How Do I Get My 11 Month Old Daughter to Stop Droping Her Food on the Floor?

As a humorous answer to the direct question you asked: Wait until she's about 1 year and a 1/2 older. That's when she'll stop.

This is a stage that some kids go through. Just remember kids will eat when they are hungry. When my daughter did this I would put less on her plate. If she wanted more then she got it only if she did not throw any on the floor. This is like the drop it puck up game. Another thing to consider - Is she having late snacks in the afternoon? I had to pull my afternoon snack because none of my kids were eating a good dinner because they filled up on snack.

Hope this helps!

Yes very easy to stop limit the amount of food you put on her plate/highchair if you see her drop it tell her No food is to eat not to be dropped on the floor if she flings the plate or spoon take it away from her don't give it back till next meal time my daughter is 1 she started spreading food into her hair that is a sign she is done also flips her plate upside down we have to know these signs before they get the chance do this.
*Happy Parenting*

You could try not paying the gravity bill for awhile :)

Kids do this as part of their natural development, exploring about 1000 aspects of physics. The only way to keep her from doing it, is not to give her food. Which, is rather highly not recommended. To minimize it, only give her food you don't mind sweeping up (like cheerios) and for the nutritious (or expensive) food... hand feed her.

She will drop food with one hand, both hands, eyes open, eyes shut, off the left, right, middle and back of her tray. She will try it with her mouth open, closed, while making noise, with someone standing nearby, with no one in view. She will try it by squeezing, dropping, throwing, sliding, percussion (wacking the tray to watch the food move, until it falls on the floor), and with a whole combo of 0-10 fingers... and possibly her head. If she'd on the floor she will also go through these variations with her legs. She will try it with wet food, dry food, warm food and hot food. She will also try to eat with her nose, cheeks, ears, & hair. It's very much a "What happens when I do THIS????" part of her development.

It's also why they have floor mats.

I'm sorry. Are we seriously talking about an 11 month old BABY? I assume that you are talking about "tapping" her hand and not "taping" it, but that is so unbelievably wrong. She is a baby. She is just now getting used to "real" food. She is experimenting with texture AND your reactions to what she does.
If it bothers you that much, give her a little bit at a time. And get a sheet of plastic to protect your floors. It's not a big deal. You treating it like a big deal will make her do it more often.
The idea of using a vacuum to scare your child into "behaving" is ridiculous. This isn't a dog. Your child will eventually grow out of it.

Updated

I'm sorry. Are we seriously talking about an 11 month old BABY? I assume that you are talking about "tapping" her hand and not "taping" it, but that is so unbelievably wrong. She is a baby. She is just now getting used to "real" food. She is experimenting with texture AND your reactions to what she does.
If it bothers you that much, give her a little bit at a time. And get a sheet of plastic to protect your floors. It's not a big deal. You treating it like a big deal will make her do it more often.

Well, I think (developmentally) she's doing exactly what she should be doing at that age!

Time. You give her time. She's experimenting and learning and doesn't understand at ALL that it's negative behaviour. And she won't for a long while. So remove it if you must, I let my daughter experiment. There will be plenty of time to learn about manners, right now she's learning about gravity. :)

For the love, don't scare her right now. A firm and friendly no is enough, and don't withhold food, she doesn't have the ability to reason that if she stops she'll keep her food. Right now she's likely to assume that the attention means she's doing something right and will do it with increased excitement.

Also, prepare for throwing of food and tantrums involving food. It gets better. :) Until she's about 2 just try to cajole her to eat. Once she's 2 or a bit older the idea of throw it and lose it will make more sense. She's far, far to young for that now. Far too young. If she dropped her bottle, would you keep it from her? Same deal.

This is normal and honestly, you want them to do it. Well, you don't want them to, but it is healthy for them to do it, as annoying as it is. This is how your daughter is learning about things like cause and effect and using muscles and how things like physics works (in what very limited comprehension a baby has of those things). It drove me crazy but this isn't one of those things you should be punishing, any more than you should punish a baby for exploring, making noise or learning to walk.

One thing that helped limit the amount of stuff my son threw was to not put too much on the tray. He is a big eater, and he would rather eat than lose his food, but if it was a large amount it seemed unlimited to him, and so he would throw some of it. I was more grateful for my dogs than I have ever been any other time during this stage. I hate waste also. I get a little OCD about it honestly, and I had to tell myself that it wasn't wasteful if it was teaching him something (it helped a little bit). There are a lot of things that having a kid has taught me, lightening about things like this is definitely one of them.

if she is scared of the vacumn leave it plugged in as soon as one piece hits the floor vacumn and dont pick her up because she is scared. my son did this and was deathly afraid of the vacumn and stopped in one day

yes this is normal at this age but it doesn't mean she should be allowed to continue it.......when my kids did this i would take their food away & feed them myself.....if they threw their snacks i just didn't give them anymore.....they eventually caught on.....this may not work for everyone but it worked on my 4 kids.

she is doing exactally what she is supossed to be doing, sorry. the only thing you can do is so that she does not make so much of a mess is to put a little bit of food on her plate at a time and when she dumps it there will be less to dump. saying no does not work for this age and I will not get into my feelings about taping her hand, lightly or not, but I promise that will not work either. the only other thing you can try is to tell her after she attempts to dump her plate you stop her and say calmly, "if you dump your plate mommy will take it, or if you dump your plate you are done eating" then when she does it follow through. you can give her a second chance, bc she might not understand what is going on and remind her as you give it back to her that you will take it, she will try to dump it bc she is then testing you so then meal time is over. she will get it if you keep doing it. honestly though she really should be dumping at this age and even up until 2 or so, it is perfectly healthy and good actually bc she is learning cause and effect and how to feed herself. good luck

Get used to it :)~ That is what babies do... She's actually learning by doing that - cause & effect. It is messy but valuable. Of course, you have to set boundaries but don't be too hard. She will eventually stop.

