How to Stop a Baby From Throwing Food

Babies use their hands and mouths to explore the world...

They often eat with pleasure and have no problem smearing food all over themselves and the table. I find it to be such a delight to watch a baby discover new flavors and textures.

Then-

Splat.

There goes the food onto the floor.

Is your baby throwing food? It may help to hear that food throwing during infancy is common, although that doesn’t make dealing with it any easier!

Between a baby smeared with spaghetti sauce and a floor covered in noodles, you already have enough to clean up without having to deal with thrown food. And, providing nourishment isn't the only benefit your baby gets from feedings. Meals offer opportunities to teach table manners, positive eating behaviors, and how to eat at the table with adults (so you can confidently take them to restaurants!)

In this article, I'll give you tips on how to stop your baby from throwing food. But, first, let's dig in on why your 6 - 12 month old babies tend to throw food in the first place.

Why do Babies Throw Food on the Floor?

Unable to hold food or utensils

By 6 to 12 months, babies can hold their heads up, sit on their own, and self-feed bites of food. However, some babies haven't yet developed the fine motor skills they need to hold utensils or pick up tiny foods like Cheerios. As a result, a frustrated baby may push the food onto the floor.

Not hungry

Food throwing is sometimes a baby’s way of communicating that they are not hungry or have finished eating.

Infants can't verbally communicate with caregivers, so they express their needs for cuddles, food and thirst through sounds and movements. Just because it's mealtime doesn't necessarily mean your baby is hungry. So, sometimes they let you know they don't want to eat the best way they know how - by throwing food.

Starting to learn cause and effect

Around 8 months old, babies learn about relationships between events. For example, they realize that they can do simple actions to get a result, including getting a reaction from others.

Babies notice that they can manipulate objects to make them do things, such as banging to make a sound, pressing a button on a toy that leads to action, or throwing food to hear the sounds and sight it makes when it lands. They are also learning what they can do to get your reaction.

Overwhelmed by large portions

A large plate full of food puts a lot of pressure on little appetites and bellies, especially while introducing a new food. Even a hungry baby might reject a large plate of food.

Where do they start? Are they going to be forced to eat it all?

Typically power struggles start a little later, during toddlerhood. However, babies try to express what they want and don't like, including during meal time and often by throwing food.

It’s fun

Throwing food on the floor and watching mommy retrieve it might be a game to your baby. They’ve discovered that they can do something that causes you to do something.

Eating is a sensory experience for little ones. Babies explore different textures with their mouths and hands. So, it's fun to smear purees all over their face and high chair tray. Watching babies get so much pleasure from experimenting with food can be such a joy, despite the inevitable clean up later.

9 Tips to Stop a Baby from Throwing Food

It's never too early to start teaching age-appropriate table manners. Babies learn how to behave in social situations through parent modeling and gentle corrections.

Infants don’t have the verbal language yet to learn from what they’re told. So parents need to find creative ways to teach infants. Here are a few tips to help you get to the bottom of your baby’s food throwing.

1. Pick the right highchair

…and/or make comfortable seating for baby a priority during meals. There are many different highchairs on the market, but some make seating more comfortable and less frustrating for babies.

Look for highchairs that can keep your baby seated upright and that an adjustable footrest to support your baby’s feet. This position helps them stay alert and comfortable during feedings and can drastically reduce food throwing. A high chair that's easy to clean is a bonus for you!

You can also try removing the high chair tray and pushing your baby’s highchair right up to the table. When the baby is seated at the table, throwing food on the floor is more challenging, and babies generally are more engaged with others at the table and less likely to throw food as a result.

2. Wait until your baby is hungry

Hungry babies are more alert and interested in food at meal times.

A structured but flexible baby feeding schedule is one way to help you avoid the trap of offering snacks all day and ending up with a baby who is more interested in throwing than eating at mealtimes. (Note: there is no need for the schedule to be rigid, and we never want to limit a baby's food if they're hungry).

Whether or not you follow a feeding schedule, you and your baby can still benefit from responsive feeding techniques. Responsive feeding is a feeding style that encourages parents to recognize and respond to their baby's hunger and fullness cues.

