She looks me in the eye then flings her food

[Sakura]

I'm just wondering about the best way to go ahead with dealing with my 16 month old DD.

I want to wean her from the breast completely soon, but she hardly eats anything. I don't know what to do when she just throws her food on the floor. I know she knows its wrong because of the look she gives me (and its hard for me not to laugh but I manage not to)
I started off by saying "no", then taking her down off the high chair immediately. But this is not helping me to wean her!.
How much do they understand at this age with regard to "no"? Because about 10 minutes after I've taken her down, I test her to see if she's still hungry and she obviously is.

Ignore it totally. Like she's done nothing.

All the time she's eating properly, go OTT on the praise. "Wow, look at YOU, you're so great, look at you eating so well, aren't you a clever girl, I'm so proud of you.."

Throws food - silence, no eye contact.

My dd did this, she just grew out of it, she's 19 months old now, and only 'tips the plate' when she's had enough.

We just learnt to be a good catch!

Thanks for the quick replies! Yes, ignoring sounds better than what I was doing. Then at least she'll carry on eating something.

Or otherwise just wait until she grows out of it!

yep, just ignore - my ds did exactly this and we ignored him (causing a LOT of mess) for ages and eventually he stopped! But then he went to stay with grandma for a couple of days who of course paid lots of attention to this and we were back to square one!

yeah, when i read the title, i thought she'll be 15 or 16 months.
Totally normal...she's finding out what happens when she defies you, or does something she knows is wrong. Sign of a secure and well-balanced child (or, so i tell myself when 15-month-old DS stands up in his highchair again. he not only looks me in the eye, he applauds himself).
Ignore, ignore, and thrice, ignore.

Thanks for the reassurances, I like the "sign of a well-balanced child"

Oh that looking straight in the eye thing - I find it so hard not to laugh out loud. Like Minouminou said, she's testing the boundaries. My DS does the same and it's a dead give away that he knows he's being naughty. He's 18 months.

oh god, yeah - we tend to applaud DS when he does something clever, and say "yayyyy"
when he stands up in his high chair, he claps and says "yayyyyyy", and i swear, he knows he's taking the p**s!
it's in a different tone of voice and with different body language.if i didn't know better, i'd think he was being sarcastic.
it is hard not to laugh, but it's the only way.