Throwing EVERYTHING - what to do?

[musicmaiden]

My DS is 18mo and is just hitting the whingy, minor-tantrum phase of realising he can't do everything he wants to do.

At the moment any frustration leads him to throw things. This is annoying enough when it's his toys or whatever but I am seeing red when he does it with food. He is a poor eater anyhow so mealtimes have never been easy but at the moment he is throwing even food he likes defiantly on the ground.

I'm at a loss as to how to deal with it, torn between thinking it is an attention tactic and to ignore it and doing the big telling off/removing plate immediately, which is followed by a tantrum because, well, he is hungry REALLY.

Please help (and tell me it's just a phase).

Firstly YES it is a phase, and it WILL stop. However, as you already are aware it's how it is handled that will determine how long it lasts.

The problem is at 18 months they are desperate to communicate and become frustrated so easily. So first of all I suggest taking a step back and think about what has just happened.

If you can't see anything and you think it is attention. Then don't give him any. Just reply with "oh dear, gone"

You can try giving small amounts at a time. When he eats it replace it with new. That way too he won't know if you reuse the thrown food.

Are you sat with him whilst he eats or do you use the opportunity to get some jobs done. He could be saying, hello, i'm here and lonely, come and see me.

Will watch with interest. DS also been doing this for the last few weeks. He's 15 months. The food thing drives me mad. He also flung his (full and heavy) drinking cup and it hit dd in the head

I think that even if unintentionally, if their actions hurt someone, they should be told.

Tell them "we do not throw things. We do not hurt people." Take them to pick up the object and say "sorry" or if not vocal give the casualty a jig and you say sorry so they learn to accosiciate that with sorry.

Thanks jesieb. I always sit with him and have a cup of tea or food of my own and talk to him etc. It makes no difference. He'll play around with it at first and then throw it. If it's something he doesn't like he's always casually dropped it on the floor, but lately he's been physically hurling even things he usually eats.

I have the same with water bottles TillyScoutsMum, and potentially damaging things like wooden bricks. One minute he will be playing normally, then it's as if he suddenly gets cross for no reason I can see, and starts flinging his toys around

Similar problem with DGS 20 months.We encourage him and clap him when he throws a ball but tell him no when he throws aything else.Confusing for him.Any ideas on how to deal with this will be appreciated.Thanks.

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I'll be watching this eagerly as well as my 15 mo DS is a right nightmare. I tried baby signing in the hope that we wouldn't get to this point buy we had real meltdown today.

The only thing I'd say is that you should not always use no and other times use stop etc. Does your LO snack during the day? Maybe yit is a case of boredom and they want a drink or something. My DS normally throws food if he's full.