dropping food

[fluffikins]

12 month old dd keeps on deliberately dropping food over the side of her high chair, she's also learnt to say 'oopsie' when doing this after a family member said it repeatedly.

We've tried ignoring it, just replacing the food back (if landed on clean surface) or just ignoring it and not giving the food back but she's still doing it.

I'm not keen to remove all food because she's been very slow at weaning and dropping weight because she's not eating enough.

Any ideas?

Food dropping was a pretty long lived phase for us (sorry!) between about 9 and 15 months. We just ignored it as telling off just made it worse as he found it funny and basically wanted the attention. And taking his food away either resulted in a massive upset (which I really didn't want at mealtimes) or he wasn't bothered as he'd finished anyway. He just gradually stopped doing it in time.

My 11 month DS deliberately drops food when he's had enough so I take it as a sign he's finished. If you're worried about eating enough, maybe remove all food, then try again in an hour or so?

Mine does this loads too. He does it much more if he's full or it's something he doesn't like. But apparently it's a normal learning stage. I think the lady at our baby group called it trajectory schema or something, eg learning how objects move. The mess is still annoying though :(

Is she really underweight?
I don't think you can do much other than remove her from the food if she's obviously more interested in playing with food than eating it. Hungry kids don't do that.

I find that if I hold my hand out for the food he'll sometimes give it to me instead of dropping it. And if I take a bite then hand it back he'll sometimes eat it. Might be worth a try?

My ds1 used to throw whole platefuls over the side when he was done. Teaching her to say 'all gone' or 'done' or a sign for it might help because at least you can get a moment's warning. Other than that, I found a huge sheet of plastic table cloth (can get it cheap in dunelm or the range) under the highchair to protect the carpet, and keep food clean if it drops, really helpful. They do grow out of it! My ds2 has a grab the spoon phase going on, and food is getting pinged everywhere!

No Lljkk she's not underweight just dropping weight. I think she's fine but hv is making a fuss of it.

Teaching her a sign is a good idea wil try that . Already using the plastic flooring

You might find that she is already giving you a sign she's done, but you're not noticing it (and I mean that in the nicest possible way). She might move her head or say a 'word' each time just before she dumps the lot over the side. Does she watch it fall and land? If not I would imagine she's not experimenting with trajectory. My ds used to just clear it off the tray, without even caring where it was going, whereas if he was dropping something for the dog for example, he would lean right over and watch it drop and get eaten. I think my ds2 and his spoon grabbing is his way of saying he's had enough because he eats far more when he self feeds than when he's spoon fed and I think this is his way of telling me! Also, do you give your baby 'pudding' eg yoghurt or fruit? Can she see it while she's eating her main course? I have found in my experience that they very quickly cotton on to sweet foods being 'nicer' and will ditch their savoury food in favour of sweet if they can see it.