In this week’s edition of Ask the Parenting Center, 92nd Street Y Parenting Center Director Sally Tannen addresses the problems of a messy food thrower. Alice: Could you shed a little light on the development of good eating habits and manners? My 1-year-old has recently started a variety of unfortunate behavior with food. He screams for food but after a few bites he starts opening his mouth and either letting the food fall or scraping it off his tongue with his hand. He then tries to get more food. He also has started throwing the food and cup across the room. I have tried taking a break from eating when he does this but he gets so upset that we then have to take him out of his chair comfort him and then begin the whole procedure again. It is all getting a bit silly. While I do not expect him to have great manners at this age, getting through a meal can be a challenge and I would like to break this habit before it gets any worse.
Sally Tannen: Alice, it sounds like he is very excited about eating, but he’s a 1-year-old, so he’s distracted. If you don’t like the behavior, take him out right away. Don’t feed him anything away from the chair, and try again in a half-hour. Have you given him food he can gum, like cheerios, puffs, chunks of banana or avocado? Some kids have a preference for certain textures, or like being able to pick things up on their own. Try rolling some of these foods in crushed cheerios. That makes it easier for them to pick the food up by themselves. Of course, they are going to throw half of it on the floor. Throwing is like a rite of passage for a toddler. They find it quite entertaining. You can limit the number of things he throws by giving him only a few at a time, and keeping the rest away from his reach. Put a shower curtain under the chair. Let us know how it goes!
Sally Tannen
Director, 92nd Street Y Parenting Center
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