Hellobee Boards

With the 15 month old I take care of I have some limited success with showing her two things and usually she really wants one of them. I also only give her a really small amount, like two bites until I know she is hungry and going to eat it. Another thing we do sometimes is just pull her chair up to the table, give her a toy and everyone else eats as usual and offer her bites. At some point she will usually show an interest in something and we give her a serving then.

I have found she is really hitting a stage where she wants to explore so much that sitting still to eat is really hard so we try for a few minutes then let her go and try again in an hour. Breakfast is usually a hit (she will typically share with her mom or sister) lunch is served in two parts about 1.5 hours apart and by the time dinner rolls around she is hungry enough to eat without a problem.

Keep verbally telling her "food stays on the tray" or maybe give her a bowl and encourage her to put it in there.

One more thing to try is giving her utensils and a few pieces of food on the tray to practice with and then spoon feed her.

Good luck, the food throwing phase is no fun!

@artbee: I won't lie, she will throw them too! But hopefully less since she will be occupied by the novelty in the beginning! The good news is the throwing thing is just another of those fun, developmental phases!

I can't help with baby problems (still TTCing!). But for the dog, can you gate him/her out of the kitchen or at least out of the throwing radius? Or have a crate nearby just for meal times? Maybe if throwing the food is less fun (no dog to eat it), she might do it a little less, too.

My dog also has a very sensitive stomach and is severly allergic to a ton of food, so I empathize on thrown scraps being a huge no-no. Her allergies to poultry are so bad they actually give her seizures, so I'll definitely have to keep her out of the kitchen when we get to that phase.

Yep. One of the reasons why i used to be so afraid of trying new foods with my Lo! I think we're finally at a point where I know what she likes and she's been pretty open to trying new foods.

We still have an abnormally good eater, I think, but at just shy of 14 mos, he will have days where he gobbles something and then throws the same thing the next day. Basically, I just try to give small portions of several things (he pretty much will always eat fruit and cheese and carrots, usually pasta and tofu, sometimes toast and chicken and broccoli, etc) so if there's something he decides is no bueno, it's not a huge amount on the floor.

Also, I know he will throw stuff more when he's not as hungry!

Not sure if the guessing game goes away, really. But she will learn not to throw food on the floor eventually! DD can talk but I can't really ask her what she wants for every meal ahead of time. I just cook the family meal, catered to her taste buds, and it is either a hit or a miss. I don't really let it frustrate me anymore, but I totally understand what you're saying because I used to feel that way. I just figure that she isn't so little anymore so she'll eat when she is hungry. And she can talk and tell me if she's hungry.