Fear of thunder and storms

LSU628

Any tips, tricks, or books that helped your LO get over their fear of thunder and storms? DD has become seriously scared of thunder and starts getting nervous even if the sky looks grey and cloudy. During a storm she shakes, her heart rate goes up, and she was hiding her head under a pillow today. Unfortunately, in the south thunderstorms are almost a daily occurrence during the summer.

Topi-Jan

We found an episode of Charlie and Lola called something like "I'm not afraid of thunderstorms at all."  It helped.  Also, there happened to be a thunderstorm in the book "Peppa Pig" and it was a good thing because it created mud puddles for them, so that seemed to help too.  Sorry I don't have more!

kreeper611

I wish I had answers! DS is 3 and is terrified. Yesterday I thought he was going to have a real panic attack on the way to daycare. At home, we let him watch TV and he's mostly fine. He wants his blanket with him, but he does ok. 

However, over the past month, his fear has escalated. Yesterday the interim director almost called me because he was freaking out so bad at school when a storm started. The rest of the teachers, however, know this is how he is. One teacher will let him watch shows on her Kindle Fire and that helps.

We bought a book called Franklin and the Thunderstorm and read it last night. We're due to get storms all week here (Texas) so I get it. We told him a while ago that thunder is just Thor's hammer so he took an Avengers book to read. Last night we talked about being brave and strong and how you can be brave & scared at the same time. For now, I'm pretty well going to just keep repeating that and hope it sinks in. If not, I'm taking him to a child therapist. Yesterday was terrible and by the time I got in the car for work (2 hours late) I was a wreck. I don't know how to help him and the reaction is so strong - I want to explore all options to help him before we just accept it and hope he grows out of it.

Also, his reaction may have increased because of DD (11 weeks old). He hasn't really had any negative reactions to her or done a lot to get attention, so this may be what he's trying to do. Either way, it sucks!

mrsschwags

We tell DD that the angels are bowling.  We always talk about it prior to it happening so that she knows what's going on.  That seems to help a ton. 

ilovemygirls

We always turned it into a cool thing- made a big deal out of how fun & exciting it was. We'd clap like it was a show & count between the booms. Kind of made it a party. My kids love storms, so I like to think what we did worked for them! That's so sad your LO is so scared

LSU628

ilovemygirls:

We always turned it into a cool thing- made a big deal out of how fun & exciting it was. We'd clap like it was a show & count between the booms. Kind of made it a party. My kids love storms, so I like to think what we did worked for them! That's so sad your LO is so scared

I like this idea! Thanks. 

bliss611

There's a Caillou episode that helped my LO.