Emptying food on the floor

amother

Sun, Feb 01 2015, 1:28 pm

My 3 year old keeps wasting food. I have locked away as much as I can, I have spoken to him, taken things away, told him he can't eat something he wants to eat because he dumped ingredients on the floor, time out, making him clean up the mess. And still, every other day, he gets ahold of something and dumps it on the floor. A 64 oz bottle of olive oil- gone. A gallon of milk- gone. My spice rack- emptied on the floor. I don't what else to do! This is costing me a lot of money, trips to the store, and I'm just SO ANGRY at DS, last time it happened, I just lost it and exploded (and then felt bad about it). But it needs to stop! I don't know what else to do, I can't lock every food item away, I can't be on top of him every second, and anyway, he needs to learn to stop it already. Help!

zaq

Sun, Feb 01 2015, 2:48 pm

Just a random thought--do you let him "help" you cook or bake? Maybe you can let him pour the contents of a measuring cup into a mixing bowl when you bake, for example. Does he have any playthings he can dump out in the same way? Like a sandbox, maybe, or bathtub toys he can fill with water and dump out(in the tub, and not necessarily just when he takes a bath?

Why can't you lock everything up? There are special child-safety latches for cabinets, drawers, refrigerators and freezers. Once installed they take no time for an adult to use--some even engage automatically. Consider the alternative. It is true that using child-safe locks will not teach your son anything, but it will save both your sanity and your budget. Eventually your ds should grow out of this phase; if he does not, you might want to have him evaluated by a mental-health professional. But for now chances are this is just his shtick, either seeing how much he can get away with, or else there is something about the mechanics of emptying put containers that appeals to him in some way. (Hence my recs re: sandbox & water toys.)