14 mo throwing food and not eating much

[catgirl1976]

DS is now throwing all food he is given to eat from his highchair. It's driving me mad and also meaning he is not eating much.

He will no longer accept being spoon fed, so we either give him food to pick up and feed himself with or let him take the spoon. In the first instance he just flings the food, in the second he eats the food from the spoon but then flings the spoon on the floor after every. single. mouthful. He will not let me take the spoon off him, and will struggle if I try to. He will only release it via flinging it.

"No" and all variations of have no effect. Other thank him thinking it's a hilarious games

He is too little to understand "If you throw it on the floor you won't get any more / get any pudding" etc

I don't know what to do. I don;t want to make feeding an emotional battlefield but I am at my wits end and sick of cooking him lovely meals that get flung across the room and then having to scrub half the room down and throw out good food

Plus I am worried he's not getting enough to eat

well... i have no idea if i'm doing the right thing (DS is also 14 months and is doing the same thing), but I feed by hand. so if i'm trying to give banana, i squish a little piece between my fingers and put it in his mouth. same for almost everything else. not sure if DS will ever learn to feed himself, but at least he eats this way.

My DS is the same age and he has recently gone through a phase of throwing his food off of the high chair too. I found that giving just one type of food in small amounts at a time helped - e.g., sandwiches first, wait for him to finish those, then banana then yoghurt. I also found putting the food on a nice colourful plate or dish helped too. He tips it all off the plate onto the high chair tray but that seems to satisfy his throwing needs

Thank you both :)

I do only give him a tiny, bite sized bit at a time but it goes straight on the floor

If I try to put it directly in his mouth he throws his head back, clamps his mouth shut and refuses :(

DD used to throw food on the floor, but my approach was to stop the meal if she did it on purpose, explain that i thought she wasn't hungry, and try again later. Now she only throws food at 19 mo if she really has finished or doesn't like it. I don't let her starve, and I do make sure if she hasn't eaten I'll offer her something later that she does like. I think she's too young to learn that if she doesn't eat now she might be hungry later, but she's not too young to learn that if she's hungry now she should eat.

Also, if he's refusing to be spoon fed, give less messy finger food :) much easier to clean up a sandwich than a messy sauce he has flung around.

Ah, my 13 month enjoys lobbing his food as well. The best thing I was told was from the health visitor 'I have never known a child to starve themselves'. This made me more relaxed, which in turn made DS more relaxed. If he eats, great. If not, I try again a little later.

Hi
My almost 14mo also goes through periods of throwing food spoons and plates off the high chair

I generally ignore it and anything on the floor goes straight to the bin.

Also find taking the tray off the chair and pulling it up to the table and eating at the same time as him helps

My 17mo throws stuff (everything in front of him) once he's had enough to eat. It's his little way of saying "finished!". Apparently his classmates at nursery do it too.

If he's not eating much, could he be teething or sick? Those are the times when DS won't eat.

I think you just need to relax. 14 months is too young to punish so I just ignore the behaviour, no laughing just ignore. Children have weeks/ days when they are really hungry and weeks/ days when they aren't. I have one of nearly 4 and a 12 month old, both are pretty good with food but atm the 4 year old is wolfing everything I put in front of her and 12 month old is slow. Last week it was the other way round. Oh and the 4 year old stopped lobbing food a long time ago

I give my DD 15 months, a book to look at during the meals, she is spoon feed and have snacks between meals. This way she eats, if no distraction offered, she is fussy and does not eat. She also trows food on the floor, but still eats half of it.

Thanks everyone

He does seem to go through stages of eating well and then stages or chucking everything so it may well be linked to his teeth

DH has suggested when he starts throwing to take the food away and say "Oh you must not be hungry", distract him for a few minutes with a book or something and then try again after a few minutes which sounds sensible

DM has just said the same thing as MVRC's Health Visitor (that he won't starve himself)

I will try the no tray and highchair up to the table as that sounds like a good idea and might make him feel involved

I will also try and relax a bit

I had this since my Ds was weaned at 6 months he's now a year... Barely eats has milk more than he should but isn't underweight so some must get in his mouth... Slyly as I never see it!

