Have you seen the episode of Friends in which Joey goes out on a date and gets upset with the woman because she takes chips off his plate? He explains his horror by repeating, “Joey doesn’t share food!” Well, my Joe (I’m not calling him ‘Joey’ even for the purposes of this story, sorry) doesn’t share food either.
Like Joey Tribbiani, Joe will happily, enthusiastically, insistently share other people’s food – going so far as to snatch it out of your mouth – but woe betide you if you try and take his.
But, I hear you cry, why would you take food from a baby? I’m not talking about snatching the rusk from his gums, but if I’m feeding him and I, say, lick my finger (which I do frequently, automatically) he hits the roof. Sometimes he kind of growls at me, other times (if he’s particularly hungry) he is likely to burst into tears.
He’s been like this since he started on solids. A few weeks ago, at my aunt’s house, she started to feed Joe an egg custard tart. She spooned out the custard and he snaffled it, completely overexcited. I then took the pastry since he was too young to eat it and, the minute I picked it up, he burst into noisy tears. And Joe’s not a crier at all. In fact, now that I think about it, he only ever really cries about food.
To be fair to him, I can understand it. I suppose it must be like being on a diet while everyone else is indulging in cake. I’d cry about that too.
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Keris Stainton
http://www.keris-stainton.com
http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk
