16 Month Old Throwing Toys and Dropping Food – Should I Try to Correct?

He is learning about time and space. When kids drop things from their highchair they are learning about time and space. They are not being naughty. I remember hearing a radio talk about this I think it may have been John Tesch, talking about it. Also the throwing is completely normal for a boy his age. It is also frustratings because he doesn't understand the difference between throwing a soft ball compared to a hard toy.
I am probably going to get a lot of flack about this but I believe we need to let kids be kids. Don't be so over controling, he will lose his ingenuity and creativity. And yes he will outgrow all of this.

Personally, I would try to stop both.

Regardless, if he's actually doing any damage or not, toys should not be thrown. In my opinion nothing should be thrown in a house. I would do what your mom suggests with taking it step further. Take away the toys he is throwing down there. Tell him he won't get them back. And don't give in until you know he's ready to stop that behavior.

As for the eating, taking him down is the right answer. No, child will starve themselves. He might not end up eating a big, lunch, but come dinner he'll be ready for food. If not, then he'll be ready at breakfast.

This is a developmental phase. You should be directing him and telling him to stop throwing the things that are not for throwing. Tell him, redirect, and don't give him that thing back if he cannot stop. It kind of sounds like he has way too many things to choose from. I would limit him to a toy or two, that way, if he throws them away, he is out of luck, and he has to make a choice, throw them away, or have something to play with. Take him outside to throw balls, tell them that it is the right place and time. He will get it some day. Right now, it is only a game if you keep getting his things back and letting him do it again.

As for food, you can stop that in an few days. Tell him not to, and when he does it, tell him that he is done. Take him out of the chair, and meal time is over if he drops food. Stand your ground. If he can manipulate you into putting him back in the chair, the first thing he will do will be to try you again and drop some more food. You are teaching him two things, and neither one is really throwing food. You are teaching him that he can get away with things you say no to, and that he can manipulate you. You don't want either one. Be firm, and it will stop. He sounds really smart to me. It will probably only take once...

M.

PS: You don't need to reason with a child. He does what you say, and the reason is, you said so. My oldest is almost 19, there is still no reasoning with her. Let that go!

absolutely stop him.
Firmly tell him that we don't throw things in the house. Something could get broken. If he throws something put the something in time out where he can see it. But DON'T GIVE IT BACK TO HIM for a couple of days.
if he throws his food TAKE IT AWAY he's done. He can have it back if he agrees to leave it on his plate. If he does it again , take it away again and remove him from the table. Tell him since he dropped his food on the floor he must be done. Because we don't throw or drop food.
A 16 month old understands more than we give them credit for.
He understands that if he throws it down the stairs you will go and get it for him. He also understands that if the throws his food on the floor you won't really do anything , It's manipulation.

As for the dropping of the food:

He does it once, give him a warning.
He does it again, meal time is over. Take away the food.
He won't starve. He will learn the cause and effect of his actions. If he wants to continue eating, he will stop throwing. He is trying to get your attention and is testing limits. It is not proper behavior to throw food ever. Do not reward it with the sweet foods - in doing so you are positively reinforcing the undesired behavior.

Your son will pick up quickly on this. TRUST me!

Hi Mary Anne.....Don't panic...you're doing great. I am a in home daycae provider for 15 yrs, First off, your son is gettting a reaction from you, and that's what he's looking for. Second, at this are they totally understand no. Whether we adults believe or not.
My suggestion... for the food part, Give him a big stern loud deep NO! Give him a chance to stop. Iif he does it again, one more NO (like your telling a puppy) If he doesn't stop, take him out of the high chair. If he whines to get back in, say no food on the floor, sternly. No other words. Try again, in the chair. If he does it again, just take him out. I promise you he will not go hungry, children eat when they need to. A couple days of this and not getting another reaction from you, and he'll figure out that if he throws the food he won't eat. YOU are the parent! You ae teaching him acceptable behaviors, don't give in he will get it. Same with the toys, If he throws them he goes in a room with only books. If he whines to go to the toys. Same follow thru. If he keeps throwing he only gets the books. He'll be passified for a bit with the books, but he'll want the other toys. Toddlers, are much smarter than you give them credit for! Sounds like he needs a lot of "physical" play. Get a small blow up pool and fill it with pillows and let him jump in it! Good luck! kay

well, your mom is right! Eye contact & be firm. Teach him the balls are for throwing & that's it. Teach him that dropping food is inappropriate...& if it continues, then the meal is over.

