time out for 17 months old?

[1500mmania]

My DS has started throwing things and hitting, all the time. He does it especially when hungry, tired or frustrated. Last night I placed his meal infront of him and he just threw it on the floor. GRRR!

I have discussed it with my CM who has recommended time out sessions for this sort of behaviour. I am considering this and was just wondering if anyone has used this in a 17 month old or what your recommendations would be.

He is a very strong willed independent character which is lovely but I hate to let these bad habits continue to develop. He doesn't do them at the CMs so I think that he thinks he can just get away with it at home. At the moment I am being firm and saying no when he hits or throws something and removing the item that he has thrown - but he doesn't seems to be listening!

I think it's a bit young tbh. Get a bowl with a suction thing on the bottom. When he throws a toy, remove that toy and put it away.

We started around a similar time as my DS would slap or bite when he wasn't getting his own way. Under my health advisor's guidance we now sit down in a quiet place, me alongside him but not paying any attention just making sure he is safe and not doing anything silly. It worked almost instantly for us, at the end of each time out I would say "No smacking" and then show him to stroke a face instead, then we have a cuddle and carry on with whatever we were trying to do before. Now usually just the warning "Be nice please" is enough. HTH, they are all different and respond to different methods.

They can understand timeouts at this age, just about, but I would only do it for a minute or so, and TBH I wouldn't use it for bowl-throwing. That's just an 'ok, mealtime done, get down' response in my book. We used to use timeouts for hitting or other violence and that was all, because it's quite a severe penalty.

Too young I think.

I'd just put his food straight on high chair tray.

He's not being naughty, just experimenting.

It's not just with the food though, hitting & throwing toys (esp at the cat!)

Yes but as irritating as it is, it's still not naughty. My dd regularly shrieked at the cats at that age too, she found it funny when they would run in fear...

Best thing is to try and minimize incidents happening (cats have safe place to go to, no bowls for eating etc etc) and distract as much as possible.

He's still a baby really.

I definitely wouldn't use a timeout for throwing something at the cat.