Also I done high chair with no tray worked for 2 days then back to throwy shouty child again

I do wonder if I'm giving him too much milk still

He was breast and formula fed till 9 months, then I dropped the breast (8 teeth) and he moved to just formula. He has follow on milk now although we are introducing cows milk (he's not keen, he throws it)

He has (times are a bit ish)

06:30 - Bottle of follow on milk, cereal or toast / teacake / crumpet

09:30 Bottle of follow on milk, something from above list he didn't have earlier, plus some fruit

13:00 Scrambled egg on toast / sandwiches / chicken and salad etc, plus fruit, maybe a yoghurt if he ate well and seems hungry. Water to drink

18:30 Fish pie / roast dinner / chicken pie / stew / past etc, fruit, yoghurt, Water to drink

19:30 Bottle of follow on milk

He has water through the day and occasionally a snack at 4pm (mainly the 2 days he goes to nursery or sometimes if he seems hungry at home but fairly rarely)

He is on the 98th percentile for weight and off the chart for height so he's not starving.

Maybe I am giving him too much? Should I drop another bottle?

I would certainly not ignore it. I think problems get harder to deal with as they get older, not easier. He may be too young to understand the words "If you throw food then..." but he's not too young to make a link if the meal ends as soon as he throws food. Personally I would tell him very cleraly not to throw it and if he does I would take him straight to his cot and leave him there just for one minute or so. Only then continue with the emal if you really think he's hungry. If not, try again later. I know somw poeple seem happy to sit and watch their kids throw food, anmd may even find it funny. Each to their own. I wouldn't want it to happen (in fact it's one of the few rules I have) and you can stop it if you want to.

Sounds like he has quite a good diet . My DS has cereal and juice for breakfast, a snack mid morning (usually a banana or pear), dinner is usually sandwiches or toast followed by a yogurt and fruit, afternoon snack, then tea (whatever we are having). He then has a bottle of follow on milk before bed. He was having three bottles a day until he was one - we started by dropping the mid morning one and filling him up with fruit instead. He dropped the breakfast one himself really, he decided he didn't want it after his cereal

Thanks Mammy

Maybe he is still having too much milk

I will try dropping the 09:30 one and see how that goes

Maybe, you can always start giving it to him again if you feel he still needs it . Formula is filling for them so maybe that's why he throws food . I've tried many times to get my DS to drink cow's milk but he hates it

Does warming the cows milk make any difference? We dont but I wonder if thats why he hates it

I wouldn't give a 1 year old 3 bottles. If he takes it well I'd just switch to a cup and if you want give him 1 bottle before bed for now. My 12 month old doesn't have bottles at all.

Ok

I will try the cup

He takes his water from it fine

It's a sippy cup thing with a teat. When should we be looking at an open cup?

He still won't have it . My DS has got a Nuby cup which has a sports cap type top to it (has to pull it up to drink from it). It's quite fast flowing so avoids him sucking at it too much. They aren't suppose to suck anything from a teat for too long because it can damage their teeth. He also uses a Doidy cup which was given to us by the health visitor. It's basically an open cup with handles which is slightly slanted so that they don't have to tip it up very far to get the drink. Do you have one of these! Maybe try him with it? My DS does need supervising with it though as he tends to fling the drink everywhere

This is the one my DS has...

www.amazon.co.uk/Nuby-Beaker-Pop-Up-Easy-Flo-Valve-colours/dp/B008UZWPBE/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1358685261&sr=8-11

www.amazon.co.uk/Bickiepegs-D-Red-Doidy-Cup/dp/B000RBE6Q6/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1358685346&sr=1-1

His is a bit like the Nuby one

I'll order the Bickiepegs one - looks like a good trainer cup

It is good. I recommend starting off with a very small amount in it so if he does throw it or hit it you won't have a lot to clean up