Dropping/Throwing food: Beth (egoldber), are you there?

[alleyoop]

Question for more experienced Mommies...

Is 10mo too young to start ending the meal when DS starts dropping food from his tray? I have been up and down the parenting books, and I can't seem to find a clear answer to whether he has the cause/effect skills in order to make this effective.

DS is a great eater, I cannot complain there. However, when he gets full, bored with the meal or doesn't like what I have to offer he will start "feeding the dog" off the side of the tray. As he isn't old enough to say ALL DONE, do you use a sign or something else, or just try to take the food away before the dropping begins?

My gut says the he does understand limited cause and effect, but wanted to be sure before I pull out the IRON MOMMY.

What do you think?

[Momof3Labs]

It must be a 10 month old thing!! Colin is just starting this, too. When he does, it signals to me that he is done eating, so I remove the food (without any fanfare), and he has been fine with it. I'm not doing it to teach him "a lesson" necessarily (at this stage) but by doing this, I figure that at least I'm not sending the signal that it is okay to throw food. Can't tell you how my method will work though - I'll let you know in a few months!

[mom2kandj]

Sounds like ALL DONE to me! For us, when food becomes a toy it is time to start cleaning up! Just wait until feeding the dog is replaced by stuffing food into their lap and down the sides of the seat! :) Some days, I pull DS out of his booster and swear he was hoarding food for a rainy day! LOL!

Rose
mom 2 Katie (31 months)
& Jack (15 months)

[daisymommy]

Just wanted to agree with the other posters. Children this age are learning the cause and effect that "I do something, and people respond" whether it be with their food, sippy-cup, or toys being dropped. They don't understand at all that it's wrong to do of course. I would watch for signs of being full/done such as restlessness and playing with the food. Try to give him one more bite to re-focus him and see if he is still hungry. If not, say "All done" while looking at your DS so he can learn the word "done" then say "We're not going to play with our food" remove him from his high chair and give him some toys to play with near the table while you finish eating. Young children have a very short attention span, and cannot sit still for too long, even while eating. They haev places to go, things to do, and people to see! :) It's pointless (IMO) to try to force the issue of sitting in a chair eating when they are at the dropping-food point of a meal.

[newbelly2002]

I'm not Beth, but I follow many of the same parenting techniques. And no, it is NOT too young. DS started tossing food at about 9.5 months. It peaked around 11. From the beginning we would watch, and the minute that he tossed food on purpose (i.e. it didn't slip from his hand, etc) then we told him "all done" and took him out of the chair. It was hard because we knew that he wasn't finished eating and were afraid we would be up in teh middle of the night. I'm happy to say it didn't happen (up in the middle of teh night out of hunger) too often, AND at 12 months on Friday (yeah!), he no longer throws food--unless we miss the cues that he's done eating. I think the key is consistency. If we started slipping, the pattern started to get worse.

There was a great thread about this topic about 6 weeks ago. I'm sorry I can't remember the title, but a search on "food" "throwing" should pull it up.

Paula, Mama to Dante
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b32384e84594 -6/25 update

[cara1]

Well, whatever I'm doing, don't do. DS turned 18 mos today, and nothing makes him happier than tossing food over the side. He dangles it over the side with a devilish grin, waits until you're watching, and lets go, while shaking his OWN head "No!" I've tried taking his food away, but like the other poster said, I know he's still hungry, and will sometimes still eat after that. By the time he dumps the whole bowl, of course, we are definitely "All Done". Gosh, and he throws the cup too. He might give you a chance to catch it...he'll hold it out to you, but if you don't notice right away, down it goes. It's getting quite irritating, and having NO signs of letting up any time soon...

[egoldber]

Yup, what they said! :) Until she was 14 months I gave her one "warning". After she became more of a toddler, I had to go to zero warning. And he may still be hungry when you take the food away, but he will NOT starve bewtween then and the next meal. This is one reason why planning snacks is helpful.

HTH,