Spitting food

[Rosh]

Does anyone have any advise on how I could stop my 9 month old spitting all her food back at me, onto the table or over the edge of the highchair onto the floor? I have tried distraction with toys, giving her a bit of bread to hold in both hands and saying "no", but nothing works. This is a new trick, probably just a phase, but sends me through the roof, so I would really appreciate some help!

My daughter did this from the age of about 18 months and still does it occasionally. I find it is usually when she has got a very large mouthful she's bored with chewing, always when she's not particularly hungry and the last one or two mouthfuls, or when she had been given something but didn't really want it like a biscuit. She still does it very occasionally and although we never managed to stop this she will now come up to me saying 'ug ug ug'(can't speak mouth too full!!) so that I can get her a tissue to spit it into. I tried not to make a fuss when she did it so that it didn't become an 'attention' thing and decided that she'd grow out of it hopefully. At least she doesn't eat for the sake of it!!

Does your daughter do it throughout the meal, you could take the meal away and say 'no more, no spitting, finished'. I can't remember how much they understand at 9 months, seems so long ago!! Do you think maybe she's not particularly hungry?

Hope that helps................

Thanks for responding Spring. I suppose the problem is that I don't really know how much she understands yet, but I imagine it is way more than I think. She always does it at the beginning of her meal when I know she's hungry and it starts on the first mouthfull when she doesn't have any other food in her mouth. I think it has become an attention thing because to begin with she only did it a couple of times and I was able to distract her, but now she will spit the whole meal out pretty much. I have just started saying "no" to her which she clearly understands but seems to make it worse or get her so upset she wont eat anymore anyway. I think I may have some battles ahead if she's this stubborn already!!