I was very consistent with it, I hated taking them to a restaurant and have them throwing food and making a huge mess. For us it work within a couple months, now the only time they throw food is to get my attention if I doing something other then paying attention to them. Little stinkers. Good luck I hope you find something that works for your family.

 

We have the little Fisher Price feeding chairs. When they start doing this, they look right at me and either toss or sweep their food onto the floor. I give a warning and then take the tray off the chair and let them sit there. Sometimes they just need a break. Other times, they are done eating. I have hand fed either child pieces of food if I think they have eaten poorly during the day. BTW - this behavior generally happens at dinner only.

 

I have two food tossers here too and it's driving me crazy. I am hoping that they outgrow it. I don't remember my oldest DD doing it, but maybe she did and it just didn't bother me because there was only one of her. I like the suggestion of only giving them a few things at a time, that makes sense so I think I will try that. I do sit with them while they eat breakfast/lunch (dinner we are all eating together anyway) because they seem to want me to be there. I hope you find something that works.

 

My little twin will throw some of her food - but it is normally onto her sisters' high chair tray. And then the thrown food ends up being eaten. No wonder they weigh 3 pounds different! Hopefully we can avoid the food hitting the floor phase, but I'm not holding out much hope. Good luck!

 

Mine still throw food also, but not near as much as they used to. For a while it was really bad and it drove me nuts!! I finally had to stop letting it get to me so much since that wasn't helping anything. :blush: Giving them one thing at time usually helps. For a while I would literally stand right next to or beside Madison, who was most likely to throw, and police her. That seemed to help some. For the most part now, they push their bowl away now if they don't want it (which happens whenever I give them something because they are SOOO picky).

 

It is a phase and it will get better. I also did two warnings and then removed the food on the third offense. They learn pretty quickly that that if they throw they loose their food. The only other thing you can do is only give them one or two pieces of food at a time. I found that if I gave them a whole bowl or plate full of food that they were more likely to start tossing it.

 

We have 2 food throwing addicts! Sometimes I notice they'll start throwing food or stop eating if they're thirsty, so I always make sure they've got some water to drink. After that, we give a warning & if they're still throwing food/plates/forks/sippy cups, it gets taken away. But only for a couple minutes! I would never take the food away if I thought they were still hungry. Sometimes, like a pp said, they just need a little break. I also try to make eye contact for the warning; that seems to help.

 

My twinkies throw their food too. It's frustrating. But nothing seems to work either so it just looks like we'll have to wait it out.

 

Mine also loved to throw food around 2 years old. But they completely stopped by the time they were 2 1/2. I know it's really frustrating but they will outgrow it. At one point, I placed their high chairs in front of the kitchen sink, so that whatever they threw would fly straight into the sink and minimize the mess on the floor.

I also made them foods that were easier to clean up. (e.g. green beans instead of spinach, bread instead of rice, etc.) We had a cleaning person come to our house once a week, and on that day, I made them spinach, rice, spaghetti with meat sauce, and all the things I normally wouldn't make them because it was too hard to clean up.