My Sixteen Month Old Throws Her Food Everywhere and Drives Me Nuts!

My son did the same thing, and like you, I tried the same techniques to get him to quit--unsuccessfully. The only thing that stopped it was to move him to a booster seat at the table with a placemat that suctions to the table. He seemed to like the feeling of being a "big boy". When he started to throw food off from the table I told him he would have to go back to the high chair. Once night I did put him back in the high chair, but he hated it so much, he quit throwing food at the table. I hope that works for you :)

When she starts throwing the food, take it away, and get her down IMMEDIATELY. Be consistent, even if you think that she is hungry; she won't starve. My now 22 month old son liked to throw food too. Like you I put up with it for a while, but once I had had enough I started taking his food as soon as he started throwing it and it only took two or three days before he stopped throwing food. Good luck with the new baby. I have two that are 17 months apart, and yes, you will be very busy, especially once the new one stops sleeping all of the time. I hope that you have a husband as wonderful as mine who gets up with the toddler, so you can sleep in the morning on his days off. Those few days of extra sleep really help.

My daughter is 16 months and does the same thing, though not with a lot of force. She just drops stuff on the floor, she doesn't hurl it at me. I try to only give her a few pieces at time, and let her feed herself with a fork or spoon. When it's something tricky, I guide her hand with her spoon to help food get on there and from there to her mouth. When she starts just throwing instead of eating, she's done. Most of the time, she only tosses it if she doesn't like it.
One thing that has helped a little bit is when she is snacking during the day and walking around eating, and she throws it on the floor, I ask her politely to pick it up and give it to Mama. I use please and thank you and tell her that it goes in her mouth or she gives it to Mama, but we don't throw things on the floor. Since she has to pick it up herself, it helps her understand that things just don't get picked up by magic. :) I'm hoping she'll grow out of it eventually, and in the meantime, I just breathe and try not to do a big reaction at dinner. I just say, "No thank you. You're done", when she keeps throwing stuff during meal time. Hang in there!

Been there. Doing that. We have a "you chuck it, you lose it" policy, so my twins (who will be two next month( know not to throw anything they actually want to eat. We give very small portions . . . to reduce the ammunition. But even so, some food still ends up on the floor during every meal. My dog is fat and my mop is ready for it's 10,000 mile tune up, but things are getting better!

My oldest (who is now almost 11) started throwing his food when he was about 2. My response was with the first throw he had to get down out of his high chair and he was done eating - he did not like that and after a couple of times he stopped.

My youngest (who is now 5) would also throw food but only when he was finished eating so the trick with him was to watch him like a hawk and when he looked done I got him out of his chair. Not sure if either of these will work because every kid is different.

Dont' let her know it irritates you, at this age...too big a concept for that young. Use whatever you do consistently. She'll catch on to who is boss! I've heard the saying that "How you deal with a 2 yr. old (she's getting there a might early,) will reward or agonize you ten years from now." There is so much help in rearing children these days, but the biggest need they have is to know you care enuogh to correct and guide them.
P.S. Prayer changes things, for sure...a song states that well, "Turn it over to Jesus, and smile the rest of the way!"

Hi H.,
Sounds like fun!!! :-) (Not) Our son is 18 months old and he thought it was great fun to toss his food from the table or high chair. We at first did the things that you are doing, but then we realized that it WAS NOT working. So, now what we do when he throws even a tiny speck of food. We get him right down from the table and tell him that his meal is over. He is welcome to play, but mealtime is over. He of course doesn't like that, but he doesn't throw his food anymore. If he says that he wants more food we tell him that the next meal is going to be great and we're sure that he'll really enjoy it. So, that might be too harsh for you, but it sure gets the point across. I think it took about 2 times for him to get it that if he throws food, the meal is over.
Good luck!

Hi H.!

You've already gotten some good responses, but I just wanted to refer you to an awesome website for child training. This specific topic is addressed more than once, I believe. The website is: www.nogreaterjoy.org They have a newsletter which you can subscribe to and all their articles are archived on the site so you can search through for specific topics, etc. I can't say I follow their advice 100% but I do my best and have seen the results. :)

God Bless!
R.

