'Broken' foods

[Lily]

Lately, Izbiz has started getting really distressed if his food gets 'broken', for example if a piece of toast comes apart while he's eating it. I can't work out if he thinks he's done something wrong by breaking it (he is a natural rule-follower and gets v upset by any imagined transgressions), or if he thinks breaking the food somehow makes it bad to eat. Either way, he is inconsolable and will abandon perfectly good food which he was enjoying eating.

Anyone else had this? Any ideas for how to reassure him?

[Sallie]

Oh dear, how difficult! If he has quite a strong sense of things being 'right' I guess he just feels it isn't right any more so he can't eat it? I'm not sure what would help him other than understanding from your example that it is fine to break food and to eat broken food. I wouldn't leap in to reassure him too strongly as in his mind it could confirm there is something worth worrying about, so I'd try and stay as calm and low key as possible whilst comforting him. What if he saw you eating it or 'breaking' your own food before eating it?
How is his communication? Can he explain to you what he thinks if you ask him?

[PerpetualMadness]

Both of mine went through this as a phase about the same time they hit toddler OCD.

[Lily]

I wouldn't leap in to reassure him too strongly as in his mind it could confirm there is something worth worrying about, so I'd try and stay as calm and low key as possible whilst comforting him. What if he saw you eating it or 'breaking' your own food before eating it?
How is his communication? Can he explain to you what he thinks if you ask him?

Not making a big deal of it sounds sensible - although not always easy in practice when he throws a back-arching wobbly in Costa Coffee... He doesn't seem bothered if my food is broken, and although his communication is pretty good for not-quite-2, he's not really articulate enough to explain the problem.

Glad to hear it's a common issue, PM. I guess perhaps we just wait it out. DH thinks it's like not wanting to eat foods that are touching, which I suppose is an OCD trait as well.

[Treeb]

L gets a bit upset over it and tries to stick the pieces back together. I usually explain that it can't go back together, but it is fine because it would get broken by our teeth anyway and we can still eat it. Usually he gets over it pretty quickly and continues eating.

[mamapup]

My friend's daughter had a total meltdown in the park the other day because all the biscuits were broken at the corners. The Mum is totally assuming it's normal.

[eterna]

Yes we had this phase as well. It also applied to things like sandwiches or tacos; if the bread and fillings came apart or the hard shell taco cracked and meat fell out it was total life-ruining disaster!

[Turtle'sMammy]

Oh yes, and if you cut things "wrong". Or put them in the "wrong" plate/bowl/cup. All the while you never knew the "right" thing, so you can't fix it.
I'd forgotten about that.
Should be coming here soon...balls!

[jvnt]

Oh yes, and if you cut things "wrong". Or put them in the "wrong" plate/bowl/cup. All the while you never knew the "right" thing, so you can't fix it.
I'd forgotten about that.
Should be coming here soon...balls!

Yes.

[GHJingle]

My friend's daughter had a total meltdown in the park the other day because all the biscuits were broken at the corners. The Mum is totally assuming it's normal.

I vote normal, my sister used to refuse to eat broken biscuits ( a point that is brought up regularly even though she's now over 40!)

[welovepresents]

Yup we had a phase of this - a banana breaking in half was near disaster and Dd also would get really distressed about things being cut in half . We went along with it as far as possible and now she's much better

[AngelofTroy]

We are going through this at the moment, but less extreme. LO actually breaks things on purpose but then panics and says "uh oh, broken" over and over! I just calmly repeat "oh is it broken? Never mind, it tastes the same" and that seems to work most of the time. Sometimes he takes a few minutes to get over it and spends ages trying to stick a banana/cracker/etc back together, hehe. He got very upset the other day when he couldn't get the stalk to reattach to his pear lol!