Still Throwing Food

.

Usually, kids start throwing food when they're done eating, so unless she has a health reason for needing to eat a certain amount, my recommendation would be to go ahead and remove the food the very first time she throws some on the floor. Tell her no throwing, let her sit a few minutes in the highchair without food, and then remove her from the chair. At this age, my son understood enough to pick up the food from the floor (with my direction) and throw it away. Consider putting the dog in another part of the house while your daughter eats, if possible, so that it is one less distraction (and so there is still food on the floor for your daughter to clean up).

First things first, remove the dog, so the dog is not entertaining her by eating the food. We make our two dogs lay in another room until dinner is over, and they are not allowed to come into the dining room or kitchen until dinner is over, and our son is no longer in those rooms.

Second, I think you can try a couple of options (try each for 1 week solid, before trying the next). option a) just tell her calmly "we don't throw our food on the floor" and then ignore the rest of the food throwing; minimize this by only giving her 2 or maybe 3 pieces of food at a time. B) completely ignore and don't react to it at all; again, minimize it by only giving her 1 or 2 pieces at a time. C) Tell her that throwing food means she done eating; then if she does it again, she's done eating. If she comes back in 30 minutes or an hour, give her more of the same food (so that she doesn't get to skip out on dinner in favor of a snack later that she likes better); it won't hurt her to skip a little bit of food for one week.

Good luck. I hated this-this was the one thing that could get me to blow my top! I still have to excuse myself and leave the room for a few minutes if my LO does it a lot, or else I lose it sometimes. For us, the option A has worked the best so far.

When she throws the food, give her one warning not to do it again. If she does, mealtime is over. Don't worry she won't starve.

I agree with the other posters regarding immediatley removing her food, letting her sit in the high chair for even just 1 minute, then get her down. She'll start to associate the fun being taken away when she throws food and will stop. It won't take long and if you are worried about her eating you can try feeding her again a little later while breaking the habit. I think it is true that kids won't startve while you are going through this, they just don't. Also, put the dog in another room or out when you feed her so it isn't added entertainment. Take care, I know it's developmentally what she's supposed to do but it IS very frustrating ;-)

Ha! My daughter did this from the time she was 10mos to the time she was 2 1/2! When she did it, it meant that she wasn't hungry any more or she was bored with that food. I just simply stated, "Ok, you threw your food, I guess you're done." Then I would take her tray away and get her down. If she was hungry, she would eat. If not, it went on the floor. Eventually, she got and quit. It's been a nice 5 months since then. ;)