Baby throwing food on the floor

[Chump123]

Has anyone got any tips or advice how to stop my 11 month old putting her finger food on the floor. She keeps picking bits up and dropping it on the floor, I don't want to constantly say no to her, I'm not sure what works to get them to stop doing this? I keep telling her that the food belongs on the plate and to put it in her mouth but this doesn't make any difference. If anyone has experienced something similar and had tactics to stop this happening. I would love to hear them! Thank you!

I'm pretty sure that all babies do this and there's not much you can do about it!
Get a dog to help with the tidy-up?!

Anything you're keen for her to eat, help her with the spoon/ fork herself so she is less likely to throw it. Otherwise, you've got to resign yourself to mess and waste for a few months...

Yup. Mine is 20 months and still does it. Rather annoying.

This is completely normal and not something you can stop. She’s not nearly developmentally able to follow the sorts of instructions you’re expecting her to, at her age.

Moreover, if you google play schemas, you’ll see that dropping things is a core play/learning building block that all babies are driven to do. You probably encourage her to do it with balls, etc, and at 10 months, how is she to know food is any different?

All babies do that, I will be 70 in December and remember doing same in my high chair.

Thank you! I just wondered if there was any tips on how to prevent it, but alas there seems not. When I'm not watching her eat, she seems to put it in her mouth just fine, I think it's also a 'let's see what reaction I get if I do this'. I just wondered if it was best to just let her carry on and do it, or say no etc which she isn't wholly going to understand. Also they don't seem to eat as much as half of it ends up on the floor, so then I'm not sure if I make more food?

No, don’t make any more. At that age, they’re getting most of their nutrients from milk, and weaning is just about getting used to taste and texture. So they don’t need to eat everything you make (though it’s obviously very annoying to see it all on the floor!).

My baby does that. All the time. It looks like he's testing it out as he will pick up a piece of food, carefully examine it, lean over the edge of the high chair then drop it and peer over to see what happened to it 🤦🏼‍♀️ I don't tell him no because I get the impression he is learning from this. He also tips his sippy cup upside down to watch the water trickling out. Again, it looks like he's learning. May be I'm making a rod for my own back by letting him, but I don't want to stop him from exploring stuff and to me food is a sensory thing. I just make sure there is a splash mat underneath the high chair and that he's wearing both a long sleeved weaning bib AND a catch bib! He always has plenty of his food on his plate so if he does decide to chuck some around I know he won't go hungry. He's a pretty good eater, just messy! I know a couple of other babies who are messy like this too though so i assume it's normal. I so feel like I spend me life cooking and cleaning for him though!

She isn't looking for a reaction from you. She has no concept of bad behaviour at this age.

She is learning about how the world works. She's just found out that things continue to exist when you can't see them, that taking things off her her tray and dropping them means they're no longer on the tray, that you picking them up makes them appear on the tray again and that things move downwards when you let go of them. She's also noticing that things make different noises when they land.

Put a plastic tablecloth under her high chair and just pick the food up as and when necessary. Don't try to impose rules at this age or tell her off. If you eat together, she'll soon learn how to behave at the table by copying you.