Toddler obsessed with throwing

[westlake]

my ds is 16 months and as the title suggests, is obsessed with throwing. It is mainly centered around balls which he honestly cannot get enough of. He seems fascinated!

Trouble is, he will throw anything, not in a naughty way, but in a playing way.

I get all manner of toys lobbed over the kitchen safety gate, anything loose in bedroom goes down the stairs, all sorts end up in the bath!

Now the thing is, if you watch, he genuinely isn't being naughty and i have refused up until now to reprimand him for doing so - I hate the thought of him being told off for something he hasn't done as it takes the impact off when it really matters.

I have a particular problem at toddler group because he chucks stuff around and has hit one baby and a mother already. Now the baby was in a spot she shouldn't have been in surrounded by balls so i apologised but let it go, I warned the mother who got hit last time before it even happened and feel awful about it! The sure start lady told me he is just in a play pattern and it's normal and not to stop it, but quite frankly, i'm not sure i can stand it much longer!

He is stood next to me good as gold throwing his soft ball to the other side of the room and going to fetch it again, over and over as we speak!!!

All other development is fine and his aim is amazing! He is very well behaved other than this and very caring towards others.

HELP???

[Megletitsnow]

My DS used to do this when he was little. We never really cracked it TBH, short of getting rid of every toy I just tried to prevent him throwing something dangerous and keep it to a minimum.

He's very good at throwing these days .

[TantieTowie]

I found a DVD called Baby It's You quite enlightening on this kind of thing when my DS was this age.

It's like a natural history documentary, but about babies (this is the Amazon link but I think I borrowed it from Lovefilm: <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Its-You-DVD/dp/B000A7IHGC/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292605850&sr=1-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">link). From what I remember of what it said about throwing, essentially up to a certain age babies literally can't let go of things - so throwing is a real step forward for toddlers and of course they want to practice lots.

But of course then they get older and still want to throw things and then it's an issue. At 16 months I don't think - they wouldn't really understand (or remember) why they couldn't. They're really not being naughty. So maybe it's just about making sure they can throw things that are safe in a safe environment - and making sure things that aren't safe are beyond reach.

[SkyBluePearl]

I don't think you can blame the baby innocently sat there. Yes you don't need to tell him off as such but you have to be responsible for what he throws and where he throws things. Eventually he will understand whats appropriate. We had a no throwing inside rule with my boys as I didn't want anything broken or visitors hit. They understood quite quickly really and I made time for them to have a good outside throwing session.

[westlake]

thanks for the replies guys. i think the outside throwing one is good and will definitly put that into place, but not really able to do in this weather...... oh hum, well he's only little yet.

will look out for the dvd TT, thank you for that :-)

Perhaps he will reward me by being an international sportsman when he grows up, and make pots of money with all this practice he's getting lol.

[Al1son]

The reason he's so obsessed at the moment is that he is exploring this concept. He'll keep exploring it until he's made all the connections in his brain which help him to understand it fully. You can help him to make all these connections by giving him lots of opportunities to practise the throwing action. This can be with shredded paper, balls of newspaper, balls of silver foil, snow (!), etc. Also give him ribbons, string, skipping ropes to twirl round, shoot toy cars along the floor, anything that involves a trajectory.

I know it doesn't seem right to encourage something like throwing but he'll probably still do it anyway so it's better to channel it than try to stop it.

[skewiff]

My son has always been really really into throwing.

I remember when he was about 18 months old and he threw something in my house. A friend was round with her daughter and shouted at my son 'No Throwing' and I felt a bit peeved - as I too did not want to tell him off for just experimenting either.

Now DS is nearly 4 and he also is an excellent thrower. He still is into throwing a bit tbh - occasionally when he's a bit bored he'll lob something to the other side of the room. Now I do ask him not to do it, as he's older. But your son will grow out of the full on throwing and he is just experimenting as other people say.

[trixie123]

I could have written the OP! My DS is also 16 months and does exactly the same - large bits of plastic being hurled with some force can do a fair bit of damage! We are just saying no firmly and taking it off him for a bit but hard to know what else wold be effective at this age. He is getting SLIGHTLY better with the food now, where he would hurl that off the highchair when he had finished a bit now he just drops it.. but still some way to go!