Responding to 2.1yr old snatching toys from 6mth brother

[Trouble100]

My DD (2.1yrs) has been great with the new baby (DS) but now he is old enough to start to play with toys (6 months) she grabs whatever he picks up off him - even if it's not something she would really be interested in.

I don't know how to deal with this. Tried telling her no, and giving it back to him, she grabs it back and whole thing escalates.

Tried leaving the room with DS and the toy but she follows wailing and when she catches up with us it repeats.

Tried asking her to play WITH him but she tries to get herself between him and the toy or pushes his hand off it.

Any ideas?

I think that when the baby has a nap you should give her a cuddle, spend some time with her just flopping about, generally make it clear to her that she is still your lovely little girl and that you love her and that she is still SMALL.

She's probably massively upset about the baby, now that he's old enough to do things. It is very, very hard being a big sister.

My ds1 (just turned 2) and ds2 (7 months) are going through this at the moment. Everytime ds2 gets a toy ds1 decides its the one he really has to play with. I tell ds1 that they are to share toys but if he has to play with that toy then he needs to give ds2 his favourite toy,(his toy giraffe that goes everywhere with him) which normally means he allows ds2 to continue playing. Does your dd have a favourite toy that you could try that with? I have also tried distraction by grabing a jigsaw and encouraging ds1 to help me so he forgets about the toy. Goodluck and if you find any other tricks please let me know.

We had a similar rule to frogger, if ds1 wanted what ds2 had then he had to find a toy to give to ds2 instead and he had to ask nicely also (say pleae at least). They are older now 2 and 4, and do generally paly well together though this may jsut be a coincidence!

I think just turned 2yrs is still quite young for being good at sharing (hey, some adults still have a problem with it!). I have a 2.5 yr gap between my two, so DS was about 3yrs by the time DD got to the grabbing toys age. I used to explain that she was a baby and didn't understand about sharing, and to distract her by offering her a different toy.

They are now a year on and get on better, but I'm afraid there's still rivalry over favourite toys - but I think that's just siblings.