3. Don’t react

Let meal times be a positive experience!

A parent's feeding and parenting style can affect a child's food choices and behaviors for years to come. Not reacting to your baby's food throwing behaviors is one way to help create a positive mealtime environment. For example, if your baby throws food on the floor, leave it there without reacting, getting upset or picking it up.

Studies show that an authoritative feeding style is associated with the most positive outcomes for children, including better academic performance in school. The authoritative style encourages children to eat through supportive behaviors. Parents that use this feeding style provide rules and sensitively explain the rules.

4. Serve small portions

Offering a large portion of food or introducing too many new foods at once can be overwhelming and a recipe for food throwing. Set a realistic feeding expectation for your baby by providing small amounts of food and introducing new foods sensitively.

Young children only need small bites of food, so making every bite count with nutrient-rich foods is essential. To help illustrate this concept, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that caregivers avoid giving infants and toddlers foods and drinks that have added sugars and/or are high in sodium.

5. Let them feed themselves

You can teach babies to use utensils when they eat solid foods around 6 months old. At first, they’ll probably use the spoon to play with instead of to eat.

Baby-led weaning encourages age-appropriate self-feeding. Parents can offer finger foods and other first foods babies can self-feed and swallow. Babies have the skills to consume finger foods at around 5-7 months old.

6. Switch up the plate

Sometimes babies like to throw the plate instead of pieces of food. Try serving the food on the highchair tray or use a plate or bowl with suction on the bottom, so it stays on the table or tray.

If your baby empties the dish because they want to play with the dish, try giving them a clean dish to play with and allow them to eat off the highchair tray.

7. Teach your baby or toddler to use a “no-thank-you bowl”

A "no-thank-you bowl" is an empty bowl placed on or near the baby's tray during meal time, meant for any unwanted foods. Redirect your baby when you suspect that food throwing is coming and say something like, “...we put food we don't want in the ‘no-thank-you bowl!’"⁠⁠

The concept of a "no-thank-you bowl" can provide an extra tool to help reduce food throwing, helps reduce anxiety in babies who don't know what to do with unwanted food, allows babies to honor hunger cues by providing a designated place for food they cannot finish⁠⁠, and still allows babies to explore texture by touching and moving unwanted food to the "no-thank-you bowl"

8. Teach your baby sign language

Throwing food may be the only way your baby knows how to express when they’re full.

An infant's ability to understand cause and effect can help them learn a new behavior. Teach your baby to use sign language by demonstrating simple signs they can do to signal when they want more or are done with their meal.

9. Put the dog in another room during meals

If you have one, consider putting the dog in another room during times when you are feeding your baby. There is nothing more fun for babies than throwing food to their furry siblings and watching their dog’s delight in sharing the meal. Unfortunately that fun can be so entertaining that it encourages and reinforces food throwing behaviors more and more over time.

Final Thoughts on Baby Food Throwing

Babies are messy eaters! No matter what, there will be a certain amount of food on the tray and floor to clean up afterward.

In my experience as a mom and pediatric dietitian, the best advice is not to react, feed babies when hungry, and offer small amounts of food at a time. A hungry baby will usually eat the one piece of food they have before them instead of throwing it.

If you’re getting ready to start your baby on solids, download my FREE Baby-Led Feeding Essential Checklist to make sure you have everything you need to get started. You might also want to check out my new online course for parents, based on my best-selling book which will walk you through the whole process of starting solids using a baby-led approach.

Alternatively, if your baby is almost ready to start solids and you’re looking for someone you trust to map out the entire first 12 weeks of your baby’s solid food feeding journey, check out my new Safe & Simple 12 Week Meal Plan! Over 30 recipes, weekly shopping lists, tons of balanced baby meals, a complete plan for top allergen introduction, & lots of guidance (with photos) on how to safely serve each food.

And if you're looking for personalized nutrition support for yourself, your babies and/or your kids, I am currently accepting new clients in my virtual private practice. Looking forward to meeting you online…