How do I stop my 13 month old from throwing food on the floor. I am teaching her baby sign and she knows how to say "finished" and if I ask her if she is finished she does the sign, but I don't want her to throw food on the floor. Smacking her on the hand is breaking my heart and doesn't seem to be working. Nor does saying (and doing the sign for) no. Is it something that they just do at this age? Will she just grow out of it, or do I need to teach her not to do this ... if so ... how?????
DD2 is 16 months and still does this - she thinks it's fun and it is a developmental phase. To dela with it I just remain calm and ask her to keep her food on her plate to reinforce that that is what she should be doing. If she is finished she will say "out" to get down from the table so I let her down if she has had enough.
It does stop and they do grow out of it. You will just have a messy floor for a while until that happens.
It's an age thing. No matter how much I tried to stop my kids from doing it, they just kept throwing thier food on the floor. At 13 mths they don't understand food doesn't go on floors and it's probably fun.
In the end I used to have a plastic mat under the high chair. It made life easier.
I read somewhere that throwing things (including food) on the floor is a totally normal developmental stage. They apparently like to see what happens when something is in their hand and then not. I'm not explaining it very well and can't even remember where the heck I read it, so I'm probably not being very helpful.
But what I am trying to say is that it's normal and even healthy to do that - but annoying for you having to clean it up all the time!!
Sue x
I would keep going with signing "no" and "finished" When she is finished, get her to help you clean it up. Get the dustpan, and hold her in front of you as you clean it up, or get her to pick up bits and pop them in the dustpan/compost/whatever. It's what i do with the Toddlers I work with, and the "game" of cleaning up gets old really quickly. But it does teach them to take responsibility for their actions.
And gosh, she's looking gorgeous and just like you! Cute!
DS is 12months and has been doing this for about 2 weeks.
I know it's totally normal but I've been trying to encourage him not to do it by
- telling him "no" firmly (doesn't work. at. all. Lol)
- ignoring him (also didn't work)
- catching him before he does it and gently pushing his hand back over the tray on his highchair and saying "no, eat it please". Which actually seems to be kinda working! He's still doing it but after I redirect his hand a couple of times he does actually eat what he's holding. Then he picks up the next piece and it starts all over again .
Good luck, I hope this phase passes quickly for both/ all of us. I'm so sick of throwing away perfectly good food, only to have him try and steal mine and throw that on the floor too.
Thowing food on the floor?!
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