DD1 not interested in DD2

mbgreenwalt

Hi ladies!  I could use some tips/advice.  My girls are 21 months apart.  DD1 really has no interest in her sister which was nice in the beginning, but is now a little sad.  She rarely has incidents of obvious jealousy, DH and I give her a lot of one-on-one time and we have lots of family time all together.

It has gotten better recently, but she will not touch her and does not like when DD2 touches her.  She will occasionally ask about her or talk to her.  She points out the clothes, bottles and toys that are DD2s and will occasionally give them to her, but she just doesn't seem interested in interacting with her or being in close vacinity to her. 

Am I expecting too much this young?  Is this typical of this age range (my friends with multiple children have 3-4 year spacing)?  Is there anything I can do to help vacilitate more interaction?  TIA!

P.S. My siggy is the rare occurance of interaction between them:)

MammaBear81

I think that this is typical of the age.  DD2 turned 2 in Feb and all she has done since the baby was born was point to him and say "bebe" every now and then and then run away.  Now that he is 11 months old she will try to feed him occasionally, but that is more because it's like "one for you, one for me" she just wants what he's eating .  If you want to facilitate some interaction maybe you can try to start reading a book to DD2 and see if DD1 will sit with you guys.

Also DS3 tends to hit when he's "touching" other people so she doesn't like him to touch her either. GL, it will get better with time.  There is a HUGE difference with interaction and emotions between 2 and 3.

mbgreenwalt

MammaBear81:

  Now that he is 11 months old she will try to feed him occasionally, but that is more because it's like "one for you, one for me" she just wants what he's eating . 

Lol.  This is totally what she does with my 1 year old niece!  Thank you for you input.

Daisy22

I think its normal at this point. My boys are 15 months apart and it wasn't until ds2 was 12-13 months that they really started playing together. Over the last few months, they constantly go upstairs and play in their room together or go outside and run around together. Sometimes its a love/hate relationship still through. One minute they are happily playing and the next there is hitting/screaming going on. It's crazy!

Smgrochowski

It sounds like you're doing a great job encouraging interaction without being pushy. Keep on having DD1 help with things and interact with DD2 so she can see it modeled.

Some children (and adults for that matter) don't find babies interesting until they're older.