One Year Old Throwing Food

When she does it make eye contact and tell her NO!!. When she does it again take her out of the high chair and say no more!! She will probably cry, but you will show her if she throws food this is the consequence. Wait a little while and then put her back in the highchair and try again. If she throws the food just repeat the process, she will get the message within a few days that this is not acceptable. This is perfectly normal behavior for this age what really matters is how we address it and stop it. To them it is a game let me see how many times mommy can bend over and pick up the food. If you don't play the game she will stop trying. Trust me a child will never starve themselves. She will eat when she is hungry. Good luck!!

When my daughter started this I made sure to only put one or two pieces of food on her tray at a time. I also would tell her no if she started to throw and sometimes a light tap on her hands. My daughter use to eat all veggies all the time and now only veggies I can get her to eat is broc and corn (others I mix in with eggs or sauces). Just keep the fruits (and veggies) coming and she'll eat what she needs. I breastfed until my daughter was 15 months and it made me feel good to know that it filled in the nutritional blanks when she wouldn't eat all the table food. Good luck!

If she throws food on the floor put her in her room and tell her she will not have lunch. Leave her to the crib for one minute [they say one minute to the age].

After about 30 min try her with the food again. Repeat the same process if she throws the food again. The message is you throw food you will not eat.

Kids have very bad short term memories so she will not realize only 30 min. have passed but she will make the association...throw food means no food.

A.,
This is where you are the teacher. You can feed her by hand, you can tell her no, and expect her to know she isn't to do that (and obey), or you can have someone else feed her.

Of the three, I would feed her by hand (she is not going to 'never learn how to feed herself')

It is what I do with my son.

some of his antics are attention - some are telling me he's done (he forgets 'all done' sometimes).

a friend who is Indian was afraid (after pediatrician said 'no no') that her kids wouldn't learn to eat bc her MIL was constantly feeding them by hand. In India (most provinces) kids are fed by hand for along time (like 5 or 6 years). They all know how to feed themselves and use a fork and everything. Story? new pediatrician.

another thing: unless she is digesting everything very well, some things still need to be pureed - like green beans, spinach, carrots.

During this stage I would tell my daughter no sternly, if she did it again I said you're all done then and took her from the chair. If she seemed to want to try again I would let her but if more food was thrown I said that's it. She helped clean up the mess then we were all done and we moved on with our day. She stopped doing it with in a couple weeks. I too was worried about her getting enough. She was fine and she came to understand that it was not ok to throw food. She found it more fun to eat it then clean it up.

My son is doing this as well...I am only putting a few pieces of food in front of him at a time. If it is a food that he loves, he will literally shovel it in. With the other stuff, I will feed a few pieces to him (not sure why he will eat it when I feed it to him, but he won't feed himself) to make sure that he is getting the nutrition he needs and then if he starts to throw the rest on the floor I tell him no - but I am not as worried that he is not getting enough veggies/protein etc.

Your daughter is experimenting. At one they throw stuff on the floor and magically it comes back to them. How many times have you picked up her toy for her? IS she playing peek-a-boo too? She is trying to figure out where things go and how to get them back. Its quite cute, but can be exasperating at the same time.
SO when she throws her food on the floor take it away from her. No food on the tray. Then feed her with a spoon, which she wont like either. She will fuss and you tell her if you throw it on the floor you dont get more. Believe me she understands what you say. Don't punish her or yell at her for experimenting, but be firm and let her know that throwing her food is not acceptable. Welcome to stage one.LOL

A.,
Your daughter has hit the one year mark and is letting you know her likes and dislikes more so now than before. The best thing you can do is not make a big deal about it and let her eat what she wants for now and in time her tastes will change yet again. If you make a big deal out of it she might become even more picky at eating. My daughter went through a phase where she only ate yogurt and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a month, then she decided she liked pasta and sauce and only ate that for weeks and finally she started eating everything under the sun that was nutritious and refused cookies and crackers which was fine with me. Oh and my youngest son went through a phase where he only ate fish sticks and any vegetable that wasn't green for a year (anything green lasted 3 years though) and now he eats everything. I hope this helps you some.
Hugs,
T.

While I do agree with the previous posters that you should say no and take the food away, I don't think she should be punished for it. Throwing food and almost anything from a height is very common and normal behavior for a 1 year old. They are just beginning to understand consequences and are testing theories they may have. "If I throw this does it always fall down?", "if I throw this does mommy always yell?", "if I throw this will Moomy pick it up?", etc... I'd suggest give her some finger food to eat (and play with) but feed her the majority of her food yourself. Start with the veggies and then offer her other foods. Also, remember that growth slows down quite a bit at that age and she will be eating much less than she used to. At 11 months old my daughter could eat two turkey hot dogs, vegetables, puffs and have a full sippy cup of milk in one sitting. She is now 27 months and just barely ate one hot dog yesterday. Kids eat when they are hungry. As long as she is gaining weight and producing wet diapers and has regular bowel movements don't worry so much.

Babies/toddlers at this age like to experiment with play in the ways previously described and are happy to do the same thing over and over and over. The throwing the food thing is only cute to adults for maybe a few weeks. The babies enjoy the power they feel getting a rise out of you. Babies,toddlers also like 'containerizing' play with their toys. You can have a big plastic bowl handy so that when she begins to throw you can tell her 'in' and catch the food the first few times if she is not accurate. This is a shared power activity. You can also set the limit by saying 'no throwing food' but you are also giving her an alternative to reject what she clearly does not want at the moment. Gradually you can replace the big bowl with a little containier or bown and she will begin to put finger back into it if she doesnt want it. win-win. Finding more food choices that give her the calories she may need and that she likes is a different dilemma. Good luck

I am going through the exact same thing with my 13 month old. It's a definite stage he's entered- becoming a very picky eater, and immediately swiping all the food onto the floor before he even sees what it is! It's definitely a new experience, having the power to choose! (I figured this out when he would eat almost anything if he was up and walking around, but refusing to eat in his high chair.)

It's also going hand in hand with looking at me before doing something he knows he shouldn't do. Yesterday I said, "Don't touch the lamp!" and he looked at me, and laughed, and pulled it over. That's when it hit me- he was ready to learn about boundaries and consequences!

We've brought out he pack-n-play, and it's going in family room. When he does the food on the floor trick more than once, or when he does a specific act he shouldn't (biting, etc.) we are going to try a time out for 1 minute. We'll give a verbal warning once, with a short explanation. After that, a time out.

It'll only be for age-appropriate stuff. But I figure it can't hurt to try, right? Let us know if you figure out another way to get your daughter to keep food on her tray! My son's lost weight lately too...

A., my third son is doing tht and is doing much better when it comes to eating and not putting it on the floor. All three of my boys have done it and it's frustrating sometimes. I have stern voice when I say "No, you do not put that on the floor" with a serious look on my face. If he did it again, the food gets taken away from him, but I don't stop him from eating and then try again but with few on his try and see what happens. I have noticed that all three tend to do that when they are not really hungry. Don't worry about your daughter losing weight. I was concerned with my oldest son not gaining much weight and sometimes even now but what I have done for the longest time is put fruits and/or veggies and/or put cheerios on the table for them to snack on and they say that if they are hungry they will eat. They will eat when their bodies tell them they are hungry. I put the foods on the table for them so they can snack on (this is when they got older) but when younger, put cheerios out for them and when in highchair, I put cheerios on the tray or bananas for snacking and let thme know that I am doing that and they come to the highchair climb on and then start snacking. I don't believe in feeding them if they are capable of feeding themselves. But, that is my opinion. Let us know how it went and help you have been encouraged by us all. God bless you and your family!