How do you handle food throwing??

ncbelle · November 2009

Kiddo loves to play with his food - which is fine and totally understandable. But is there a good way to teach him not to do the "swipe across the tray so the food goes everywhere" thing? Right now I just ignore it and say something like "show me how you can eat." Other ideas?

Thank goodness for the dogs!

risysmama · November 2009

DD usually does that when she's done eating.

funchicken · November 2009

We always ended the meal if DD started throwing food. She usually only did it if she wasn't hungry.

ncbelle · November 2009

In the past, it did seem to be only when he was finished. Lately though, I'll take away the tray and he starts grabbing at things and eating again...

funchicken · November 2009

ncbelle:
In the past, it did seem to be only when he was finished. Lately though, I'll take away the tray and he starts grabbing at things and eating again...

Do you do any signs with him? We taught DD "eat," "more," and "all done" around that age, and I think it helped her feel like she had a little more control over mealtime. If I started to take the food away, and she signed more then I'd just say "you can have more, but we don't throw food." If she started throwing it again, I'd end the meal. If she got hungry an hour later, she could sign that she wanted to eat.

GL, at least you have dogs

cleeksock · November 2009

i take the tray away for maybe 30 seconds or a minute and offer it back to her. If she continues to throw her food, I know she'd done. usually she will start eating again though.

MrsAmers · November 2009

I'd do one warning and if the throwing continued the meal was over. And no coming back to the table 20 minutes later. There were only two or three meals where she was hungry and then she learned pretty quickly. :-)

LoveEeyore · November 2009

Ditto the sign- it helped for awhile, but like your DS, she learned it was fun... and it got a great reaction. I actually did something very different. Everytime she threw, I picked it up, said "oops, clean up" and set it on her tray while holding a bowl in my hand out to her. Typically she would pick it up and put it in the bowl. If she tested and threw it again, I repeated 2 more times, but using the same gently, even tone of voice. Then on the 3rd "oops, clean up," I gently guided her hand in the direction of the food and bowl to help her clean up. SHe quickly learned there would be the exact same outcome every time, plus she learned exactly what I wanted her to do. After she learned this, I would leave the oops bowl on her tray and she would transfer food to it when she was done, or if she didn't like it. I then explained the protocol to anyone who sat with her when she ate(DH and MIL are very big into loud, excited "No Alex, stop making a mess!" and MIL: Bad girl!) Grrr. It worked very quickly.

DandelionMom · November 2009

Doling out smaller portions at a time helped us. Also, putting the dogs away during mealtime helped because DDs liked to watch the dogs scramble around for the food!

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