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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

is anyones child hates having their hands dirty?

13 replies

biglips · 10/03/2006 10:27

and if so...... do they grow out of it?

as my 17m DD is a tidy baba as i noticed summat strange that she did painting last week and she was clean by the time she finished painting

she also stretched her hand out if there a tiny blob of summat eg milk/snow/jam etc and wont rest till i have to wipe it off

atm im telling her that there is nothing there

when she was crawling she used to hate being on the grass cos of the grass feeling but now is ok

is it normal?

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JackieNo · 10/03/2006 10:29

My DS is a bit like this - he's better than he was (now 2.2), but still insists on wiping his hands frequently during meals. Doesn't stop him eating with his hands, though. It took a good while until he would do any painting at all, but now does it fairly happily. But I think his idea of hell is face-painting . HTH.

tarantula · 10/03/2006 10:43

yes mine does and she certainly doesnt get it from me (I'm blaming a combination of my mum and dp who are both very clean and tidy). dd like painting nad gluing now but it has taken lots of encouragement to get her to do finger painting etc. The funniest thing is when we go walking if she falls over she'll lie on her tummy with her hands and feet in the air going 'Mammy, daddy pick me up' rather than put her hands in the mud. She does pick herself up if we encourage her to do so tho now but its taken quite a bit of work.
It was such a shock tho after dss who was (and still is) the messiest boy I know and was always straight into every mess going. From one extreme to the other.

Original poster

biglips · 10/03/2006 11:10

oh dear about teh mud mess

im a tidy person and dp is not

so this morning she had helped me to pick up her raisins off the floor as she sat at the highchair..

OP posts:

ruty · 10/03/2006 14:30

tarantula my 18 months ds did something similar the other day. He fell into a shallow hole and looked disgusted, keeping his hands in the air until we picked him up! And he hates having dirty hands - he always wipes them off on me! Me and dh do wash our hands quite a lot, and i wash ds's hands if we've been out in the park or something, but whenever we wash our hands, ds comes and wants to have his hands washed too! I'm trying not to make him into a hygiene freak, but it was funny when he fell over and kept his hands in the air!

zippy539 · 10/03/2006 14:47

Yup - both mine did this, starting around the same age. In fact I only noticed just the other day that dd (2.7) suddenly doesn't seem bothered anymore. DS also HATED walking/crawling on grass - it completely freaked him out (he's still not totally keen and he's four!).

fredly · 10/03/2006 14:55

My dd was like that until she started to spoon feed herself. Before that she wouldn't touch anything moist or cold or sticky. So fruit had to be mashed and eaten with a spoon. She's improved a lot, eats anything with her fingers now. She's 18m this week.

tarantula · 10/03/2006 14:59

It is funny Ruty. Dd is getting out of it now thats shes 2.2 thankfully but still likes to have a napkin at the table to wipe her hands etc. Am hoping that dss and dd will rub off abit on each other tbh cos its about time dss learned to take more care with his appearance (he's 14 and still couldnt care less) and dd does need to learn to have more fun with mess.

ruty · 10/03/2006 15:07

he doesnt mind getting food over himself though - we're going through a phase at the moment when he insist on feeding himself all the time, so we get food everywhere obviously - but he still wipes his sticky hands all over me - lovely!

NatalieJane · 10/03/2006 15:10

DS hates being dirty, it used to stop him doing things, but we have finally got to the point where he will do messy things but as soon as he is finished then he has to be wiped down, taken nearly 4 years to get there mind!!

tangerinecath · 10/03/2006 15:39

DD hates having mucky hands, she's turning into a very particular child. Not sure why, dh & I aren't all that fussy (not filthy people you understand, just not obsessed with cleanliness!). She won't eat until her bib is on and if her hands get dirty she shouts "dirty!!" over and over again until she gets them wiped. She helps wipe down her high chair too! She will eat with her hands and do finger painting etc but insists on being cleaned down immediately afterward.

izzybiz · 10/03/2006 15:46

my Dds highchair has to be wiped when she gets in it, and when shes eating, she has to have her hands wiped before she will pick up her cup to drink. if theres a dot of dirt or anything anywhere she gets the wipes out! shes 21 months.

nulnulcat · 10/03/2006 16:43

glad its not just my dd was worried she had ocd or something!! she hates being dirty is 2.2 and think she washes her hands 100 times a day, if her clothes get dirty she has to change them and if she gets mud on her boots she gets in such a state! bit hard going for walks this time of year! hysterical when buggy got mud on wheels and she still has me feeding her 90% of time as she doesnt like to get messy at mealtimes! she tells me when kitchen floor is dirty and if the cats get mud on the floor she is getting wipes out and cleaning it up. her dad was obssessively tidy though so maybe she inherited it! drives me mad though!

MaryP0p1 · 10/03/2006 16:46

It's very common, and some grow out of it and some turn out to be very clean and tidy people.

When I worked in the nurseries and di messy activities I used to put pastic gloves on the hands so they would do the activity. It did work.

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