If your child is messing around with their food/making a mess at the table is the following ok or not? To make them take their plate and put it next to the animals' bowls on the floor of the kitchen because 'if they're going to eat like an animal they may as well be treated like one'. Then make them eat the rest of their meal from the plate on floor next to the cats and dogs bowls (without cutlery, crouched over the plate like a cat) until the plate is cleared.