I've had mindee for nearly 6mths now at the very start he was a pleasant child (he was 23mths old) he has always had a habit of spitting his food out and throwing it. Over the months he has started hitting, spitting (including in my dd1's face ) haior pulling, climbing out of cot, running off (if given half a chance) - ok so most of this is normal behaviour and they all have phases when they do this i accept that. It's getting to the point where he has made progress every now and again and then slipped again. I use time out for alot of the behaviour, with spitting I wipe his face and say no and when he spits his food out i take the plate away and he gets nothing else.I praise him for every thing he does right and encourage good behaviour with stickers, cuddles etc.
I'm just getting to my wits end now. I thought that with being consistant and with him being here full time I would be able to stamp this behaviour out but I can't and it makes me feel like I am failing.
He refuses to eat alot of the food i prepare and almost always throws it on the floor so i tried giving him thigns he likes now he won't even eat that so i've tried not worrying about what he does and doesnt like and just feeding him the same as the rest of us but that results in even more mess.
I've spoken with his parents and have suggested HV does a home visit, mum says she has phoned but no visit yet this was 2 weeks ago.
What can I do? I'm really trying my best here. He has just had dinner it has taken me 30 minutes to encourage him to eat a tiny tiny piece of carrot and half a cheese sandwich. I am exhausted but feel that it's my job to make sure he is getting what he needs. He missed breakfast as he chewed it and spat it out so I binned it so couldn't let him miss lunch too as his mum would have been happy.