Dropping food on floor...what age do you "do something about it!"

[baffledmummy]

DD is 10 months old...never a huge eater, quite independent - doesn't like being spoonfed and prefers to self feed (although not convinced she actually eats much that way).

Anyway - while feeding herself she has a go at everything and accidentally drops some food which is fine, but more often these days has started dropping things on purpose. Now I know playing with their food is an important part of her development...but am starting to wonder how I can encourage her to stop dropping food on purpose! She doesn't do it maliciously. Not sure she really understands "no" yet - when I say no, she stops and looks at me so I think she is starting to understand, but will continue to drop food.

Any tips? Is 10 months too young to start worrying about it, or have I missed the boat completely and going to have a lifetime of chucking food around! Am getting tired of spending as much time clearing up after each feed as we spend eating!

She sounds like my 10mo and my 3 year old ds was exactly the same at that age.

As you say it's all part of their development - they are just exploring. Ime there isn't much you can 'do' about it apart from grin and bear it! She will grow out of it eventually.

Frustrating I know when you have lovingly cooked a meal and it goes straight on the floor!

My DD used to drop things over the side of the highchair into the floor if she had finished with it, didn't like it or was just messing about with it - but mostly if she had finished with it.
She's 13 months old now, and is starting to get the idea that if she's finished with something then it goes on the table, not the floor. Sometimes she can't quite reach over her tray to put it on the table, but she does try!!! We don't tell her off if she drops things on the floor - she will learn eventually. We just don't stress about it. She makes mess, we clean it up - it won't be forever

Agree with the above. As she gets older you can praise her for being a clever girl when she starts to manage in a cleaner fashion. Otherwise just sit her where it's easy to clean up.

Ah thanks everyone! Glad she is not the only one!

My health visitor advised to completely ignore it otherwise they do learn that it's a game and do it constantly

DD was told off from day one, if it was on purpose. It really pisses me off.

Well I cleared the high chair and finished the meal at once if either of mine started to drop food. Which worked and they both got the message quite early on. But I think it helped a lot that they they could generally be relied on to eat a bit ( usually a lot) before they started to mess about. If they had not been keen to eat I may have needed a different strategy.

A dog is your best friend when weaning

almost I think a dog would do perfectly. It would however get very fat very quickly! I have been campaigning for a pup for ages though.....I'll see if DH can be swayed with this argument

Dd used to shout the dog and look for where he was and chuck food towards him! Nightmare when they are eating grapes or raisins etc.

Ours was even worse when he started doing it at nursery and there was no dog to clean it up!

One thing I'd recommend is teaching her a way of signalling that she's finished, wants to get down etc - the baby signing "all gone" worked for us - so that she doesn't end up dropping food because she's bored/done.