Toddler Throwing Her Food on Floor

Simply say something like, food is to be eaten, not thrown, remove her from the situation and move on. Firmly without anger, let her know you are not playing her game. Her chair is for eating, not playing. When she is hungry, she'll eat.

E. Briggs
Family Food Experts

My daughter does the same thing....maybe its a right of passage for them until they get to their next aggravating stage! Thank God they are so cute! Luckily they aren't having red wine yet so you don't have to worry about stains unless she is drinking fruit punch! Good Luck!

I have a little test my patience Daughter also, and have learned if I completely ignore such behaviors after a day or two its never done again. Good luck

our daugher did that at that age too. we did the same thing as you and it took a few weeks but she got it. i think she replaced it with another annoying behavior. seems like that is what happens.

I'm so GLAD that you're reading & interested in conscious discipline!!!
one more thing to keep in mind:
she's a BABY!!!
maybe read dr sears and find out WHAT exactly she can control developmentally...they truly have close to no impulse control...

I have been through that stage 3 times and will go through it again in about a year! I know your frustration. I recommend that you keep consistent in what you are doing now. Your little one is still young so she thinks if she keeps doing it you will give up and allow her to. Stay consistent, but remember this won't stop over night and the next step each of my kids did is start throwing their food on the ground after they were full. I am almost at the end of that problem with my 2 yr old....

S.

put her chair in bath tub easy clean up, out side or putplastic on the floor
put a lot less on her plate Sit with her, get a big hungry dog for clean up, You are sending mixed messages get a mad tone

Hi, C.. Well, the thing with discipline is that it takes repetition, and it doesn't always have immediate results. It sounds like you have the situation under control, even though it doesn't necessarily feel that way.

Your daughter is at the age where small children are just OVERJOYED at seeing that they can do stuff. They are just learning cause and effect, and she feels so very powerful making the food go splat. She is also probably looking for attention -- the attention she lost when she started becoming more independent and feeding herself. You will want to give her the attention she misses in a positive way instead of allowing her to make up for it in a negative way.

Here's what I would do: sit next to her and eat something yourself. Look at her, give her attention while you are both eating, maybe make a contest out of it or a game of I go now, you go now... and **praise her constantly*** for getting the food into her mouth...like every second of the time. If this works, then after a while, praise her every other time, then every third or fourth time, and then get random with your praise. She won't know when you're going to applaud her, so she'll do the right thing more frequently.

I know this is conditioning, and some people think it's more for dogs than humans, but seriously -- if you give children what they need, they will behave better. It sounds like she needs attention, and she's producing negative attention in order to get it. All people do things that give them rewards, and there is nothing wrong with making it very, very pleasant for your child to do what you want her to do.

Also, make sure she is actually hungry when you feed her. I know that kids have to get used to regular mealtimes, but in this case, where you want to get rid of bad table behavior, you might want to be a little more flexible with her mealtimes and only feed her when she is hungry. She will be less likely to waste the food.

Please let us know how you and she do with this situation. I hope eating time goes back to a peaceful, loving time of day for both of you.

Peace,
Syl

Grin and bear it. Ignore it as best you can and keep telling yourself its just a phase. The less reaction, that faster she'll loose interest and go on to something like making milk bubbles. Hang in there and buy a lot of extra paper towels. Hey! You could get a dog!! or borrow one, then you don't even have to clean it up! Keep laughing!

oh, i remember that phase! Thank goodness it is just that, a passing phase. What we did was just not put food on her tray....we would feed it to her one piece at a time, ourselves, and keep most of it where she couldn't reach it to throw it. Good luck! Hopefully she soon outgrows/tires of this and moves on to something else...

HI C.,

I know your frustration because my son just went through that. He's 19 mos old. At the time, we were seeing a speech therapist for feeding issues and she said to do what you're doing (so good job mommy) AND (very important) to make him pick it up. Yes! I took him out of the high chair calmly and told him he had to clean up his mess. I showed where to put the food (garbage, napkins, or container) and he did! Well, within 3 weeks, he stopped.
I hope this works for you. Also, it's a sign they're not hungry so taking her out of the high chair is a good thing and maybe try to feed her later. I know what a pain it is, especially when she hasn't eaten in a while! Trust me!
Good luck.
S.

C.,

Remember, that this is a stage that she is going through. However, the most important thing is consistency. At this age they find things like this very entertaining. And the bigger reaction she gets out of you the more she will do it. Stay calm and stay consistent and it will work out. I went through this with my second and third.

Good Luck.

S.
35 y/o SAHM of 3 boys
13, 6 and 3

Instead of taking her out of the chair, how about taking her food away? It could be that she is doing it purposefully to be removed from the highchair. My 2 year old doesn't sit in his highchair anymore but I use it as a "naughty spot" whenever he is disobedient. Wouldn't you know that each and every time I put him in the chair, he complains that he has to go potty. I fell for it a couple of times before realizing that he was really was NOT needing to go potty but he just wanted out of his restriction. Try taking the food away next time she throws it.

If you are following Dr Bailey's C.D. strategies, don't forget you can offer 2 choices that both end with what you are focusing on. So if you are focusing on food going to her mouth, let her know that she can put it in her mouth herself or you can help her do it. Once I remembered that and started doing it, it's like a magic spell for my toddler. I asked if he wanted cereal and he said no. Then I said "do you want cereal with milk or cereal without milk?" and he picked with milk! Not having cereal wasn't one of the choices! So if your daughter is just experiementing with her food, you can try the options I said, or you can give her a plate or bowl and say "Food in your mouth or food in the plate/bowl". That way she is making the choice and throwing it on the floor wasn't one of the options