12 month old hates getting hands messy. Normal?

[wifey29]

Hi all,

I'm a little concerned and a bit confused about my little boy. He has recently started hating getting his hands dirty.

I first noticed it when we tried finger painting a month or so ago, but figured that it was a one off since he has painted at nursery and apparently loved it. Since then I have noticed it more and more. We tried painting again a few weeks ago and as soon as the paint touched his hands he cried until I cleaned them. He was quite happy to push the paint around with a spoon and brush, but as soon as it touched him he was back to crying.

A few days later they had a tray of gloop to play with at nursery and his key worker said that he wouldn't go near it for ages and was content to watch the babies playing with it. This is not like him at all as he normally dives in to any activity and loves to explore new things. He has now started crying with messy food. He used to dig his hands into his yoghurts, but now wants me to spoon feed him (he was blw), and point blank refuses to touch spag bol and home made curry which are his favourite foods. Again if I hold pieces up to his mouth he is happy to take them.

Is this a phase any of your LOs have been through? I'm a little worried about it as it seems to be getting worse and he's started getting upset in the bath

 

[carbafe]

My LO doesn't really like getting his hands dirty. He will paint and eat messy food but if more than a little gets on his hands he wants me to wipe it before he goes on. I think it is just a sort of phase but also think it will bother some children and not others. Just a personality thing. For instance I know some little ones who are quite timid and can get frightened for loud noises or 'scary' things where as my LO is a bit of a thrill seeker and if someone jumps out on him he will jump and then laugh his little head off. So i think it is a similar thing ....

 

[bunnyg82]

My son went through this too. However, I think it didn't help that I didn't do enough messy play with him. All I'd say is don't push it, I kept offering the different types of messy play and I got stuck in and let him watch me and choose to get involved if he wanted to. Try different things, water, paint, gloop, cornflour on it's own, sand, jelly, etc. hopefully with time he'll be ok xx

 

[bekkie]

DS hated it when he was younger - he didn't even smash his cake on his first birthday because his hands would be dirty - for the most part he's fine now, he likes to wipe them regularly while eating so we make sure he has a napkin or he'll wipe on his clothes lol. He's fine in sand and such now though.

 

[OmarsMum]

Omar was the same, sensory tables & messy play really helped. He's still picky with food he holds with hands, & he asks to wash his hands when they get messy but he's much better than before.

 

[wifey29]

Thank you everyone, it's good to know that LO is not alone in this and that it seems to be some sort of phase. I'll just keep getting the messy play stuff out and hoping he joins me when he's ready.