16-Month-old Throwing Food

When he throws food, mealtime is over. Its as simple as that. This may seem harsh, but he won't starve himself. He will get the idea real soon that throwing food is not acceptable. Tell him "No Throwing food, dinner is over now". Take him out of his chair and start another activity. Do this a couple times and he will get the picture. Yes it is normal for 16 month olds to test their limits, but he is also old enough to know that we don't throw our food. Teach him table manners now, you won't regret it later.

Hi Jen,

I own a daycare and experience this problem at least once a week, as a matter of fact, it happened yesterday with a plate of spaghetti. What we have found effective, which may not work with your child but who knows, is that we remove them from the table all together, but keep them where they can see others eating properly. It may take 15 minutes or so of tantrums, but eventually they will want to eat with the others. If you eat in front of him, eventually he will want to eat too. We also cut out snacking through out the day to insure that they will be hungry at meal times and want to eat verses playing with it. You can also try feeding his food seperatly for awhile, do meats, veggies, grains one at a time instead of all on one plate, because if one thing look unappetizing, he will reject it all. We always save fruit and milk for last. Give it a try and hope it works, good luck to ya, its a fun age.

I have to agree with the previous posts. My daughter, same age, does the same thing. I find the most effective thing to do is to say "We don't throw food" & then remove her from her highchair & let her know mealtime is over. She usually throws a tantrum, then realizes she is hungry & wants back in her highchair to eat. It has worked, though it seems harsh, it hasn't been happening too much since we've tried this. Good luck!! :)

Tell him once "no throwing food" and hold both of his hands, briefly. If he continues, remove all food and walk away quickly, out of view. He will cry and scream. Don't give him any kind of audience or your attention. Remove him from chair in a couple minutes. If you really feel like you have to return to this meal, give it a lapsed time.

Return and tell him he is a good boy and pretend like nothing happened. Unless he does it again. Then, repeat the above but his dinnertime is officially over. You should be able to nip the behavior pretty quickly. Good luck.