# 2-year-olds throwing food. Help me?



## OGirlieMama (Aug 6, 2006)

Argh! My girls are driving me nuts at mealtimes. The food-throwing had stopped for quite a while, and crazy me thought they had outgrown it. Well, lately, it is back with a vengeance and I am starting to lose my cool.

They are very verbal, and are absolutely capable of saying "all done" (and have in the past, actually) at which point I ask are you sure, and then take their plates/trays if they say yes. Lately, they either say "all done" and immediately hurl the plate to the floor or they just push it over the front edge of the highchair tray - often right as I am trying to reach for it. I'm so freaking tired of picking food up off my floor. I try and stay alert and close by so I can take stuff away as soon as they are finished with it, but they are really fast.

I've told them over and over that "we don't throw food" (which feels like a big lie, because "we" includes them and they clearly _do_ throw food!) and that the mess makes mommy sad. I've asked them to help me clean it up (in a very non-punative manner - hey, now that you threw your plate, there's food all over the floor...I have to clean it up - want to help?). I've yelled "STOP IT! STOP THROWING YOUR FOOD ON THE FLOOR!!!!!"







Nothing has had much effect. The yelling made them laugh maniacally. The "sad about the mess" did actually register - now they say "I make a mess - mommy sad!" as if it's really exciting.

What else can I do? Am I supposed to just ignore it and clean it up? That doesn't feel right, either. Help!


----------



## huggerwocky (Jun 21, 2004)

Hm, except making them clean it as much as they can I'm not sure what else you could do. Maybe put much much smaller portions onto their plates so there's nothing to throw?


----------



## mija y mijo (Dec 6, 2006)

:


----------



## stlmomof2 (Mar 30, 2006)

Hmm... except for the fact that I only have one little two year old girl who obnoxiously throws food, my situation is the same. My lo also finds my yelling to be hilarious and parrots things I say about not throwing food. Occasionally, when she throws/spills/drops food, I refuse to get her more of that type, but that's typically just to make things easier on me. Sometimes when she spills cereal, I tell her, "No more cereal today," but then she just requests something else, which she might also make a mess with. Sometimes when I don't feel like cleaning up messes, I just give her food like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or cheese sticks, which aren't as messy as cereal or yogurt. Sometimes I tell her that since she's making a mess, I need to spoon feed her, which she hates. Sometimes that works, but only in the short term. I think there's just something inherently fun about throwing food and the anger that results from it, unfortunately, and there's not much that can be done about it.


----------



## Kikwembe (Jan 19, 2007)

My dd went through this phase at 2, and I had to watch her like a hawk...I could tell when she was winding down, and I'd say, "All done!" and take it before she could throw it







, and eventually, she got used to it and it became habit.


----------



## MtBikeLover (Jun 30, 2005)

I never had this problem but I have read about other people that have on other message boards. Their solution usually ended up being that they would only put 1 or 2 bites on the tray at a time and stopped giving them plates full of food. Then, there is nothing really to throw.


----------

