Throwing of food/meals

[brachy]

DS is 29 months and is at the wonderful "If I don't like my food, I will just throw it" phase.

How do you deal with it?
Do you calmly ignore a whole plate of macaroni cheese hurled at the wall? Do you put them in time out? Do you reprimand them or make them clear it up? Do you smile sweetly as you pick up the broken bits of plate and remind your self it's only a phase?

Something needs to be done now as I'm losing patience with the 'this too shall pass' mantra!

Many thanks!

say NO! that is a Naughty thing to do! do not throw food.

stick to less messy meals!! and plastic crocs...

With mine (1.5yrs and nearly 3), they get a very stern 'No, we do not throw our food' followed by a quick march to the time-out step.

If they have thrown their dinner they then don't get any snacks or extras (though I might give them a sneaky extra bit of milk in their bedtime drink) and if they complain I explain they are hungry because they didn't eat their dinner.
My eldest one soon learnt and my youngest is in the process of learning....

Tell them that throwing food is naughty and that they have obviously finished their meal so get them down from the table/high chair and then igore them for the time it takes you to clean up the mess.
if they bother you repeat calmly 'i do not have time to do x,y,z now as I am clearing up the mess you made'

and yes it is a phase, I trained both mine to hand me their plates when they had finished their meals as dd2 decided the best way to let me know was to put the plate upsidedown on her head and let it fall on the floor behind her.

They are 6 and 8 now and we are working on putting their finished plates in the dishwasher instead of leaving them on the side.

I reckon 29 months is old enough to make it clear that throwing food is entirely unacceptable behaviour.

Helping cleaning up sounds like a good approach.

And sternly but calmly saying something like "Food is for eating. We don't throw food."

The consequences of the behaviour are up to you and your style of parenting, really.

If my DD throws food, then we usually remove all bowls/food/cups/cutlery from out of her reach and wait until she insists she wants to eat until we give it back (having done the "food is for eating...." mantra). Three times and the meal is over as far as she's concerned. We get her down from the table and take her off for her bath/lunchtime nap etc. - whatever usually follows the meal.
DD is 25 mo.

Agree with Elk and IC - if food gets thrown then the meal is clearly finished and he gets down from the table. No more food till next meal/snack time. They learn VERY fast.

My near 15 month old DS throws a lot of food. He's too young to really understand even though I repeatedly tell him. Any other tips?

gobblygook, when you tell him, do you back it up? My 15mo understands NO extremely well and has stopped chucking food on the floor since I started getting him down from the table the second he started food-throwing.

Thanks for the replies. I didn't mention how we dealt with the throwing, but I am feeling reassured that others do the same as me.
Hopefully one day it will all sink in and DS will finally take notice.

Octaviapink - I do tell him no and I think I'll follow through consistently and get him down if he starts throwing.