Yep ignore it. Right now it's the " I drop food and Mom is paying attention to me" game.

It's true, you can't stop her from dropping food. My 12 month old sits in a booster, at the table with us. I sit next to him and place food in front of him as he finishes. No plates, spoons, etc. (because I grow very tired of constantly picking up his cup, I'm not picking up other dishes). I do all finger food. It's what I've found to be easiest.

You can't prevent her from doing that! I had very similiar feelings when my daughter started feeding herself. I read in a book to NOT TAKE IT PERSONALLY! As soon as I realized that I WAS taking it personally, it made it much easier to accept the behavior as normal. I usually make 3 different things for a dinner plate (ex: sweet potato, sauteed spinach, fish), so when the first piece of food gets dropped or smeared around, I take away that choice and move forward with something else. Some days she likes something, the next day not so much! I'd only worry if she went days without eating at all. Good luck!

It is actually somewhat of a game I think. Give her only tiny bits. If she is hungry she will eat it. Sorry to be like that but it will save on a little bit if you just wait until she realizes it isn't a game anymore. It is more about dropping the food on the floor then getting rid of it. Try again later. It really will stop when it ceases to be fun.

You don't stop her. She will grow out of it. Just enjoy it as a sign that her brain is working well and she is enjoying this experimentation. My daughter was a flinger of food to the highest degree imaginable. But I read up a lot on the developmental appropriateness of it and just let it slide. She ate what she needed and flung the rest. Then one day around 18 months or maybe 20 months, I suddenly realized she had stopped. Now of course she is nearly 3 and does other developmentally appropriate but annoying things like having a melt down about transitions. But this too will pass :) Enjoy the wonderful journey.

Ignore it. It's part of their developmental process. Yucky yes, a pain, yes, but it really is part of their developmental process.

Take her food from her each and every time. Don't give her the food back for at least a half hour. It's pretty normal and she thinks it's funny because you are talking in your mean vocie and your face gets funny. She likes the attention.

Take the food without saying a word and she will learn quickly.

My son is 11 months also and does this. He loves it when the dog rushes to clean up. My son, I have noticed, does this at the end of a meal when he is probably full. So I would try to see if maybe she is done and full.

My daughter still throws her food on the floor and she's 2. Been doing it since she was a baby, always found it funny. She doesn't do it as much as she used to though, if that's any comfort. I try to avoid Spaghettios, it gets very messy. The area around the high chair is just a danger zone in my kitchen.

Playing with food is a part of adevelopmental stage. She is learning how to eat. She is also learning about life and what happens when you drop your food. I don't mean consequences for her actions. Just what happens when SHE does things in her world.

Give her food to play with and food for you to feed her if you are worried about her eating enough.

I do baby led weaning, so what gets in her mouth on her own, she eats, otherwise, it's still all breastmilk.

I would not say no or tap her hand. Let her learn. My 30 month old did the same thing and he now eats "civilly" only dropping things on occasion and accidentally.

Don't make eating an issue now by introducing punishment. There are too many kids with eating issues as is. You want this to be fun fun fun. Who knows what can come of you saying no. She won't want to eat, won't want to eat in a high chair, won't want to eat certain foods.

She is exploring her world right now. Let her and let the dog in or vacuum up later!

I agree, ignore it! I have 2 girls of my own and have run an in home daycare. I can't think of any of my kids that haven't done that at some point. She will stop once she thinks that it doesn't bother you, then she will find something else to do that will "bug" you. lol Welcome to motherhood!

In addition to all of the answers about saying "no" when she drops food, don't forget to priase her when she doesn't drop any food on the floor! When I started doing this, I really saw us turn a corner with my daughter. I would give her a meal, wait about 5 minutes before she threw any food on the floor, and then took her plate away and got really silly about it and she loved it. Make it fun for her! I said- "do you see any food on this side?" and she would look on one side of her high chair then the other...you get it. She thought it was hilarious and she really responded well to it! Good luck!

My son, 11 months Friday, is going through the same phase and it's not just with his food. It is cause and effect that they are learning. When they laugh at you it's kinda like cause and effect and effect. My son cracks up when I say "no" seriously, but not with daddy :o[ Unfortunately there's not much we can do but have patience and clean up their mess. I like the vacuum idea because my son is terrified of vacuums, but I think that I'll let him learn and explore for a little while, then start enforcing table manners. Right now we're looking into getting a waterproof floor-mat to put underneath his booster seat.

Hope this helps, Good Luck!