12 mo throwing food - what do you do?

[Elbbob]

My DD is 12 mo and not a big eater, but gradually eating more as the months progress. I'm anxious about her weight as she's on the bottom of the chart (but to be fair always has been!).

Anyway she has never liked being spoon fed so I put individual mouthfuls of food on her tray for her to eat. For 2 out of 3 meal times she'll chuck 75% of the food on the floor (stuff I know she likes), so I go and find something else for her to eat, which she then eats. Meal times can take 45-60 mins. It's exhausting! But I know she's hungry as she'll eat the alternatives. And I don't want her to be hungry.

So my question is am I doing the wrong thing by offering her alternatives? If I don't will she learn to eat what I've given her? Or is she too young?

At this age it’s all about sensory experiences. Touch, smell, texture, taste.

Even at 12 m most of her nutrition should be from milk, although that should gradually start to reduce over the next year.

If she doesn’t like being spoon fed cut up her food into chunks and let her get on with it. I wouldn't offer alternatives, because she’ll learn if she refuses something she’ll get something else. If you don’t feel she’s eaten much you can always offer pudding- yoghurt, rice pudding etc which she is more likely to tolerate off a spoon.

Sometimes though, if they don’t eat they just aren’t hungry. Take it away and leave it until the next mealtime.

But I wouldn’t over worry yet :)

My 20 month old is still doing this and I'm pulling my hair out!

I'm just trying to let him get on with it not offer alternatives and make sure he has his daily vitamin

@reallyanotherone thanks that's helpful. Health visitor told me I was giving her too much milk so I've cut down to around 500ml a day in the hope she'd start to eat more. Not sure if it's working.

@EmmaJR1 glad it's not just my DD. Frustrating isn't it?!

Very much so! He won't try anything new, won't pick up wet/sticky stuff and refuses veg that's not in a sauce! 🤷‍♀️
I'm desperately hoping it's a phase and once we can chat he will want to try new things. 🌷for you.

Is she chucking food because she doesn't like it or because throwing things on the floor is a normal part of child development or because she likes your reaction?
If you aren't convinced the answer is she doesn't like it then you can stop offering alternatives. Otherwise you need to wait it and ignore until she grows out of it.

My 15 month old is doing this all the time too. I am working really hard on ignoring it. If he refuses to eat something I am giving him toast, as he sleeps really badly if he hasn't eaten enough food.
Seems to be worse at the moment as he is teething.
Hope it's just a phase!
(He does pat me on the head when I'm cleaning it up though which is pretty funny and cute!)

Put a mat on the floor and picnic.

It will pass.

I used a wipe clean mat under the high chair and just gave back stuff that fell on it.

I'd also see if you can give her other opportunities for playing with interesting squishy stuff that isn't food - messy play etc. That should boost her dexterity while also giving an outlet for the urge to play.

Don’t agree- most of her nutrition should not be from milk but from food. 14 oz is about top whack for milk. Have you tried giving pre loaded spoons or Letting her eat some herself and popping some in her mouth. Babyled weaning works for some, but I feed my son still and allow him to pick some up with his fingers too. Works for us

My DD did that; she’d eat a bit then throw it on the floor. I didn’t want her to go hungry so I’d offer something else. It did pass by about 16 months; I didn’t want to make a big deal of it so I ignored it and she lost interest in doing it.
Do you give food to her on a plate? Oddly that kind of helped and giving her cutlery as it distracted her.
I also just gave her small bits at a time

Its totally normal. Look up schemas- all children go through them and the throwing schema is very normal at this developmental stage.

Also toddlers are very good at self regulating what they eat. They will not let themselves starve.

Aw man totally normal! And if they see you picking it up straight away then it becomes a game. At least in our house. Is there certain food that is thrown more?
Maybe try different times for food and see if makes a difference?

Mine did this

Went to finger foods only, then reintroduced spoon feeding once they could use a spoon themselves

Thanks all for the advice / reassurance. I'll give some of the suggestions a go.

oP I've started giving mine a fork this week and he's distracted enough by it to take a bit of spoon feeding from me, mixed with feeding himself with his hands. Stay strong!