1 Year Old Dropping Food

My son stated doing this about this age. We did the same things to no avail. We then moved him to a booster seat that allowed him to eat from the table with us. Problem solved. Don't know if it will work with you, but it might be worth a try.

My son is one too, and sometimes also throws food on the floor. For him it is a signal that he is done eating. He has been fairly responsive to us saying no to him about this, but that is as far as we've gone. I would say that a slap to the hand wouldn't be uncalled for if you do feel it is a disobedience issue. Otherwise, don't stress about it and let him get a little older. :)

Oh no! this is not unwanted behavior ..... this is how he is learning cause and effect. Really, he is not trying to upset you in the least. Your little scientist is simply doing his experiments of seeing how things fall when he lets go of them, or how things sound, when they hit the floor. His whole house is his new laboratory. I have twins and they both went through this phase. If you show dramatic reaction, it interests him further that there is a cause and effect between his action and your reaction. You are fueling his interest and he will continue doing his experiments to confirm a pattern in his findings.

When my twins were your kid's age, this is what I did with them during non-mealtimes - I would put them on their high chairs and put a variety of items on their trays that made different and interesting sounds on hitting the floor. I found that my boys enjoyed the wooden floor more than the carpet!

Before his mealtime, let your scientist play with and drop some toys which do not bother you much, so his mealtimes become less eventful.

Try not to use the word 'NO' with your kid till he is around 3 years old. The word 'NO' has ever-changing meanings, depending on the situation. Rephrase your instruction and say, "Please do not throw things in the air". This will give him more clarity of what is expected of him and he will understand you better. Good luck!

My daughter (1 of 3)did this forever. Aside from the "I drop it, you pick it up" game *arggg!* I finally learned that it signaled that she was no longer hungry. She would start dropping stuff off the tray because she was no longer interested in it and was ready to move on. I just took away the tray, wiped hands and face with a washcloth and got her out of her seat.

This might be a good strategy for you. Once you have ended meal time, if your child indicates that they are still hungry, use that as a teaching moment. Say, "You were dropping your things on the floor, which tells mommy that you are all done. If you want more to eat, you can't do that." If they are back in th ehigh chair, before you offer more food, say, " We do not drop our food or cup on the floor. Please do not do it again, or you will have to get down."

If your child is big enough, have them clean up their own mess, too. It teaches logical consequences. Be casual about it - don't make it a punishment - just hand them a cloth and say, "Time to clean up." This works great for potty-training "accidents" too (once you get to that stage).

Isn't parenting fun? ;)

Blessings,
D.

J.,
You didn't say whether your son eats alone while you get something done or whether he eats with you and daddy. My youngest son, now grown, use to throw food on the floor. What I was too young, as a mother, to know is that he was protesting eating alone. I would give him his meal and then start doing other housework. Eventually he stopped when I changed where he ate. It took awhile for me to realize why he threw his plate on the floor. He was getting my attention. Perhaps that's what your son is doing.

tee-hee! I know it's not really that funny, but my 1 year old does the same thing except she very sweetly says uh-oh each time! It does seem the less we pay attention to it, the less she does it, but I know it's hard to ignore. I wish I could be more helpful!

Dropping things is another part of the exploration stage. They realize that things make different sounds and actions (bouncing, splatting, rolling) when they fall to the ground and that their action has an effect on another object. If you show that you're upset about it you give him control over another effect and it will become something he does to get a reaction from you also. That gives him some control over you versus the other way around and you've turned it into naughty behavior.

You can redirect him and/or matter-of-factly say "Oh, the cup is all done" meaning he must be finished with it and remove it, placing it with the other dirty dishes. He won't have things returned that are tossed away.I used to have one of those dollar store vinyl table cloths under the high chair for splatters. I also gave my daughter a paper towel to wipe the tray as the rest of us cleaned our area and it became part of her routine and helped end the meal.

It's true-he's learning! With my daugter however, we discouraged her throwing food on the floor, each time she did it we just said, "we do not throw food on the floor" in a stern voice. It just takes time-she is 20 months old and I can't remember the last time she threw anything on the floor from her high chair. There's still plenty of mess-its just not intentional!

I don't know if you've seen them but there are plates and bowls, and maybe cups that have suction cups on the bottom of them. Maybe that would help. Just look on the internet.

I can't imagine how you or your husband could find this irritating from a one year old. It's a game. Just keep picking it up and have fun!!

I really feel that 1 is a little young to be disciplining in such a way just for putting things over the side of their chair. This is such a natural thing for babies to do. I totally agree with the mother below that wrote it is your babies way of learning cause and effect. However I will say that all my experience with kids has taught me that when they start playing with their food and are no longer trying to eat it, that usually signals they are done. So instead of getting angry I would just say, "all done" and have meal time be over. However if you and your partner are still eating then I would remove your childs food and give him a toy instead.

