toddler
Anonymous User
11 months ago
Throwing Food
My son is 23 mo and frequently throws food from his highchair. Sometimes he doesn’t want to eat, sometimes he’s mad there’s no music playing, sometimes he’s upset over all the things because he’s a toddler. How can we teach him that throwing is not the answer, even when he’s angry?
Anonymous
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11 months ago
Yeah, this one feels like there aren’t any good options and the best advise is probably “this too shall pass.” My almost three year old went through a throwing phase and we worked through it. And now he’s in a hitting phase so trying to work through that as well. The biggest problem is that kids have so little impulse control at that age so absent being super disciplinarian which I’m not inclined to do for a toddler throwing food, there’s not much you can do other than give them the feedback and distract them.
Anonymous
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11 months ago
If I had a quarter for each time I said “Food is for eating, not for throwing. When you throw food, the plate goes away.”
This worked for our family. As the AI answer mentioned, establish the boundary, be consistent, follow through on the consequences, and bring the plate back after 1 minute or so to try again. You’ll do it over and over again but eventually come away with a clear cause and effect - with natural consequences - for your kiddo.
The phrasing is important. “The plate goes away” is the consequence, not “I’m going to take your plate away.” It’s also sometimes been helpful, depending on how “rational” your child is, to explain that since you aren’t eating your food, but throwing it, you are signaling that you are all done. You can give them signs or words to help signal as well. Our oldest really started digging into cause and effect at around 2 and needed more “discussion”