Imogen is obsessed with washing her hands at the moment. She can't pass a sink without making a huge fuss, climbing up somehow (the girl has crazy climbing skills) and washing her hands. She won't just wash once, she will just keep repeating, water/soap/water. She'd be there all day if she could. I was chatting to the leader at baby group, Immi playing near us, next thing I look over she's gone. I couldn't find her anywhere, checked the toilet and there she was! At home she can get to our downstairs loo easily as she can open the doors and sink is a tiny one fairly low down. She will deliberately make her hands dirty just to go to the sink. I seem to spend my day pulling her away from the sink, she will never come away when I ask and it always ends up in her having a tantrum and ending up in the naughty area.

I just don't know how to tackle it. I've explained a lot that yes it's good to wash our hands but once is enough. I've told her off when she's deliberately make her hands dirty but nothing seems to be working. She is just obsessed. I guess it's not a major problem but it's the mess she's making with the water, as she has it full blast and it goes everywhere and also the fact she's wasting water. I also just don't want her in the toilet all day! Naughty area for this seems to have no effect.

oooh what a tough one... I can't think what to suggest tbh.

how about telling her or trying to explain that it's wasting water and we only need to wash our hands at certain time of the day - maybe if you tell her that we only wash our hands after we go to the toilet or before meals otherwise it's bad for all the fish i nthe sea (or something) ?

I think its quite common, loads of toddlers I know are the same...including Izzy!

Have you tried just letting her do it - leave her there, safe and let her get on with it?

Izzy has baby soap by the sink and in the kitchen, she can go up there when she likes - and she doesn't do it as much cos I just let her do it.

Oh and when she is upstairs i fill the sink to what she can have then turn the taps tightly so she cant get more (dont mind so much in the kitchen!)

Lisa wrote:

I think its quite common, loads of toddlers I know are the same...including Izzy!

Have you tried just letting her do it - leave her there, safe and let her get on with it?

Izzy has baby soap by the sink and in the kitchen, she can go up there when she likes - and she doesn't do it as much cos I just let her do it.

Oh and when she is upstairs i fill the sink to what she can have then turn the taps tightly so she cant get more (dont mind so much in the kitchen!)

Yeah I tried that approach at first but the appeal hasnt worn off for her and she's getting worse and worse for the amount of time she spends washing her hands and the mess she's making. So don't want to continue to that approach as it's clearly not working for her.

I've got to remember to keep turning taps tightly as this does stop her a bit


Jade - that's a good idea, not sure how much she'd understand. She has fairly good understanding but she is quite good at faking ignorance too to ignore me so not sure how she's react.

I really have no idea how on earth you would tackle it. Have you tried google to see what other mums have done? I really cant suggest anything else, but I do see why you want it to stop.



Bless her, she likes clean hands.



x

I think it's worth a try then shell... I think if Tyler wanted to do it Id have to try and explain to him... and try and cut it down I guess... so if he was doing it 10 times a day I'd pick say 8 times where I said to him come on lets go wash our hands and make a big thing about it at the times I say it's ok to do and then just keep reducing it. (well try to!)

Harry does this too, and I found that getting a big bowl of water and putting it on some newspaper or a towel on the floor and letting him go to town with the water really helped. Its the feeling of the water on the their hands that they like, and Harry really was as bad as Imogen and my mum made him worse by letting him help with the washing up bless her! Although hes not that bothered by it anymore since we got the bowl of water out a few times (not interested in that much anymore either lol) xx

I'll try that Emma thanks. She's been obsessed with water for a while. Her fav 'game' is pouring water from one cup to another. Hopefully like Harry she'll get over it a bit when i let her play with the water a lot. Maybe I'll get a water table for the garden?

I was going to say you could use a baby bath but you might need that soon