Fearful 2 year old - claustrophobia?

Re: Fearful 2 year old - claustrophobia?

• SusieBW member

  May 2014

  It's gotta be an age thing.  I was thinking of posting a similar thing today about my DD, who will be 3 in September.  It's not that she's scared of the same things you're describing, but she's scared of more and more things lately that have never bothered her before. 
  
  Bugs are going to be the death of me, for example.  We have a sliding door in our kitchen, and she screamed and hid behind me when she saw the tiniest little thing way up near the top on the outside of the screen through the closed glass door.  Ugh.  Last summer, she would sit on the back steps at my moms and feed cracker crumbs to the ants, and she was fascinated to watch all the ants come and get the crumbs, now she is super careful about sittting on the back steps because she doesn't want an ant to get on her.  The past two mornings, she has come running to me in the kitchen whenever Captain Hook comes on Jake and the Pirates. 
  
  I guess it has to be a phase, and we're just trying to talk to her reasonably about the stuff she keeps saying she's scared of.  I have a gardening book about bugs, and I've been looking through it with her, and we try and get her to look closely at the bugs and teach her about them and how helpful they are in the garden.  I might get one of those little bug houses and try to get he to watch a couple of different things in there.
  

  
  
  
  

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• SusieBW member

  May 2014

  Now I'm thinking about it more.
  
  I also think it might be that DD is just starting to understand what "scared" means.  If that makes sense.  Like, she's been scared by things throughout her life, but I don't think she had any real comprehension of what it means to be scared, or for something to be scary, KWIM?  And maybe she has come to associate being scared with being comforted and so it's partly an attention thing, too.
  
  Just another idea.
  

  
  
  
  

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• ashiscute member

  May 2014

  My DD turned 3 in January.  She is also getting to that stage where she is afraid of everything.  In parking lots she cries because she doesn't want to get hit by cars.  I think it's just an age thing.  They are starting to become more aware of things around them and getting better at expressing their feelings.  

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• loisloan1118 member

  May 2014

  Thanks ladies.  It's good to know I'm not alone. 

  @SusieBW I forgot about bugs!  Now that it's spring time, we've got some ants invading our house and DD totally freaks out about seeing bugs! 

  I try to teach her to say "go away little bug", but she'll only say that after I've gotten rid of it.  I also thought "bug off" was kind of cute, but then she said it and it didn't sound like "bug off" - lol! 

   

  
  

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• BabyBoyNYC member

  June 2014 edited June 2014

  i'm right here with you! washing hands, the blow dryer in the public restrooms, the vent in the bathroom (though i think this is because we never had any vents in our 2 old places), those stupid singing cards, and now tv! One night we were laying in bed and i thought he was asleep so I switched it over to Real Housewives and they were right in the middle of a big loud screaming match and he sprung out of bed crying and yelling at me to turn it off, so now if the tv is on and its not cartoons he gets all anxious the tv is actually starting to wind down a little I just ignore him when he starts whining about it and he seems to be getting over it.

  
  

  its just funny because he is totally fine with the vacuum, the lawn mower, i blow dry his hair, we are renovating our home so its constant sawing, hammering, banging and he will go and get his little plastic hammer and try and help. its almost like he picks and chooses when to scared and I notice the more I coddle it the more he reacts. 

  

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