Help Me with My Crazy 18 Month Old!

My daughter has been doing this to me too and it makes me crazy. BUT! My strategy has been to clean it up once a day and when she does this with her food.

I have been trying to not make a big deal out of it as well in case it's a plea for attention. That seems to be the most effective thing I have managed to do during this phase with her. I give her a couple of tries and if she does it to me twice in a row then I put her food away and we go do something else for a while. But I try not to even show a reaction and I do not clean it up when she's watching me.

This has been going on for about 3 weeks but seems to be slowing down a lot-we have gone a couple of days now where I haven't seen her do this so we might be done. I know this doesn't help right NOW, but it's temporary and eventually he will lose interest in this maddening activity.

A while back, my daughter would secrete yogurt (there's really no other way to explain this) after she would take a bite of it...we had to stop having yogurt for a while and now when I give it to her she doesn't do that to me anymore.

We are going through this too and my son is only 15 months. He is very strong willed and stubborn. We swat his hand and remove him from the table. When he is hungry he comes back saying "eat". I think that sometimes he just isn't ready for dinner, not hungry enough. So we are trying to adjust his meal and snack times and amounts to see if we can help with that.

Good luck!

Hi A.! You might need to get creative with your discipline. Sounds like your little man might be bored at meal time. So maybe if you do a little brain storming you can come up with something that would make mealtime fun for him, but in an appropriate way. You could try songs, games, pictures, or stories that model good mealtime manners. When he uses his good manners praise him, love on him, and make a BIG deal out of it! Even if its just him chewing and swallowing his food without throwing it. Take every chance you can to give him praise. Then when his manners are not appropriate make it known to him. Make sure he really knows that his behavior is NOT acceptable, but focus your attention on the good behavior rather then the bad. Kids at this age LOVE attention and this could be a huge motivator of his actions. I'm not telling you to completely ignore the bad behavior, just don't dwell on it. That being said you do need to find an age appropriate form of discipline that will help to motivate him to make good choices; one that the both of you are comfortable with. I like the suggestion that one mama made of just simply ending mealtime when be starts throwing his food. Just tell him that if he's throwing his food instead of eating it then he must be done. Remember consistency and patience are crucial when you are teaching your children good behavior! I hope this helps. Hang in their, it will get better!

You are giving me visions of my future!!! My son is going to be this same way, I can just feel it. Have you tried just taking him down from the table? With something like, "we don't throw food at dinnertime; if you can't be helpful, then you must be done eating". I know you said you took the food away, but I wasn't sure if you actually stopped feeding him and put him down to do something else. Hopefully, you wouldn't have to do this too many times before he realized that he's hungry and he better start acting right. At that age, he could also be ready to pick up his own mess. I did that with my daughter, but I don't remember how old she was when we started. It could just be a middle child phase too!! Just looking for attention!

Good luck - I hope you get some good advice that works for you!!

I'm with Laura on this one. I also refer to the "To Train Up a Child" series. I think too often as moms we let our emotions dictate how we deal with our children, i.e. "I don't want to hurt his feelings," or "I feel bad if I swat him." It is our job to train our children and if they won't listen over throwing food then why do we think they will listen about running into the road? I also think that we want to be liked by our kids and therefore don't take the "harsh" road when discipling them. Anyway, my son did this a few times but a well timed swat to the hand and removal from the table worked wonders to remind him that food is for eating not throwing. It can be tough but I'm sure you'll get through this!