Argh, this isn't fun anymore

[@llli*kjohanna]

So my 12.5 month old has taken to dropping everything off her tray. I get that this is pretty typical of babies, but I'm getting a bit frustrated and just don't know how to proceed. She will eat food if I feed her, but since I'd like to stick with the BLS, I don't know what to do. She really won't eat more than a bite or two throughout the day practically if I continue to just give her food for her to self-feed. I'd think she's just not interested in food right now, except she willingly eats food out of my hand/spoon--I'm definitely not force-feeding her by any means. Plus, I don't know how laid back I can/should be about her dropping food off her tray. My knee jerk reaction is to want to declare mealtime 'all done' and whisk her away to play on the floor, but maybe that's more appropriate for a toddler a little bit older? I doubt she would make the connection that dropping stuff=mealtime over. Also, I'd like to balance her curiosity over how gravity works with my own sanity/ tolerance for the repeated picking up of objects off the floor. (Because I've also thought of just replacing the food with toys when she starts doing this, but I have a pretty low tolerance for picking stuff up these days.)

[@llli*aphimama]

What happens if you put one bite on the tray at a time?

[@llli*kjohanna]

It instantly goes to the floor. Lots of bites--all on the floor in zero seconds flat too. She is apparently obsessed with gravity right now.

[@llli*aphimama]

I'd end the feeding. Only way to distinguish play vs. mealtime. But that's just me. I hate cleaning food off the floor. It's just too frustrating.

[@llli*saidah]

we invested in a junk load of throw away picnic table clothes for under the high chair. I also give my dd a plastic spoon which tends to keep her more focused on her food for some reason instead of launching it off her tray.

[@llli*barnheartbabe]

(Because I've also thought of just replacing the food with toys when she starts doing this, but I have a pretty low tolerance for picking stuff up these days.)

We got a toy with a big suction cup on it that DD1 couldn't remove from the tray. It was supposed to look like a horse so it had ribbon tags on its bum, some rattling balls in the middle, and it swung.

Another thing that helped was that we started lightly smacking her hands for chucking food from about 9mo onward. That was when she'd pick it up, move it to the tray edge, look to see if we were looking, and then toss. Very deliberate. We didn't smack for accidents or when i didn't know that it was deliberate. As far as i'm concerned, DD1 could investigate gravity with her toys and not food. DH was particularly good at it, in that he'd go to smack her hand and mostly get only his own hand so it made a loud noise but not really contact her much.

[@llli*sassypants]

My son still throws food on the floor for fun and he is 18mo! We have tried every trick I can think of (I even created a thread about it a while back) like telling him no, grabbing his hands, taking away the tray, swapping for toys, removing him from the table, etc. The frequency goes up and down, with a significant up-tick after he learned "uh-oh" and though tossing food on the floor was a great excuse to show off his new word.

Something that has helped us out lately (I know he is old than your LO, but maybe it will work for you) is to have an extra plate on the table, and when he looks like he is going to toss something on the floor we ask him to put it on the plate, which we hold out to him. Sometimes we will put an extra bowl on his tray so he can play moving food from one bowl to the other.

I just had another idea. Do you have a booster seat that can sit on the floor, or a bumbo seat with a tray? Maybe you could lay out a table cloth and have a "picnic" on the floor, which might remove the temptation to drop things? At least for one meal.

[@llli*christinao]

In my opinion, I would stop the mealtime when she starts to drop or throw her food. Then, resume the meal at a different time. If my DS would throw his food, then to me, that meant he was done. Also, perhaps try to put out a bowl of a few snacks throughout the day. It might take the fascination of the game away.

I do NOT think that you should hit her hand for dropping food.

[@llli*djs.mom]

We put a plastic Table cloth under the high chair and ignored the behavior. After mealtime we just picked it up and shook it out. I tried to discipline food throwing a little later but IMO and IME BLS is a messy messy endeavor and investment and you can't be all OCD about a mess or spend ANYTIME trying to punish a one year old by trying to teach a one year old table manners. They don't get it and they aren't going to for a while yet. So do what you need to to not care about the mess or accept it. Because it is what it is. For me letting go meant feeling like I didn't really have to clean it up. A plastic table cloth under the highchair helped me with that.

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

I have a dog. I don't worry about the 18 month old throwing food on the floor. We were similarly laid back with our almost 4 year old and she doesn't throw food on the floor anymore either. I want meal times to be interesting and fun for them so I'm not going to get wound up about a baby throwing food on the floor.

I wouldn't even smack my 4 year old's hand for throwing food on the floor.