This is not bad behavior. Unfortunately mother and fatherhood is not always fun. This is exactly what your child is suppose to do. They are exploring their world. Yes, it is annoying, however, you just have to deal with it and make allowances for the behavior. Only give them things that will be easy for you to pick up. I pick up food constantly off of my floors. Its just a part of the process and a phase that all children go thru. I believe it is more about your reaction to it. If you make a big deal about it, it will probably continue a lot longer and more frequently. They enjoy the reaction...good or bad. Perhaps you can give them things to throw off his high chair that you do not mind hitting the floor. Its a game. I bet if you leave the items on the floor and are consistent and do this for an extended time with no reaction...it will ease up. He will learn the consequence to throwing things down. (by the way, I am preaching to myself....I have the same problem with 2 children.) Do not slap his hand, like a poster said below. That is uncalled for. He has a deep instinctual desire to explore things that he cannot control. Do not stifle that. There is a time to slap a hand if there is something that could hurt him (some may argue that one) but in this particular situation it would be inappropriate.

Jamie is absolutely correct. Your child is learning cause and affect right now and he should not be punished for it. It truly is a phase and it will get better. This is the joy of parenting...buck it up.

With our son, who is now almost 18 months, what has worked best is when he throws his food/cup, we say, "We don't throw our______" and then the best part is after he is finished we have him pick up everything he has thrown down and throw it away. It takes alot of time (especially when they pick everything up one thing at a time (pea by pea, noodle by noodle)) but it has helped tremendously. Now when he doesn't want something he hands it to us most of the time instead of throwing. And if you are wondering, I always sit with him while he eats, whether I'm eating or not.

Have you ever heard of nailing jello to a tree? That's about how easy it would be to try to get a one year old to stop dropping things off of his highchair. You should try looking at some of the parent boards at places like parents.com or the like. They will all tell you that a one year old drops things because he is learning. You cannot stop that behavior nor should you. Just sit back and watch as your sweet baby's brain grows and think of how exciting that is instead of getting mad...otherwise you're in for a long eighteen years....best wishes, :).

He's one. Yes,it is a phase and yes it's annoying but he is one. Even a negative response is a reaction from you and that's all he is seeing. He is too young to reason with. If you stop stressing over it it will be less fun for him. Meanwhile, get a big plastic table cloth to put under his highchair. Seriously, he is learning from this, cause and reaction. Believe it or not this is a developmental milestone. Relax. Enjoy. Good luck The best is yet to come.

It is a phase they all do it,lol. As much as you hate it she/he will probably continue to do it until you ignore it. They are doing it for your negative attention they think it is funny. My 3rd is going through this right now and she is 20 months! Stay firm but dont pay any more attention to it than takign her stuff away from her and calligngit a day.

Some people are saying she is too young to manipulate you or deliberately act up, but I don't know. Maybe she knows she is doing what you don't want her to do, maybe she doesn't realize it (the learning about cause and effect is true), but just because she doesn't think she is doing something "wrong", doesn't mean you can't try to teach her that!! I say "don't spit your food" or whatever she is doing and I end the meal now if my baby spits her food everywhere or plays instead of eating, and she is only 7 months! THen she doesn't get any food again until the next mealtime (she'll always get formula if she's hungry, but she won't get to go back in the highchair and eat baby food until the next mealtime, and that's what she likes is the baby food, it's a struggle to get her to drink her formula so it works out well).

My son is about 6 and a half months old and also likes to play the dropping game. He started this about a month ago. When I first realized that he was playing a game and not really just dropping on accident, I told my husband what we were going to do: when he drops something we will pick it up three times (letting him drop it three times) and if he drops it a fourth time, he doesn't get it back. This seems to work better than anything, especially since we don't want to become "no" parents. He sees that while we will take care of his needs for him, we aren't going to do everything and he's also stopped dropping things so much. Of course, it doesn't work with food for obvious reasons. It's true that they can't be puninshed for soemthing that is teaching them a skill (cause and effect/action and reaction) but at the same time if you don't start setting boundaries early, you will be sorry about it later. I've already witnessed that first hand on rushing to pick him up every time he would cry...now he tries to throw fits when he doesn't get exactly what he wants when he wants it and it is a HARD habit to break.

I digress...sorry! Sometimes he gets a little fussy about not getting whatever it is back, but we divert his attention from whatever object it was and he forgets about it. As far as for you and your sitaution, especially about having to end meal time...maybe a different meal time would work better? I've also noticed that w/our son as well as other toddlers I've been around, they like to play with their food when they aren't really hungry? Realisticly you can't just change everything any time a bad habit rears it's head, but maybe altering your schedule a little will work?

They like to test you, don't they? :o) Good luck!