18 Month Old Throwing His Food

Wow! I'm in your exact same shoes and it almost had me in a melt down today with our little guy who is small too (19 lbs at 18 mos). I've had him on the floor picking the food up and he too things its a game. I get it that at this age they all think it's a game but is so hard not to get frustrated, especially with the added pressure of them being small. I keep telling myself that it's just a phase, like all of the previous challenges we have gone through and encourage myself to be patient with him.

Good luck and feel free to e-mail me to chat more about this. I completley know your challenge with the food/low weight pressure.

I agree with the pp, my son started doing the same thing, so I immediately pull him out of his chair and tell him he's done. My son is also small, weight wise, but I make sure that there are plenty of healthy snacks available and out all day and have found that he eats healthier and gets in more calories that way anyway. He still sits down with us for family meals but if we're not done eating when he starts throwing his food then I simply remove his food and let him sit with us while we finish eating. We have always talked to him and included him during meal time so he handles it pretty well most of the time and when he doesn't then I just let him watch TV in the next room until we finish. I can see him from the dining room so I know if he's getting into trouble.

Hope this helps.

My son did the EXACT same thing at that age, he's 21 months now. What I did (and it worked like a charm) was start introducing Time-Out. Whenever even the slightest morsel of food would hit the floor, we'd stop his mealtime, and have him stand in a corner for about 15 seconds. Be 100% consistent, don't let this rule slide even once. After about a week, he stopped throwing his food. Your son is at an age where he will start to learn consequences for his behavior. My son throws food MAYBE once every 2 weeks or so now....and we still stop his eating and send him straight to the corner. Even if one tiny Cheerio hits the floor!!! It's funny now...sometimes he'll drop something on accident, and he'll look at me, expecting to go to Time-Out. Obviously I don't send him to time-out for accidents, but he has learned that throwing food equals time-out! Good luck!

Throwing food is a very normal thing to do at this age. Experimenting is what their job is and what greater experiment than seeing what mommy will do? My first piece of advice is to try and relax about it. He surely enjoys your reaction. If it really bothers you, then when he starts doing it, end the meal and be done with it. Making him clean it up at this age is probably ineffective as far as a lesson. And quite frankly this is something that he will partly have to grow out of. If his weight is a problem, try to feed him many small meals during the day and try to make sure they pack a punch with calories and fat. Really, try not to worry so much about this. In my house the dog helps me with the clean up anyway..

Take away the food when it throws it away, don't give it back to him. Be stern and say we don't play with food. Then give it a few minutes, hand it back to him, if he throws it then just take it away for good. When they play with their food, which they all do at some point, he isn't hungry anymore. My daughter weighed 16 lbs on her first bday..don't worry about weight if your Dr isn't. All kids are different. If he is hungry he will eat and soon figure out you will take it from him. I would say a child that is hungry isn't going to throw his food, so when he is done that is his signal.

Hello, My son is also 18 months and does that too. It got me so crazy, but recently I have started to put him down from the high chair to pick up the food he throws on the floor, as soon as he throws it out. He will then asked to go back on the chair asap, which I will do only if he picks the food up. It seams to be working, he is doing that much less often than before. The key however, is consistency keep repeating the same thing so he knows no throwing on the floor or he will have to go and pick up. Granted in the begining it was tyring to put him down from the chair and put him back up everytime but if it works, that less cleaning after ;-). I would not worry too much about how much he actualy eats or not if he is following the correct gain weight. I reallize that my little guy will eat a lot some days and nothing the next day. I know that he will not let himself to starve so I am trying not to force him to eat if he does not want. This also make me less stress. I hope this help, and remember you are not alone ;-)