14th month old eating habits

[Mum2Boo]

Has anyone got any tips on how to help stop a 14 month old throwing their food on the floor?

I know she is only 14 months old, but she knows she's doing it. She moves her hand over the edge of her booster seat, pauses, looks me right in the face, I say "no, no" or "stop, we do not drop food on the floor", she then lets go of the food & laughs.

I guess she thinks it's a game.

If I leave the food there she starts leaning out of her high chair to look at it & then goes to look for more food to join it. If I move it then lunch time is just crazy!

I know & understand that the food dropping to the floor is a way of learning actions & consequences. But she's been figuring this out for 6 months now.

[treeholm]

As soon as a child throws food on the floor, I say, "Okay, you're done" and take their food away. They learn pretty quickly that way.

[Dreamalittledream]

Agreed, I immediately take the food away as well. You may also want to try really tiny portions? I can always tell the new DCbabies who have dogs at home...they seem to be the ones throwing on the floor. And boy do I wish I had a canine vacuum somedays

[JennJubie]

Same here, if they throw their food, they're done. As Dream suggested, try smaller portions, it helped with my food thrower.

[playfelt]

For one thing you said you see her starting to push the food towards the edge of the tray in preparation for tossing so don't wait till it gets to the edge to say something. Here we use plates from day one - but soft plastic in case dish and all goes on the floor but food stays on the plate. If they take it off and put it on the tray I go over and scoop it back up and put it on the plate saying food stays on the plate till we eat it. That way there is no food to push to the edge of the tray. When they stop eating and just playing plate is removed.

For sure she is doing it on purpose because it gets a rise out of you. I would try stopping the behaviour sooner in the game and if that isn't possible then she must not be hungry anymore if she just wants to play so remove the plate.

[Crayola kiddies]

I take the childs hands into mine and with a stern voice and a serious face I say "no throwing food" if they do it again I do the same as the others and remove the food but I don't remove them from the table.. ..they have to sit there till the others are done. I will not reward them with a chance to play when they should be eating. they go from chair to diaper change to bed. they learn soon enough not to throw food here.

[Mum2Boo]

Thank you all for your responses

I would love for her to eat from a plate/bowl. I have tried but instead of the food being thrown the plate/bowl with food is thrown instead. Urrrggghhh

I think I'm going to work on the "if food is thrown lunch time is over but stay at the table" technique & once I've got a handle on this transition to a plate

Thank you again

[Momof4]

When children start with me, no matter what their age, 10 months even, they learn quickly "No food on the floor." I pick it up and hold it beside them and tell them with a very stern face and voice. I do it over and over until they learn. I watch them closely and tell them the FIRST time they do it, the second time, etc. Like everything else, it takes patience and consistency by enforcing your rules. I'm not very scary, but these little ones have to learn that I mean what I say and I follow through with whatever I say, no caving in, no negotiations, no counting to 3, just do it! Show the children what you expect from them is the only option. I don't expect the children to be perfect but I expect them to learn to do their best.