It looks like people gave you good advice already. I just wanted to let you know that pretty much every kid does this. It's like fun with physics and food. :) This faze will pass quickly and you'll wonder where the time went.

OK... when you figure this out... let me know! My 20-month-old does the same thing with his food, except it's only at the end of the meal, when he is finished with food. His signal is dumping it on the floor. He is getting a little bit better, but how frustrating! One thing that seems to help a little bit is to give him his food in small segments. If he gets too much on his tray, he gets a little overwhelmed. One thing that also works (but may seem a little hard core) is to just take the food away and not give it back after the first time she throws it during the meal. I have only done this with snacks, because I am afraid that he will be hungry. That has seemed to make the biggest difference, but needs constant reinforcing.

I have a brand new one at home too, so trust me, you want to figure this out before your new one is born. I am glad you have a few months to work on it. Good luck to you!

Hi H. :)
I would suggest giving her only a handful of things (maybe 5 pieces) at a time. If she finishes it then give her a few more pieces. It's a little more work but it will be less work then having to scrub everything down. This is a fun phase that eventually will go away.

My son, who is almost 18 months now, has done the same thing since we began to feed him solid food in his chair. And yes, with enough force to make the pitiful Mariners want him in their bullpen (LOL). I must say though, that he is just now starting to get better. But I can certainly understand your frustration. He throws food he doesn't like or if he is "done". I am teaching him sign language, so I give him the signs to "eat more please" and he seems to do better for a bit. But when that doesn't work - I know he truly is done. To be honest with you, I don't remember my girls doing the food throwing thing so much - you know the occasional toss, but that was it. Not like their little brother. He seems to eat better when he has his own spoon or fork and is trying to feed himself. I have also started putting less on his plate/tray at at time - giving him his food in stages - less ammo :o). As we both know they do grow out of this stage - thank God - but as to when, it differs with each child. So I guess, my suggestions would be - as I have found they are making a difference is - give her just a little bit at a time and try giving her her own spoon or fork. Keep trying, try and be patient (believe me I know it's hard sometimes), keep mealtime as pleasant as possible and she'll soon reward you with a non-target practice meal :o).

Ah, yes- this is a very common stage and the duration varies from child to child. Don't panic, it might not be so extreme with your son:)

The ladies here have already given great advice- so I will just briefly explain how we got through it (Emma is now 20 mos. Expecting Claire to arrive late July:).

Emma was not a chucker/launcher like your daughter, she would do the "umpire," wave her hands palm down back and forth across her tray like she was motioning that the batter was "SAFE!" Food (and dishes) would fly. We stopped giving her a plate and instead prepared her meal and sat it on the table with our food, and would only give her one or two bites to feed herself at a time. Food would still end up on the floor, but more would be eaten.

We also enlisted her help in the cleanup, after eating I would get down on the floor with her and explain to her that we needed to pick the food up- I would help her find pieces to put back onto her plate ( I did most of the work, but she got the idea).

What you feed them during this stage makes a big difference too, of course you don't want to comprimise their nutrition, but you might want to keep things like ketchup off the menu for a while.

I can't remember how long this went on, but it did pass, and meals are much more enjoyable now:)

Good luck!

I'm sooo with you. I have a 16 month old that does EXACTLY the same thing, even the holding it over the edge and smiling! My first daughter, who's eight now, was a neat eater that started feeding herself at 11 months, so this is hard to deal with! I've just stopped letting her feed herself. It's just easier for me to feed her and a lot less time consuming because there is less clean up. Sometimes she will hit the spoon if she's done with something (which is still annoying) but I'm pretty good at moving it in time. I tried the whole getting her down if she throws food but that just made mealtime last all day! I figured there was no one in school that has there Mom come and feed them so I will wait until she's a little older to try again with her feeding herself. I just think I'd rather feed her myself then fight with her three or more times a day, plus the clean up! I've been feeding her for a couple of weeks and yesterday when i gave her some finger foods on her tray she didn't toss them (but I only tried it with some nice dry easy to pick up snack:) I'm still going to feed her myself for now and just test it every once in a while. I really think that once she can talk more it will get easier, maybe it's just her way of saying "No, not carrots again!!!"
Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-B

