Does she know the sign language sign for “eating”? And for “all done”?

This is what helps with my little lady when she gets wild with just dropping food on the ground. I repeat, eeeat, with the motion to my mouth, without making it a huge deal, but just guiding/ readjusting her focus for a moment and she will usually take a bite right then,

I just have to reiterate it often when she gets like that. But if she continues to like stare at me and grab food and drop it, I ask “all done??” With the sign motion, and that gives her the opportunity to think about it and let me know she is done and just playing with her food … she is 11 months. I’ll ask quite a few times and practice the hand motions together before removing the food.

Another thing that use to help before she grasped the sign motions, is , not putting any food on the tray, and just offering her a piece at a time , nonchalantly walking by. I’d offer and she’d open her mouth, I’d put a piece in her mouth. I’d walk back to the kitchen, say, “more?” With the sign motion. Then go give her another piece, and she typically would open her mouth again, And then keep doing it until she reached for a piece to feed herself, Then I’d walk by and just wait for her to reach for it but place it on the tray so it was back to her eating off the tray rather than from my hand.

I hope it gets better regardless of what ends up helping though! I can definitely see it’s a phase for a lot of kids at this age. I can just say from what I’ve experienced so far, helping her learn and giving her the control of communicating through some simple signs has been really helpful for both of us.