Genevieve is grabby and touchy. She interacts with the world through her paws and her mouth, and she has no sense about good things to touch (like food) and bad things to touch (like poop). Therefore, it falls to mom to display great horror when she touches the bad things. Now, I never know who to attribute a new phrase to (daycare, me, Jason), but “no touch!” just seemed to evolve from common sense. For example, G has had always had an obsession with sand, and when you are a baby, one way to understand a new substance is to eat it, see how it tastes, and file that info away for later. G has eaten sand since the first time I plopped her down in her new backyard sandbox we worked so hard on. Every time we go to Mexico, I am changing sandy diapers for the next several days after we return due to this habit.

Unfortunately. kitty litter bears a strong resemblance to sand. Maybe you see where I am going with this. You can imagine my horror when G toddles over as I am cleaning the litter box and sticks her hands in the mess and digs around a little. This has evoked many utterances of disgust from me, startling G and normally getting her to stop, but not really impressing on her the problem with this activity. I know that my efforts to get G to stop aren’t working because I will often come home from work only to find kitty litter scattered around the box, and I know the cats had nothing to do with this mess. Ergo the need for “NO TOUCH!”

I have found this phrase to be successful in convincing G not to engage in poo-exploration of all types. Another distressing habit she has acquired involves checking to see what is going on as I clean a “yucky” diaper. As you might imagine, this can lead to the need for a complete disinfection of the entire baby, her clothes, the changing table, and maybe even my clothes, depending on (1)how yucky the diaper is and (2) how succesful she is in her explorations before I can stop her.

I get the sense that maybe her daycare teachers have the same problem. When I see her sneaking that little paw south to check out the extent of the “yuckiness” I will say “NO TOUCH! YUCKY!” and she will stop. Oh thank god for cognitive ability. She finally seems to be getting it that yucky things are yucky and we don’t touch yucky.