Intentionally throwing food on the floor - aaargh!

[Faerie]

So we went through the early stage where food would accidently end up on the floor, then a glorious few months of there hardly being a crumb unless it was something she really didn't like.

And now, Sofia has taken to lobbing food all over the kitchen. If I take her plate away she cries because she's still hungry, so I give it back and she'll eat some more and then start throwing it again. If I tell her no she laughs at me.

What do I do?? I'm trying hard to just ignore her when she does it, no idea if that's the best thing or not.

 

[Kitten]

Theakston does this when he's bored or had enough. When you take the plate away she might be crying because she's annoyed you've removed her 'toy' rather than still being hungry. Or she could just be bored of the food she has. When Theakston does this we consider his meal finished, but then we feed him a yoghurt as a 'dessert' and he always eats it all and sometimes even helps himself to mouthfuls of what's left on his tray in between spoonfuls so maybe try offering something different when this starts, or giving her a toy when you take the plate away so you can judge if it's annoyance/boredom or hunger making her react.

 

[LittleMadam]

My 12-month old loves playing the throw-the-food-on-the-floor game too. I sternly tell her 'no' but she just looks and laughs at me. (Is hard not to laugh myself at her response, even though her actions drive me nuts!) So I take the food off her because at this point, she has finished eating. I think all we can do is be consistent with the stern voice and telling them no when they get like this. She does this at restaurants too.

If you figure out a better approach, please share.

 

[Faerie]

Theakston does this when he's bored or had enough. When you take the plate away she might be crying because she's annoyed you've removed her 'toy' rather than still being hungry. Or she could just be bored of the food she has. When Theakston does this we consider his meal finished, but then we feed him a yoghurt as a 'dessert' and he always eats it all and sometimes even helps himself to mouthfuls of what's left on his tray in between spoonfuls so maybe try offering something different when this starts, or giving her a toy when you take the plate away so you can judge if it's annoyance/boredom or hunger making her react.

Ahh, I kept meaning to make a post about the dessert thing too and forgot.

We have that too, she'll have whatever her dessert is going to be and then carry on eating her main meal. I'm worried that's a bad habit... started off as an accident.

 

[Lu28]

I'm a mean mummy - she gets one warning with her plate being taken away and then given back a minute later but if she does it again then I take it away for good on the assumption that if she's playing with her food then she's done eating. If she's had a decent stab at her main course then I will offer a yoghurt or something after but if she hasn't eaten much then she doesn't get a yoghurt either as I don't want her refusing or playing with her main course so that she can get to the good stuff!

 

[bjl1981]

Lo sometimes does this, but not really throwing, he just drops stuff off the side, and it is generally when he's had enough. I try not to make a fuss though, I just say/sign "finished, all gone?" and then if he doesn't try to get anymore off the tray I take that as a cue to move the food away. I'm trying the ignore bad behaviour thing, its hard sometimes though when its sticky/messy food and inside I'm like "grrrrrr"!!!!

 

[joeyjo]

G started throwing stuff off the edge yesterday so matt put his hand to try & get it so g turned round & threw it all the other way!

 

[leighbaby]

My LO throws his food too - though usually it is when he has had enough. Sometimes it is random, because when I put it back on his tray - he then eats it! and often he will throw his berries before he eats them all - like eat one, thrown one, squish one, eat one!

 

[Faerie]

I think this new thing about food throwing has coincided with yet more new teeth, hoping that it will be over soon!

I worry about not giving her food back if she really wants it. Just she's got a really good appetite generally and wants to eat loads (hence why I think this might be teething related) but she's not very big so can't really afford to lose much weight.

At the same time I'm petrified of having no authority!

Sofia is random with berries, she either shoves them all in her mouth at once or does the same as Sebastian, squish, throw, munch, squish.

 

[rosie272]

Haha.. Thats exactly what Charlie does with the berries! He seems to hate having 2 of anything in front of him and chucks everything away until he only has 1, then he stares at that before deciding wether to squish, munch or chuck I just ignore him throwing the food on the floor but it is infuriating when you know they haven't eaten much I'm guilty of whipping out the dessert as well, but just so I know he's definatley eaten something... I'm hoping it's another phase

 

[amie-leigh]

Morgan is doing this now and i wondered if it was connected to teething (she has 2 or 3 coming in)

 

[Didz]

Amy loves throwing her food on the floor. My MiL lets her dogs in to eat whatever she's chucked on the floor so now she associates it with a way of getting the dogs into the room. We've told my MiL to stop doing it, as convinient as it is, its a nightmare because Amy keeps doing it at our house too, thinking we'll let our dogs come in to eat it. We put them in another room whilst she eats to stop them pinching it and stop her feeding them her food leaving her hungry.
She's cheeky with it too. Yesterday she was sitting in her highchair eating weetabix, she's at that stage where she won't let anyone feed her and wants to do it herself. After "painting" her highchair with the stuff she'd left because she was full she hung her bowl over the edge of the tray and looked at me. I said "don't you dare, madame, put that bowl back" so she did. She repeated it 3 times. On the last time she hung it over, she looked me square in the eye with a defiant look and dropped it, chucking weetabix EVERYWHERE lol. I couldn't help but giggle because of the look on her face. She started clapping but I told her not to do it again. She always does cheeky things like that. Tell her to leave something alone and she gives you a cheeky smile and goes for it anyway.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Ruby was pretty bad for food throwing for a while. But one day she jut started handing it to us if she didn't want it, or putting it onto our plate. We always ignored her throwing food. We just made sure there wasn't a lot on her plate at once.

 

[Laura2919]

I think the twins learned to do this from nursery, My mum is very big on table manners and she hates seeing them do it but the more you tell them no the more they do it anyway so now I ignore them and I just pick up what it is and it doesnt happen as much to be honest.

 

[andbabymakes3]

Holly was/is going through a chucking food stage as well.

She will look me square in the eye, says 'no' and drops it off the side of the highchair.

From my understanding, it is a totally normal developmental stage where they are just testing boundaries and realising they can control things.

I try to ignore it and will put more food on the tray, but if she keeps doing it I will take whatever it is away - and try again a little later. She will eat when she is hungry!

 

[Cazzyg]

It's normal. Charlotte did this for a wee while and it was a nightmare - so frustrating seeing the food you have prepared get thrown away.

She grew out of it - it didn't last too long now looking back - but generally coincided with not wanting to eat or be in her high chair. We got a small table and chairs from ikea and she now eats there or on a booster seat at the table with us as she doesn't like being strapped in her high chair. That way she doesn't get bored and tends to eat more.

 

[Cariad_bach]

Jamies a little so and so for this .. partly because the dog just loves to hover up anything that lands on the floor (which jamie finds very funny) and he does just love throwing everything he gets his hands on all the time anyway.
Just a age/faze thing

 

[Faerie]

Holly was/is going through a chucking food stage as well.

She will look me square in the eye, says 'no' and drops it off the side of the highchair.

From my understanding, it is a totally normal developmental stage where they are just testing boundaries and realising they can control things.

I try to ignore it and will put more food on the tray, but if she keeps doing it I will take whatever it is away - and try again a little later. She will eat when she is hungry!

Ahhh, Sofia says "no no no" whenever she's not meant to do something, and then does it. Monkey.

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Joshua does this to... less that he used to. However he will not eat off a plate/bowl - i considering giving up giving him one. Co the first thing he does it tips it all off onto his tray then hands me his plate

Generally when he throws food over the edge its cos he is finished. Although recently he has started handing it to us.

I dont do dessert/ yoghurt very often ... only now and again!