1y.o. throwing spoon and bowl on floor. Advice please..

[mammainlove]

1yr old dd is generally pretty good at meal times. At 6mo she took to putting spoon to mouth quite well. Thing is it's not really progressed much 6mths later, in that she doesnt really get much food on her spoon, then if i gently try to help she holds on tight to her spoon and often throws it on floor. This is often followed by throwing the bowl on the floor. Even if i dont intervene she does this quite a lot. I know that she's looking for a reaction and i either calmly say that's not good, or i just ignore it and wait a bit before trying again. I just wondered if anyone could advise if i'm doing the right thing, and how long might this last? TIA

[bt1978]

Sounds like DD, now 16mo.
I got one of the bowls which you attach with a sucker onto the top of the high chair try/table...sometimes even I can't get it off. About £4 from Boots.
Re the spoon throwing, she has only recently stopped doing this...if she did it I would just ignore it, not pick it up, and let her get on with eating her meal with her hands. Now if she doesn't want to use her spoon (or a fork - sometimes) she just puts it down without throwing. Same with food actually - she was a food thrower, but after months of ignoring it and sometimes taking away what was left on her tray if she continued, she has stopped throwing food.
IMO if you ignore it she will stop. It may take a few months though. This morning DD ate a little of her porridge with a spoon and then used her thumb to scoop up most of it.
Can you give her things which she could pick up with her hands if she wanted to? I found that DD suddenly got very independent and didn't want me to help.

[LifeOfKate]

Could you try giving the spoon a rest for a while? i.e. giving her a fork to try (much easier for bigger stuff that she is able to stab the fork into) or letting her use her hands?

We took a slightly different approach in that we put all food direct onto the highchair tray (apart from really sloppy stuff like yoghurt and cereal :o) and didn't even offer cutlery until about 15 months unless it was for aforementioned yoghurt and porridge. It doesn't seemed to have slowed DS down, he's now 18 months and uses a fork and/or spoon like a pro.

Also, what spoons are you using? Some of the weaning/toddler ones are very shallow and quite difficult to use. Also, when you give a fork, get one that they can actually use to stab food with, so not the toddler sets, those forks are useless. We bought a plastic picnic set of cutlery and DS gets on well with those.

[babuda]

sometimes kids purposely do what we(parents) don't like. or they do exactly opposite to what we say. one way is to explain the effects of it like floor will get dirty or somebody else will finish your food ( if you don't have your spoon with you) . the best thing is distracting her to different subject. for eg. calmly lift the spoon and start talking to things which she has enjoyed in the garden. or some laughing memories of past ( with her - lead role). This works as if we are not bothered for throwing activities and comfortable in something else.

[ruddynorah]

Ditch the spoon and the bowl. Let her use her hands.

[RobynLou]

I'd just let her use her hands and forget about the spoon, and put the food on the highchair tray rather than a plate/bowl.
1 is still v little and eating is obv a v sensory experience, made more interesting for lo if they can feel the food with their hands.

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

It's just her age, my DD was the same at that age. Get one of those sucker mats to stop her throwing the bowl on the floor and just leave her to it. She will grow out of it pretty soon. My 16mo is much much better already.
I wouldn't worry that she is looking for a reaction - I doubt she thinks about it that much!

[mammainlove]

Ah thank you guys. lifeofkate she is still only eating mashed up food. The only food she will eat by hand are things like rice cakes and bread sticks. This is the other issue, we've tried various ways of encouraging her to eat pieces of fruit and veg, but she turns away, and if we put them in her mouth she often spits out. I think she gets bored of chewing tbh! She has got 12 teeth now. Also i think we made the mistake of giving her food with lots of flavour, i.e lentils,mashed up stir fry etc so pieces of carrot,potato is bland i'm guessing. On saying that, we havnt tried loads. Any advice on that? I like everyone's suggestions for ditching the spoon for now, i will try that thanks. When should i reintroduce spoon though? Sorry for loads more questions and thanks again x

[ruddynorah]

You can just give her the stir fry not mashed up. What foods does she like? It doesn't have to be plain veg. Would she like shepherds pie? Sunday dinner? Spag bol?

As for the spoon, ds is 19 months old and is just getting the idea of stabbing stuff with a fork. He copies his sister who's 5. One day he just grabbed her fork from her and got on with it. There was no deliberate attempt to introduce it.

[mammainlove]

Also she uses a plain tea spoon. She likes shepherd's pie is it is mashed up. Havnt tried spag bol, thank u. She likes pasta. Ok i'l keep trying wiv chunkier foods. Thank you