18 Month Old Throwing Food

T.,

When she throws food, tell her "all done" and end the meal. She might go hungry for an hour or two but she'll quit.

:-)T.

This seems pretty normal, my daughter of the same age does it too, even if it's food she likes.

Do you have her in a high-chair when its meal time or not?
My kids HATED high-chairs...they enjoyed dinner time etc., much more when we had them sit on the chair (in one of those feeding chairs that you strap onto the dining chair).

Also though, at a certain age they do this... and a baby this age (nor older), they do NOT have complete "impulse control" developed as yet. Or maybe she does it when she is just not hungry?- some kids just play with their food if they are not hungry. Or is she really honestly hungry at meal-time?
And yes, kids often act differently when someplace else. Like her at Daycare.

They grow out of it. But at his age, they are learning about "rules" and what is socially acceptable or not, but they are not expert at it yet.

Try not reacting to it. If she throws the food, ignore. Then, you and Hubby continue to eat like "normal." Even if you have to laugh/chuckle about it. Just keep on with eating with Hubby, and don't give attention to it or scurry around cleaning it up right then, or showing upset-ness about it, or putting more food on her plate or not. Just stay calm and continue eating.
Or, some parents turn their child around... toward a wall or something. Then just continue eating without reacting to it.
Give her plates/utensils that won't break... or let her feed herself if she is not already.

Mostly its a phase though. Albeit a messy phase.

All the best,
Susan

It's going to be okay. I promise you. All kids throw food at that age. It's completely normal. I think they are just experimenting with cause and effect because they are curious. Even if you do nothing to intervene with this behavior, it will go away on its own in a few months. This really isn't a discipline issue unless you turn it into one. It is best not to make a big deal out of it or punish the behavior because doing so could send your child the message that it is not okay to exercise her curiosity in life. If it really bothers you to clean up after her all the time, then just take her food away and tell her that she can have her food back when she is ready to eat it. Give her something more appropriate to throw from the high chair. I guarantee you that she will stop throwing food in a few months and find some other way to annoy you. :) Kids have a way of doing that, but the throwing of food is so par for the course. Good luck.

It sounds like you have done everything but IGNORE the bad behavior. She already knows that you don't like it...you've told her so. Now, IGNORE it. She likes getting the attention, even if it's negative attention...she likes to see you get upset. So simply keep eating your food and act as though nothing happened. It is very hard to do, remain calm inside, and just pretend it is an everyday occurence...the behavior will continue if you keep telling her no..etc. This worked with my son who is now 2 years old.

Thankfully, this is just a phase. Both of my kids went through some amount of meal time play, and with both, simply taking the meal away curbed the behavior. This is a signal that your child has finished eating. The unfortunate part is that every kid is different, and so although it took one meal to curb the behavior with my son, my daughter continued playing with her food (in some way) for months out of rebellion. Best of luck!

Hi T.,
Have you tried being really tough? Like warn her that if she throws her food, it gets taken away...period. Wait like 15 minutes and try again. If she throws, it get taken away for a while. I think this might be a long process, but it just might work. She won't starve, it's just letting her know that you mean business. If she is hungry enough she won't throw food that she wants to eat. I mean, she does eat right? It just sounds to me that it might be the only thing that might work. Your the boss right? Good luck with this one!!!!
M.

When our daughter was throwing food and cups on the ground, we let it go for awhile, but then when it became more purposeful, we started working on it. If she threw food at a meal, we told her no once, and then the next time she got a hand flick. But the thing that seemed to work for us was "practicing doing the right thing". I know that might sound silly, but - I'm a music teacher, and when my students are trying to fix a mistake in a piece, I have them sing/play the small part 3x correctly in a row so that they can start to unlearn the wrong muscle memory. I figured, why not try something similar with behavior? When she threw something, we'd flick her hand then tell her "no we don't throw food on the ground...but we can do this when we are all done"...and we'd have her practice putting it on the plate on the table (applause for her doing it right), then "what else can we do?", practice giving it to Daddy (applause again), then "what else can we do?", practice giving it to Mommy (applause). We can often tell when she's about to give a toss, and will remind her, "wait, what can you do with that?"...For us, this has worked really well. We try to "practice" other things too...and not just after disobedience. I'm trying to teach her to stop (for safety), so sometimes I'll hold her hand and say "let's go go go go...Stop!" and we'll stop. Makes learning to obey a little more enjoyable, I hope! :)

When she throws the food, the mealtime is over. Also teach her a word or a sign to tell you that she is finished eating. I used to teach them "ALL DONE" by putting their hands in the air and saying "ALL DONE" several times and then immediately clearing the tray and letting them down. Don't feed again until the next scheduled mealtime. Don't be angry about it, just consider it a way of communicating. So the next time she throws the food, say "You must be all done now, because you are not eating your food" and put her hands up in the air and say "ALL DONE" several times, then let her out. Eventually, she will use the "ALL DONE" sign and maybe even say "AH DAH!" with it. The goal here is communication.

Keep in mind here that she is at the developmental stage where food throwing translates to learning how the world works. But that does not mean that you need to encourage this messy behavior. She will have lots more opportunities to explore at other times, not at mealtime!

Both of my children threw food. I just took their plate away. It might be that they are not hungry which was the case with my two. She will let you know if she gets hungry, her time schedule might have changed recently due to a growth spurt or something like that.