When does the food throwing stop???

SunAndRain · August 2013

13 mo old DD is a master food thrower. How long do we have to suffer through this phase?

Yes, I realize I'm being overly dramatic but the clean lady just came today and five hours later I'm on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor. I can't catch a moment's peace! Yes, still being melodramatic...

Anyway, so can I safely hope that by 18 months it'll end? by 2 years? when??

Irishsapphire · August 2013

Well, my daughter is 16 months old, and she still flings food over on the floor. I think sometimes it is like she misses her mouth and the food falls over to the floor. Or she will be playing with her food and throws it over. When she really likes the food, she will eat it. But sometimes she does not like the food.

We took our kids to a Mexican restaurant in June, and it was like a tornado of Mexican food (it was like she was partying with Mexican food in every direction) around my daughter's highchair. The wait staff were really nice to us about the mess on the floor.

lageorgiapaperie · August 2013

DS is almost 22 months. He does it a lot less than he used to... knock on wood! However, he thinks its fun to take all the food off his plate and put it directly on the table, which is a pain since I'm constantly having to scrub off pasta sauce and other stuff.

tbmadeamistake · August 2013

I asked my sister this (she has a 2 and 7 year old) when C started throwing her food. She said never, lol! Then she revised and said it depends on the child, but around 3. C is 15 months and when she's done eating she very delicately drops everything left on her plate onto the floor to let us know that she is finished. I've started saying "Food we don't want stays on the plate" and picking it up in front of her, and then just pushing her plate away from her a bit on the table. After two weeks of that she's FINALLY starting to respond to it when I say it before she starts dropping stuff. I'm hoping that's my magic phrase, but we'll see! GL!

allardr · August 2013

LO only drops/throws food when 1) she doesn't like it or 2) she's done. So I take it as a communication effort and hope when she talks more she'll no longer drop/throw food.

aeh72 · August 2013

allardr said:

LO only drops/throws food when 1) she doesn't like it or 2) she's done. So I take it as a communication effort and hope when she talks more she'll no longer drop/throw food.

This is my DS (17 months) also, plus he loves to give food to the dog so that's an extra fun little game. So, if he throws something right away (e.g., he's on a veggie strike lately), I pick that food up before it all goes to the floor and try it again before we finish the meal. If he starts throwing things he likes, I take that as a cue that he's not hungry or done (if he's eaten a lot already).

I, too, would love to hear that there is a magic age when this all stops. I'm going to try the "food stays on our plate" trick and see how that goes!

ilanat · August 2013

My little guy also is a master food thrower. He throws it off the high chair when he's done. Sometimes though, he starts to pick up pieces from his plate and feeds ME. It is so cute. I am trying to teach him to say "done," instead of throwing the food. It's not working out too well, though.

traveltheworld · August 2013

DS started throwing food at 9 months and it got really bad around 11 months when half of his food would end up on the floor. No amount of ignoring or distracting made it better. So finally we decided to not tolerate it anymore. We told him "no" and removed him from the high chair immediately and made him wait for a few minutes before putting him back in his chair if he was doing it intentionally. If wasn't intentional, we just lef it. We also let him push food around on the table, bang with a spoon, etc. - so he could do pretty much anything with his food OTHER THAN deliberatly throw them on the floor. He'd cry and scream for a frew minutes after we remove him from his high chair, and one night, he did it at least 10 times, so we had to remove him 10 times. Dinner took over an hour. BUT, after about 10 days of being very consistent with this, he got a lot better and hardly throws food now.

At DC, his teachers also tell him "no" and take away his plate (for a few minutes) if he throws food. They do that with all the kids and the vast majority of them do not throw much food now.

princesscto · August 2013

My DD is almost 17 months old and she still throws her food on the floor. Luckily we have dogs so it gets picked up but we still have top wash the floor allot. it's a pain in the butt, but it's part of having kids, kids are messy

FemShep · August 2013

DD is another dropper/dog feeder. The first time we see her do it, we tell her no. If she does it again, meal time is over, no discussion, debate, or drama. We tell her that we don't throw food, it gets taken away, and we move on to something else.

She's still dropping/dog feeding, but just having a consistent way of handling it helps all of us. Good luck!

jnnfrrose6 · August 2013

LO isn't much of a thrower (yet?), though he is in DC, so I'm sure they work with him there on it. He has started to feed the dogs, though.

Doesn't really answer your when question, but to help with clean up , could you put an oil cloth down under LO's chair to catch everything that falls/gets flung? I bought some inexpensively at the fabric store and it makes clean up so much easier. I can just fold it up and take it outside to shake out or wipe down, plus when I'm getting LO cleaned up, I don't mind brushing the crumbs down there too.

lindslalala · September 2013

SunAndRain said:

13 mo old DD is a master food thrower. How long do we have to suffer through this phase?
Yes, I realize I'm being overly dramatic but the clean lady just came today and five hours later I'm on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor. I can't catch a moment's peace! Yes, still being melodramatic...
Anyway, so can I safely hope that by 18 months it'll end? by 2 years? when??

DS is 18 months next week and he is still throwing food like nobody's business. Most days it feels like it will never end hahaaa

Wipz · September 2013

Nicb13 said:

allardr said:

LO only drops/throws food when 1) she doesn't like it or 2) she's done. So I take it as a communication effort and hope when she talks more she'll no longer drop/throw food.

This is us too. He's never actually thrown food, just drops the stuff he doesn't want over the edge. We put a towel down while he's eating. Not a big deal.
And OP, I don't feel one bit sorry for you because you have a cleaning lady! (teasing)

Food thrower here

... and I was thinking the same thing lol.. we both work full time on opposite shifts ...with no cleaning lady and no dog.

Luckily we have wooden floors where he eats.. yay for shark steamers Our lil guy is getting better since he learnt to say "done" It's not perfect but it has helped considerably.

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When does the food throwing stop???

Re: When does the food throwing stop???

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