Hoarding
I have a food hoarding issue. It's been something I've had for as long as I can remember. I was the kid who still had Halloween candy left the following October. I was always afraid that it would be gone, which would be sad. So instead of facing that reality, I'd just choose not to eat it because that would diminish my supply, making it eventually run out (for clarification, I did eat a reasonable amount of the candy and shared some with my parents too.... I never let the best candy go to waste!).
I don't have the problem with things like a bag of Peanut M&M's, which can easily be replaced. It's when it's something with a limited supply that I'm afraid to eat it!. For example, my Grandma always brings us 5-6 loaves of her homemade bread at Thanksgiving for us to freeze. We usually eat several right away, but usually find 1-2 in the freezer the following October! Or, my MIL makes coffee cakes and brings extra's for us to freeze. But I still have one in the freezer from the last time she made them! I think my fear is that if we'd eaten it several months ago, the perfect occasion to eat one would come up and then we wouldn't have any and I'd be sad. It's not the issue of eating #1-3, it's the eating of that last one! Or Girl Scout Cookies - you can only buy them once a year! So what if you run out of your favorite kind? That would be so sad! As a result of my issue, we have 3 different boxes of GS cookies from last year sitting in our pantry. Just in case!
It's not a good habit. I mean, I suppose it helps in that at least I'm not eating all the calories! But I hoard to a point where the food almost isn't good anymore... or at least not as good as it would have been if I'd eaten it in a timely fashion. Sometimes I've waiting too long and needed to throw it out, and that is just silly!
I bring this all up to say that I think Kayla is genetically predisposed for this. She hoards food. When we give her a snack, say yogurt covered raisin or Goldfish... she'll eat the 5 or 6 we've set out for her and then hold 2 in her hand and ask for more (meanwhile pretending that the 2 in her hand don't exist). When we give her more, she'll eat the 2 in her hand,and then start on the supply we just gave her. It's like she would be SO SAD if all the fish were gone, so she's going to save the 2 in her hand "just in case". It cracks me up. I have no idea where I learned this hoarding thing.... my parents never understood how I could just let candy sit there. But I find it hilarious that Kayla seems to be doing it too! And why? It's not like we don't give her more when she is asking for more. We are careful to let her know when we are giving her the last handful and she accepts that (typically). So it's not like we are doing something that makes her have this fear that her supply is going to be sharpy cut off!
I suppose the hoarding of food is a better problem to have than the hoarding other things.... but it is bizarre, I admit!