been there, hated it! But its a phase and will go away.
But what worked for us, was to take away her food (not literally) but to start feeding her not letting her feed herself. Then ease back into letting her feed herself, by giving her scoopfulls at a time onto a plate, so if she decided to throw you just take it away and tell her when she wants to eat and not play she can do it herself. And continue feedind her.
It took about 2 weeks for my son to start feeding himself and not destroying the kitchen. He then also knew i meant business when i told him no and would follow through with taking away his food if he threw his food.

Good luck and congrats@

My daughter used to do this too. Let me preface this by saying that I am no neat freak myself. There are spots on my wall that have been there longer than I would like to admit, and I wind up as dirty as the kids when we play in the sandbox or paint or bake or something, but there was something really aggravating about the "mealtime toddler food fights." I guess I would rather spend my time doing fun things with the kids than spend all my time cleaning up from meal times.
What we started doing with my daughter(and it worked pretty quickly) was at the first sign of silliness saying"When you throw food, it tells me you are finished eating." Then we would take her plate from her spot at the table and wipe her hands and face and get her down from her chair. If she was still hungry, then she would get upset and usually return to the table in a few minutes and finish out dinner. If she wasn't hungry she would go on her merry way and we would finish our meal and get on with the day.
Hope this helps a little. I know it is totally annoying now, but one day it will be a good story. Especially in front of boyfriends and in-laws.:)

Our son (23 months) did the same thing. We are convinced that he is going to be a famous baseball player some day as he has a cannon. We still work at it but it is much better than it was. We would flick his fingers gently to get his attention and then put him in the corner. I have also found that if I let him down when he is done eating rather than making him sit there and wait for us then he doesn't get bored and find ways to entertain himself. Also he is still in a high chair and so he has his own tray; we showed him where he could put things on his tray that he doesn't want to eat. Hope this helps.

This is not meant to be harsh, but the easiest answer to this problem is the very first time she throws things in a meal you take the whole meal away. She ends up washed, out of her high chair, and on the floor. She will be in shock the first time and probable cry like mad. Do not give in--do not change tactics, because if you do, it will be harder the next time.

So each meal that she throws something, the first piece of the meal that she throws, remove her from the dinner table. She will be much hungrier the next time and not waste the food! Especially if you feed her something she likes. You want her to see the food as something to eat, not as toy. And if she does this two meals in a row it's okay, because then you know she is doing this because she sees the food a toy. The third meal she will be so hungry she will be ready to eat the plate.

Good luck, W.

Hi H....you've gotten some great advice. Probably the only thing I would add is to just pick a way to handle it and stick with it forever. At this point she may be thinking "hmmmm which response will I get this time." If it were me, I think I would go with the minute she throws something, meal time is over. Calmly, without raising your voice (sort of like a robot) just take her out of her high chair (or wherever she's sitting) and send her on her way. The deal is, she's GOING to be hungry at some point and when she realizes that by throwing the food she doesn't get to eat it, she will probably stop. Now, like I always say, this WILL get worse before it gets better because she will want to test to see how far she has to go now to get you to break down and yell or grab her hand her do something different. No matter what just immediately end her meal time and send her on her way. If she's vocalizing that she wants to eat soon I would just say "when you throw your food then mommy knows you're done" and that's it. If she's telling you she's still hungry I'd say "don't worry we'll have snack in an hour" but then that's it, quit discussing it. Like I said, eventually she'll be hungry and when she finally figures out that by throwing her food only hurts herself she'll probably outgrow it. In the meantime you've started to send the message about all kinds of issues that you're in charge and not her.

Good luck H.!

L. H

PS I'm a sahm to 9 and 5 year old girls.