2-year-old completely obsessed with Humpty - is it normal?

[nesomja]

My ds who is 2 is totally obsessed with Humpty Dumpty - no idea why or how it started but it has been going for about 2 months now with no sign of abating. He talks constantly about Humpty, when we are walking points out every wall, plays at falling off walls himself, pushes all his toys off walls, thinks that almost every toy is Humpty (e.g. Mr Potato Head, Uglidoll, Mr Men) and will only build walls with his lego. We frequently sing it 200 times a day, and his favourite treat is watching various Humpty Dumpty versions on YouTube. When he draws pictures, he always says they are Humpty. He came upon a statue yesterday in the park of a person sitting on a wall and immediately said 'Humpty'! When he sits in his buggy talking to himself, it's about Humpty. He sometimes wakes in the middle of the night and shouts 'Humpty', and also sometimes says it in his sleep.
Is this normal or should I be worried (I keep thinking about obsessive interests in autism)?
And does anyone have any ideas as to how we might start to move him on from it? We've tried refusing to talk about Humpty but somehow before we know it we are singing the song for the 100th time...

[accessorizequeen]

Aww bless him. DS1 had a thing about Humpty for ages although not quite to the lengths that your ds has gone to! Sounds totally normal, I would just go with it rather than try to ignore it.They all get obsessed with something, makes them feel secure I think.

[violetsmile]

No you shouldn't be at all worried. He sounds very sweet and clever. Most toddlers are obsessive little creatures, obsessed with a certain toy,song or routine etc.

My ds is 3 and still sings '12345 once I caught a fish alive' a hundred times a day and talks about fish and fishing rods, nets all day long. He is obsessed with Fisherman Charlie from Fireman Sam... I should add that he has never actually been fishing and although he has a fishing net he has never taken it any where near any water!

I think they all do things like that.

[AMumInScotland]

Totally normal - they're all obsessive little creatures at 2, the only difference is exactly what they choose to be obsessive about. In our case it was trains - Thomas particularly, but any other kind of train too. They grow out of it eventually... all you can do is try to remain sane till they do

[BlueChampagne]

We had a Humpty phase too - now it seems to be Hickory Dickory Dock (will be 3 in August). Don't worry.

[nesomja]

Thanks for your responses, it's nice to know we're not the only people endlessly talking about walls!

[petisa]

My dd (2.2) is the same...about the Teletubbies! I am sooo sick of singing the Teletubbies song over and over all day long. And she dreams about them too, and shouts Po! in the middle of the night. Bless them, I think it's normal.

[mc8358]

Hi...so nesomja, your post is really old. Which is great. 'Cause I'm curious how long it took for the phase to pass. I had to share your post with my family because my little girl is doing the EXACT SAME THING. I first found your post probably about six months ago. I was already concerned because she had already been at it for a while. But its still going strong. I've kind of just accepted it and decided not to worry. Someday it will pass. In the meantime, Humpty Dumpty is like a member of the family. If my little girl wakes up in the middle of the night, she'll start talking to me about Humpty. If we go for walks, we stop at each wall and reenact the tragedy. I have to admit, though, it's one of the sweetest things in the world when we see a wall from a distance, and my baby takes my hand and say softly, "Mommy....I LIKE that wall," which of course means she wants to go check it out and sit on it and "fall" off it. Lucky for me, she discovered another game to play on walls: "Ten Green Bottles" sitting on the wall...Now our walks are twice as long:)

[mc8358]

Petisa, my baby girl also went through a Thomas phase, which didn't take as strong a hold as Humpty did, but it's still around. In any event, one of her first nightmares (the first time I ever heard her cry out at night) was about Thomas. She cried out "Oh no! Crying Thomas!" :) This thread was very reassuring.

[Ashley40]

Wow snap my son is totally obsessed with Humpty Dumpty everything is Humpty. Listening to it now on utube Humpty play list. He's 3.5 and this has gone on for about year and half now. Yes mr potato head is Humpty, people he meets have to draw Humpty etc he has worn off it a little but still loves him and I have to tell it at night time which is difficult as it's quite a short story. ??

[ikeaismylocal]

My cousin was obsessively terrified of humpty dumpty, he was really inconsolable if he saw something which reminded him of humpty dumpty ( eggs, walls, bald men) at least your ds's humpty obsession involves positive emotions!

My ds is obsessed with Mr tumble if we see something which is on a Mr tumble episode for example a boat I say oh look a boat! Ds then says boat, does the sign for boat and says Mr tumble boat. When we talk about ds's friends he always includes Mr tumble.

[Jaffakake]

My ds has a thing about fireman Sam & he's barely watched it on TV, or will choose to watch it! Very weird!

[Lovelydiscusfish]

My 2.3 year old dd is obsessed with the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt similarly - she quotes from it all the time, wants to act it out with me, describes scenery we see by quoting the relevant parts of Bear Hunt, etc. She is similar about the tv programme Melody - again she makes lots of references relating stuff we see and do to stuff Melody does in the episodes. I guess it is quite normal, and we are lucky she has two obsessions as it adds variety! She chucks in a fair few Peppa references too, just to keep us on our toes.

[Justsenia]

My now 5 year old has the same obsession since 2years and we are still dealing with it . It’s affecting his school because all he want to do is draw and play humpty .

[Kaboochi]

Hi there ! Same is happening with my 2 yr old now.. how is your baby now. I saw u posted it 12 years ago.. but situation is just the same with me. Kindly suggest or help in this regard.

[BlingLoving]

@Kaboochi as it's a zombie thread probably better to start your own. But FYI, my Ds had the humpty phase - lasted so long we even got him a Humpty soft toy (he still has it, 8 years later). We also had the Five Little Monkeys Phase, the Kinder Egg phase, the Curious George Phase, the Monsters Inc Phase etc etc. It's all totally normal, if somewhat frustrating for parents.

[Kaboochi]

Oh thanks , m feeling wibes for the next one now.. lol