Obsessive about clean hands!

[LilRedWG]

DD is 20 months and now refusing to feed herself any finger food as she gets really upset if she gets anything (butter, crumbs anything) on her hands. It's now getting to the point that she gets upset if there are crumbs on the table of seat.

I am keeping things low key and not over-reacting to her. I just say, "Oh, don't worry about that, Mummy will clean it up when we're finished." and leave it at that. But more and more she is pointing and shouting until I pick it up there and then(and we can be talking tiny crumbs).

If she is feeding herself something like a yoghurt with a spoon she will constantly wipe her mouth if there is any around it and last week got upset because she got some on her nose.

Now, I've never made a big fuss about mess, so I'm confounded - I don't know where this has come from!

I am repeating, "This is just a phase" to myself but now need reassurance. Please tell me I'm a paranoid first-time mum and my daughter doesn't have OCD!

Most kids I know have gone through this to some degree or another at some point. You are most likely right- its a phase!!

Just go with it and make light of it if you can

Thanks - I can make light of it when it's just the two of us, but DH is getting frustrated and has said that we've got to get her feeding herself again.

All three of mine did this...it is just a phase. They all hated sand on their feet too!

Urgh - don't mention sand! We've just come back from two weeks in Egypt where DD refused to go on the sand or grass! In fact, if it wasn't concrete, she wasn't interested!

Is pretty normal, don't worry. My dd is like this too, was worse around your dd's age and now, at nearly 3, insists on her hands being wiped in between courses of meals etc, and hates her hands being dirty. It's apparently one of the signs of being near ready for potty-training - a sort of awareness of feeling unclean I suppose! She doesn't have ocd, don't worry

they are funny at that age!

Interesting you should say that Peggotty, in the past few days she has started telling me when she's done a poo - in a couple of cases coming to find me in a different room.

Aha - maybe you should give the potty an outing then! Good luck (if you do!)!

Not sure that I'm ready for potty training yet. I may buy one though so she gets used to having one around the place.

LilRed DS went through this - but ages before he was ready for potty training. Not so much with food, but nursery had to teach him to like messy play as he was too busy stressing about getting dirty to enjoy it. If you are feeling very alpha-Mummy you could try cornflour - so cool - with DD, or you could find a toddler group and do it there instead (says the person who almost never does messy stuff with her DC cos they get to do it at nursery/school)