Throwing Food. - Billings,MT

He's discovered that it bothers you! If he's playing with his food, he's probably pretty much done eating. You can calmly take it away and clean up, acting like he's said "I'm full mom" (instead of like he's acting out).

Give him lots of chances to explore textures when he's not eating. He may just enjoy the way the food feels as he's smearing it around. Give him playdough (under supervision). Let him finger paint. Maybe even get some cheap shampoo and put a bit on his tray for him to rub around - you'll even have a clean tray when he's done!

If a child plays with food or throws it, they are not hungry, just the second he does it, say "looks like you are done", get him out of the highchair and clean up his mess. Do not give him anything else for at least 30 minutes.
This is an age of cause and effect, he sees he can mush, play with and throw food, just that age it is cool to do. I don't think they do it for attention as much as exploration.
Just be firm, take him down and EVENTUALLY he will get it. If he is hungry when he does get it, he will stop. What helped a lot with my kids is moving them to a booster/meal seat and putting it up to the table. The highchairs are high up, more room to throw and play and a lot more mess to have to clean up. It pretty much ended in my house when I put them up to the table and sat down with them at each meal. Made them feel like a big kid and there just isn't as much room to get all crazy with food.
They do outgrow it and it depends on how consistent you are, no need for time outs or harshness but be firm and take the food away, set him down from the high chair and tell him he can be excused. Every once in a great while my four year old son will play with his food (especially if he isn't fond of it) and I give one firm warning, he can either finish his dinner or get down. I never make them finish their meal but they don't get anything else later. If he ignores the warning, I get him to leave the table. Pretty much after that warning he knows I meant what I said...
Good luck, be patient, it just a new phase and new cool feeling for them to play with food.

My baby is 20 mos too and doing the exact same thing!!! It's driving us NUTS! I have no ideas what to do about it. I know my little girl used to do it at that age too. My husband & I joke about getting a dog to eat everything he throws down! We get so sick of cleaning it up. We'd be happy to just feed him ourselves but he'll never learn to feed himself if we do that. We've stopped using a plate because he just dumps it so we just put food right on the tray. I guess I just wrote to say we share your frustration!

Stay on top of it and the minute the food is going to be played in take it away, if he wants it back wait a minute or two and tell him "If you are going to play in your food and not eat it, then mommy is going to take it away and you won't get it back" he will most likely play in it so take it away and don't give it back. This has worked with all of my kids (7) and they get a bowl/plate and spoon from about a year on. The trick is to catch it as soon as it happens and to be consistant, it usualyy takes a couple of days, they get the hint. Good Luck.

At the first hint of him throwing his food or dumping his plate, take the food away from and tell him he is done. Even if he hasn't eaten anything. Wait a few minutes, then give him another chance, telling him firmly "we don't play with food". Then give it back to him. If he does it again, take it away again. If he seems like he is really hungry, give it back to him, repeating firmly not to play with food. I wouldn't give him any more than 3 chances to stop. Then the meal is over. He will catch on really quick that you mean business and he will stop.

I have to be honest with you, I am surprised that you even give him food in a bowl. I always just put my children's food directly on their tray, and yes they'd play a bit, and even smear it around because they are getting used to texture and, heck, food is fun!:) I think you can start teaching your son to not throw food on the floor by starting to take food away at that point, and telling him no, but as for the smearing of food on the tray, I think that is perfectly normal. If he gets so excited that he splatters it everywhere on the room, then take it away as well. Eventually, as he gets older, he'll learn to use a fork and knife and sit with a napkin on his lap:)

Also, do you have a dog or other animal that he might be feeding? My kids used to do that, but I dealt with that by telling them no sternly, and then taking away their food. They stopped doing it, and it even helped to train my dog to stay out of the room while we were eating.