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Moms I need HELP!!!!
Brynn has decided that "NO" is hilarious! She has also decided that throwing her food on the ground is hilarious!
This needs to stop PRONTO!
I have tried praising her when she eats it and then when she throws it I get serious and say things like NO we don't throw food and I have tried to block her hands but she just laughs hysterically. Like Belly Laughs. (Which makes me want to die laughing though I try to hide it)
Today at lunch I ended up taking her food away from her early because she clearly had no interest in eating all she wanted to do was throw it.
Any tips/pointers to help her understand that No means No?
ETA: She started this when the dogs were sitting by her and catching what she threw. So now she looks for them even when they aren't there.
Re: Moms I need HELP!!!!
Levi throws his food to the dogs too. That's when I know he's done eating. I tell him No, but like Brynn, he laughs at me. It's to the point that he'll look right at me, and giggle as he drops the food to the floor.
I had enough of it lastnight that after the third time, in a row, of me sternly saying NO, that I grabbed his hand and smacked his fingers. Of course he cried, but he stopped.
I will admit, I'm a spanker. He gets his butt swatted (patted hard on his diaper) if he doesn't listen to me. Like if he's trying to go up the stairs, or banging the cupboard doors (they are locked), or eating my plant dirt, or sticking his hands in the toilet, or shaking one of the floor lamps, or banging his toys onto the tv.
I clearly have no experience with this yet, but I was excited to open this post since I am now part of the Mom club.
And this would/will really frustrate me, so good luck with Brynn!
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Paige, I'm sure that is frustrating. I have no experience with that, so I'm not help. Good luck!
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I had the same problems with Brody and food. I have to put the dogs outside when he eats, or he'll start throwing food no matter what. Now, he'll throw food as a sign of him being finished eating. I simply ask him if he's all done, and then he'll sign "all done" to me, so I take the food away. Sometimes he'll sign "all done" before he starts throwing the food, so that's nice. It only took a few times of me taking away his food when he started throwing it in the beginning of the meal before he understood that throwing food = momma takes it away.
As far as the "no" thing, try explaining to her what she's doing and tell her something she can do instead. For example, when Brody starts to go to the dog's water dish, I tell him "Brody, we don't play in the dog's water. Here, lets play with your fridge magnets instead". I know Brynn is still fairly young, but if you start now it should help. Some kids get to the point of hearing no so often that it doesn't mean anything. I try to only use it when Brody's doing something that could potentially hurt him.
Most importantly, it's all about being consistant. Brynn is getting to the age where she's going to start pushing her limits and testing you and Jeff to see how much she can get away with. Be consistant and she'll learn. Good luck momma!
I think at this age consistency and repitition is key. You may have to repeat "no, we don't throw our food on the floor" many times for even a couple of months before she associates the word to the action of not dropping her food (this goes for more than just dropping food on the floor such as touching shelves/breakables/etc that are off limits). Consistency is key, so you have to do it everytime you see it happen.
M also likes to feed the dogs when she's done eating and looks for them. We've found that removing the dogs from the room is an option and honestly, the more we gave her attention (whether it was negative or not) and acknowledged her dropping the food and tried to correct her by saying "no, we don't drop our food on the floor"- the more she ended up dropping on the floor (and then saying "uh-oh"!). Now, we know she is done eating when she takes her hand and arm and swipes her tray clean. She's not trying to be bad, it's just her way of telling us (non-verbally) that she is done so we do not reprimand her for dropping her food on the floor. We just ask if she's all done and say it a few times as we take her tray off and clean her up, so hopefully soon she'll just say "all done" versus emptying her tray.
Also, at this age they are still learning and experimenting with foods, textures, up/down, how fast a cheerio falls vs how fast mashed potatoes fall, whether it makes a thud when it lands, if it bounces/rolls/splats, etc. So part of dropping and throwing food is also part of their education on life. We actually had to decrease our dog's dry food to make up for the highchair clean up efforts!
Ok you probably won't like my answer but, it works for our family.
For NO we just ignore it, we've found that it only took her about a week and a half to get over the newness of being able to say the word.
As far as throwing food on the floor it isn't acceptable in our house and never has once we knew she was doing it on purpose.
She gets a flick on the arm and is told "NO, we don't throw food on the floor. You need to say all done if you are done. " Then she usually says All done.
It's not like we are hurting her but it does have to smart a little so she knows that it isn't ok.
We try to only do this for a few unacceptable behaviors, we don't use it for everything. We use No, Danger, Icky, Redirection, timeout (we've used 1x now that I believe she is old enough) etc as well
I know this isn't what everyone would do, but it's what C and I decided was how we would handle certain things.
So far we use it for hitting us or others, Throwing food, grabbing glasses (which she didn't do for very long because she learned it wasn't ok)- so there aren't a whole bunch of things, just what is important to us.
ETA: we also use TONS of praise when she does things correctly
We do something similiar. Hunter sits right next to Annie's high chair when she eats dinner. She still feeds him but not as much. She'll throw her food on the ground for him or she'll hold her hand out with food in it. I say something like "We're going to keep our food in the tray" and tap her food tray. I also try to throw something in there like "Hunter isn't hungry, he already ate his dinner tonight but that was nice of you to want to share with him".
Annie does laugh at me when I tell her "no" but she typical stops laughing when she can tell I'm being serious. Like Amanda, I try to use "no" when she's doing something dangerous or could hurt herself. I'll say "NO" in a stern voice and stare at her and she'll start to laugh and then I will continue to stare and she'll stop whatever it is.
I agree with everyone else above, consistency is key.
We're still having issues, especially with feeding the dog. He isn't even doing it to be defiant now, he genuinely thinks that it is his responsibility to feed the dog what he's having. We remove food if he still throws after two times of telling him no, wait a minute or two, and then offer it again.
He still laughs at "no." We try to redirect. For example, if he tries to bite (he's getting 2 year molars so this is common) or tries to hit, we say "we don't hit, we give hugs" and he loves giving hugs so that usually works. If he is being especially defiant, we do a timeout, where he has to sit with mommy or daddy for two minutes (since he's close to 2 now). That's usually enough time to calm him down.
Now that we're at the tantrum stage, if redirection doesn't work, I let him work it out by making sure he's in a safe place and walking away. He usually gets tired of being a fussbucket pretty quickly when he sees we're not giving him a reaction.
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