2yo meal time behavior

[niq]

V just turned 2. Lately, he has been throwing breakfast & dinner on the floor 100% of the time. Sometimes he does it early in the meal. Sometimes he does it later. Sometimes he will spend a few minutes playing with his food before finally tossing it overboard. He knows the words "all done" but doesn't use them.

Is this normal at this age? We say "I don't like that" which is a phrase he uses, we give one warning and then take away dinner (if this happens early, what do you offer as food?), but nothing seems to be sinking in. Any tips on getting food to stay on the plate/in the bowl?

[stretchad]

For DS, when he starts throwing or making a huge mess he usually is just bored and done w/ eating. We usually say no thanks, and say all done and take the plate away. Sometimes he'll protest because he really isn't done and so we'll give it back but the minute he starts throwing again, it goes away.

[niq]

Aug 26, 2015 22:34:04 GMT -5 @fivedogs said:

I handed out one piece at a time for a while. More precious, LOL.

Yeah, daycare definitely gives out very small portions. I'm starting to see the logic. It keeps the amount of mess manageable.

[robot]

Aug 26, 2015 22:34:04 GMT -5 @fivedogs said:

I handed out one piece at a time for a while. More precious, LOL.

I did this for a long time with DD1 (or small portions).   Remember that crazy news story going around about the toddler getting yelled at by the restaurant owner? And a bunch of comments were like, "Why wouldn't you just put the pancakes in front of the kid?"  I kept thinking DUUUHHH, so they don't throw the whole plate overboard  

[havarti]

Small portion, directly on the table with no plate. He'll have to throw it one piece at a time:)

[dulcemariamar]

We also gave my DD small portions at a time. And she would have to help clean up afterwards if she made a mess. Also lots of distraction. If I got into a long convo with my DH she would start to throw the food. We spent a lot of time talking to her and asking lots of questions.

[MNH2013]

With M it's usually a day she doesn't eat much when the whole thing ends up on the floor. I remove it and let her down. She usually wants a small snack later. If it's a piece or two we tell her no no and she gets her bottom lip all quivery and then eats lol.

[osulori]

We've been battling this on and off with AJ over the last 4-6 months, I feel your pain. What has seemed to work the best for us has been small portions, catching his hands before he does it (with AJ it's pretty obvious by his behavior) and telling him that if he doesn't want it to put it to the side. He got really good about it for a while, but lately has started deliberately dropping food on the floor and throwing his plate when he's done so we're back to square one (and back to putting the dogs down in the family room when he eats).

[niq]

LOL for the first time in ages this morning he said "all done" rather than throw his muffin on the floor.

We took the praise volume to 11.

Kids, man.

[mrslisa]

I don't think DD3 eats anything. She either throws it on the floor, feeds it to the dog, or chews it and spits it out.

[ny96]

This has been happening a lot lately in our house too and it sounds like we're doing the same things to stop it. I figure J is done when he starts playing with his food. My mistake last night was letting him fill up on animal crackers prior to dinner (after swimming snack). Great mom over here.