Teaching our kids & learning to be firm is a part of parenthood.

stop it now mine is hard of hearing and I did break the throwing food and for the throwing toys if he throws them out that is where they stay. if you want them you shouldnt have thrown them out. mine didnt understand language and I broke him. it is an age thing but I would stop him as soon as possible I broke mine of throwing food cause he is deathly afraid of the vacumn and every time one piece of food hits the floor the vacumn goes on. I had the daycare do the same. he wont go hungry for long maybe at first but he will figure it out real quick. language barriers have nothing to do with the behavior and you can discipline without reasoning. and gravity is a fun thing to figure out. :)

in our house we have throw appropriate toys ex blankie or soft ball hard things get a time out even with liimited hearing. I made mine look at his toys and cry for them and my answer would be you shouldnt have thrown it. :) consenquesnces work well with mine with limited language.

They are both normal behaviors. If you are ok with soft balls being thrown in the house, you just tell him, only balls are for throwing and give him one or distract him (and yes, if you want this to work you will need to be watching and playing with him all the time). If you don't want anything thrown in the house, you tell him, we throw outside and bundle him up and take him outside to throw.

The food throwing thing is frustrating and disgusting (IMO) and how they learn (apparently it takes six thousand repetitions for them to learn what will happen when you throw your food on the ground). We just gave him small amounts of food at once and ended the meal when he started throwing (luckily for us, DS didn't throw until he was pretty much done eating). He will outgrow both of these behaviors no matter how you handle them now.

PS. you don't have to reason with a child. But if you want them to grow up to be thinking, questioning, reasoning adults it's a pretty good idea to. I don't respond well to 'because I said so', do you?

.

Your son is totally testing you & it appears he has the upper hand. Absolutely - you should be displining him and say "NO". He understands way more than you're giving him credit for too. If you don't teach him now then he's going to be a very unpleasant 2 yr old that no one will want to be around.
My 5th baby is now 13 months old and we are correcting him a lot. He tests me after I've said "no" to something. For example, we've told him not to get into my cabinets in the kitchen, which he loves to do. Now, he goes to the cabinets and turns and looks at me. He's looking at me because he wants reinforcement that he's not supposed to do that. I don't get angry I just look at him and firmly say "no, no". Then I pull him away. He will toddle into another room or he'll keep trying to get away with it.
If you're ever with a group of young children and you watch, it's easy to pick out which kids were not disciplined early - they are the ones that are making you mad. The one's who are pleasant to be around are the ones who were taught boundries from the beginning.

It's so normal! They love playing 'fetch' with Mommy!
Give him small portions of food and when the throwing starts - the meal is over. He'll eat when he's hungry, and going hungry every once in awhile never hurt anyone.
As for the toys. Make sure he only has a few things to play with at one time (and make sure they are soft so they can't crack your tile). When they are thrown to where he can't get them - leave them there.
He doesn't get to play with them again till tomorrow.
Eventually, you are going to have to tell him 'No throwing in the house'.
Save a few bean bags for throwing around outside.

Ugh, I am right there with you! My 14 month old is doing the same thing. I have to say, we've been trying the calm "look in his eyes, speak firmly, tell him no" thing for over a month with zero progress. I don't know what kind of one year old that works on, but my son certainly doesn't seem to be responding well to it! He thinks it's funny when we do that and just laughs. Picking him up, carrying him elsewhere, and distracting him works sometimes, but often he goes right back to doing whatever he was doing before as soon as we take our hands off him. I really don't know what else to do. I keep hoping this is just a phase and he'll outgrow it, but it's been over a month of this constant behavior and no signs of stopping.

So no advice for you, sorry! Just wanted to let you know you're not alone!