Food painstakingly dropped onto the floor; Mum's hair being torn out

[LowlLowl]

My DS is 10 months and likes his food (if he's in the right mood). We're doing a mixture of feeding him things on spoons and giving him things he can pick up. I'd love to be able to put food in front of him and just let him get on with it, but if I do this he'll put one or two pieces in his mouth and then pick up the rest piece by piece and deliberately throw it over the side of the high chair, then keep leaning over and staring at it on the floor. It isn't because he doesn't want to eat it - if I pick it up and offer it to him he'll open his mouth and enjoy it. He just can't seem to cope with more than one item on his tray at once.

Do I just have to persevere and cope with chunks of food on the floor? Any ideas for teaching him not to do it? He's my first child so I have no experience of this - it might just be a normal stage for all I know!

Bit tedious but maybe place 1 or 2 items at a time, then more when they're gone?

It is normal. It's very irritating. Just give him one thing at a time. If he throws it in the floor say 'no, we don't throw food' and put it in the bin. Spoon feed him some things eg yoghurt. It is a phase they grow out of but I do remember it being a loooong phase unfortunately.

I would keep the floor clean and hand him it back.

Dropping things is the best game for children of this age. There's no fighting it I'm afraid. Just be patient and don't show him it annoys you!

I had a pvc table cloth on the floor when DD1 went through this phase. Anything landing within the mat was re offered. It is just a phase with babies. If you look into your red book there's an entry for dropping things deliberately.

Echo the above - it's very frustrating but normal. We tried not to react and just returned it to the tray unless it was clear that DS was full. We found just putting a couple of items at a time worked better. Around 15 months, we suddenly realised he'd stopped doing it.

Get a dog

Thanks all. I'll just keep persevering and go and stick my head in the freezer when I lose my cool.