18 Month Old Food Flinger!

It is age appropriate at this point. You put a tiny bit on his plate and you feed him from his fork or spoon. He is still exploring the textures, his fine motor skills and obviously his throwing abilities.

You might give him 2 tortellini on his plate and then actually feed him half of one. If he eats it, then you offer him another half.. If he makes it into his own mouth great.

2 green beans on his plate next and you feed him 1..

2 pieces of melon on the plate, you feed him 1.

Also sounds like he is not really hungry. Children's appetites will ebb and flow. It will feel like they are not eating anything for a few weeks and the next thing you know, they cannot get enough.

You need to follow his lead.

I know it is very frustrating. You are doing fine, reminding him that the food stays on his plate, but in reality, he may not totally understand it. Everything else he is allowed to touch he is allowed to play with it.. Fling it, flip it.. etc. Remember he is only 18 months old. He has not been on this earth very long and most of it has been spent sleeping and exploring.. Nothing will change about this for a while still.

The reason it is not working is because it's age appropriate for him to be like this with his food. I always put the ones that had to mangle their food facing a corner with a shower curtain over it for easy cleaning. That way they got to get it out of their system and I got to clean up quicker and in a more sanitary way.

He needs less messy food, food that can be swept up and is not mushy. As he gets older he will "get" that he can't play with his food but right now it's his total focus and he is going to continue until he gets past this stage. If you do less gooey foods it is so much easier on you.

How much is your son eating during the day? I know some moms let their kids graze all day long so maybe sitting down to a meal is just not that exciting since he's not hungry? Just a guess.
If you are not doing so....I would do breakfast, midmorning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and then dinner.
If you are already doing this than I don't have any other ideas! :)
L.

It can be frustrating. I think he may be too young for a booster seat and might be better off in a high chair scooted up to the table. Put his food on a plate on the table out of his reach. Dont give him anything, and you and dad start eating. Wait for him to ask for food, reach for it or for your food. Then give him 1 piece of whatever is on his plate. If you have to stick it in his mouth, thats fine. Otherwise hand it to him and then put his hand up to his mouth and say take a bite. Smile. let go. If he throws it, or smears it on his tray, tell him NO. Wipe it off his tray and go back to eating and ignor him. Wait till he askes for a bite and try again. If he still throws it or smears it, then get up, take him out of his high chair and put him in his crib and walk out. Go eat dinner with dad. Get him out of his crib when you are done and let him go about the evening as usual. No snacks, no drinks. He wont die. Bedtime comes and he will go to bed and maybe cry, maybe not. But his dinner time play didnt gain him anything, so maybe he wont do it many more times. Come morning he will be hungry and you can start over again and see how he does. I can see you are trying to stop him and being firm and telling him a sharp NO, and making him leave the table is a great start, but dont put him down to just let him go play. As you said, he doesnt mind,(care) so,, hes not going to mind (behave) either! It wont hurt to let him be a bit hungry a few times at night. He will learn fast and then eat great. It is a phase to some degree, and normal, but its how you handle it that will make all the difference in the world eventually.

He likes the attention, make him eat alone where he can fling it all he wants (like the bath tub) ... make sure you can see him but he can not see you and it is choke free food. My son did his food flinging because daddy and the dog gave him a rise. I made sure he ate alone for a while and tought daddy how to stop paying him attention and the dog went to his crate. Took about a week and it was no longer fun and food was food again. Oh and his "clean up" bath was cool not nice and warm. My son liked the bath time attention afterwards so I started making it on the cooler side and very abrupt I think this also fed into the stopping of the actions.