Hellobee Boards

I sternly say no and give her a "look" and then that's it. I'll sit with her to make sure the next handful goes in her mouth.

@irene: I may get criticized for my comment but this is what worked for me...in fact this is the way I "discipline" my LO for everything and people are amazed at how well she listens to us.

According to the handouts from our pediatrician we started telling LO "no thank you" around 9-10 months (we started later than recommended). I could tell around 10-11 months that she knew what she was doing...she wasn't being bad, just testing boundaries and what she could and could not get away with.

Anyway, she had been throwing food off her highchair for a while and verbal correction was not working. So I would basically give her 3 chances...I would watch her closely and if her hand went to throw the food, I would look at her sternly and say "no thank you" very firmly...I always made sure I had her full attention and never yelled but was very firm. If after I told her "no thank you" three times and she still threw her food, I would pinch her on her cheek. This would upset her of course and I would tell her not to throw her food and that she needs to listen to mama when she says "no thank you". She learned so fast. When she thinks about throwing her food, i say "no thank you"
and she shakes her head (I guess imitating me) and brings her hand back to her high chair. She is 14.5 months and never throws food of her high chair...she hasn't thrown food in months...i can't remember the last time. If something accidentally falls off her tray (sometimes when I go to put her food out on her tray I will knock a piece off) she says "uh-oh" an shakes her head at me. She is so cute

This method may not be ok with some people but it is very effective for us and she really listens when we tell her "no thank you"....which is super important when it comes to safety and not just behavioral stuff. She is such a good girl so she rarely gets a pinch on the cheek...I dare anyone who thinks I am abusing my baby to meet us in real life...she is very loving and very attached to me and laughs and is silly all the time. She just knows when I say "no thank you" that I mean it. Now she can wander freely around the first floor of our house and I know she won't pull all the books off the shelf and hurt herself or touch the oven (obviously it is babyproofed in our house but not every house we go to is babyproofed).

Just sharing what works for us. Please no judgment

@Mrs. Superhero: lol so true!

I tell DS not to throw his food, and then after a few chances he gets it taken away and I feed him myself for the rest of the meal. Afterward he gets to "help" me clean it up; never too early to start good habits!

ETA: Most kids grow out of this on their own within a month or two. As long as you don't encourage the behavior, you don't really have to teach them anything, since they'll stop on their own once they pass that developmental stage.

@sandy: I like this approach!!!

I sternly say no, and if he continues doing it I flic his hand. He will usually stop and if he doesn't I tell him he's done eating and take him out of his high chair.

Like some of the others, we said no and would have him help us clean up the mess. I also emphasized that if he didn't want something he could give it back to me and I would always thank him for giving me back his dish.

My son used to do that all the time and it droves us nuts! We did a very stern "no throwing food" and it didnt' really work. Until we added a very exaggerated mad face. I think the facial expression really worked for us because at that age, he used to stare at our faces a lot to see how we would react to all kinds of situations. Now that he's 3, he still looks at our faces for our approval/disapproval.

@DigAPony: we have friends that are great parents and have well behaved kids (a 4yo and 3yo twins)...and we just liked how they don't tell their kids "no" or "don't do that" but rather always spoke respectfully to their kids...of course now that they're older they explain things to their kids and talk things through...but always very respectfully. When they are babies you can't reason with them but you can still speak to them kindly when disciplining (my pediatrician explained that discipline for babies isn't negative and all about punishment but rather teaching your baby how to be a kind, well behaved person and to correct misbehavior).

Anyway, I didn't want to be a parent that shouts at their kids or speaks in a mean tone of voice but I also don't want to be a pushover and to have a child that doesn't listen to me when I'm being serious. So, I find that saying "no thank you" and "please do not do x" helps to to always be respectful of my LO even though she can't fully reason with me yet (we are definitely getting close though at 14.5 months). I hate it when "no" is all a baby says bc that's all they hear from their parents. We usually say her name and then no thank you...and there is a definite change in our tone (low serious voice but never shouting) versus when we are playing and saying her name...so when she hears us say her name in our serious voice she will stop what she's about to do.

Whew...sorry for the rambling response!

@sandy: No apologies necessary! Thanks for explaining!

We noticed that LO would usually be good about eating his food at the beginning of the meal when he was actually hungry, and would start throwing food when he was no longer hungry. One thing that helped us was teaching him to tell us that he was "all done" (we used the hands-in-the-air sign for this), and us responding promptly to it. He seemed to do a lot less food-throwing when he knew he had a way to get out of his chair and back to his toys instead.
This doesn't really work if you're trying to enforce everyone sitting at the table for a real family dinner, but it did really help to curb the throwing!