terrified of the hoover

[Alison222]

My ds is 9 mths and has recently become absolutely terified of the hoover. The sight of it makes him go v quiet and worried looking. When I actually switch it on he screams uncontollably.
I've tried to show him it can't hurt and tried hoovering wih him in my arms but he wriggles and tries to bury his head in my shoulder scared to look at it, crying horribly all the while. I know he is far too young to explain to him that it won't hurt, so any suggestions?
(other than hoovering when he is asleep - the noise wakes him up)

[Marina]

If you can afford it, get a carpet sweeper. There is a brilliant Leifheit one available from John Lewis stores. These are nearly silent, almost as good as a hoover and fascinating to small boys. Or, now could be the time to show your son the helpful, harmless noo-noo on the Tellytubbies. Our son developed his fear of the hoover later than yours (probably because he hardly saw it when he was a baby as we are such slobs), and telling him it was a clever noo-noo, and chatting to it while hoovering, reassured him quite quickly. Toddlers, eh. Good luck!

[Spring]

I've had the same with my dd. When she was a baby the noise didn't bother her but around 8/9 months she became terrified too. She runs away screaming if I so much as bring it out of the cupboard, although if I have left it out and it isn't plugged in she will now go up to it and say 'hello hoover' and sometimes touch it (she's now 2 years 2 months). Nothing has helped, I even bought her a kiddies Dyson that she is quite happy to play with (mind you she wouldn't let me put batteries in it for 2 weeks).

I think it's quite common for them to have some sort of phobia. In my daughter's case it is the noise that terrifies her, she also goes ballistic at the photographers as the backdrop scared her when it made a noise.

[Tigermoth]

This has me stumped. As you say, at 9 months old your son is far too young to reason with. I just don't know how you persuade a baby not to be scared of something, apart from holding, sooothing and cuddling him - and you've already tried that.

So that leaves hoovering when he is asleep. Is he a very light sleeper or is the hoover very loud? Hoovering while my son was asleep was always a problem, but it was OK to do the rooms furthest away from his bedroom. The noise was minimal if I kept the doors closed. I also timed my hoovering towards the end of a nap time, so if my son woke up, it wasn't the end of the world.

I just came to accept that the carpet in the hall and inside his bedroom would have to remain a bit crunchy for a while. A brush and dustpan is a quiet and reasonalbly effective solution for small areas of carpet.

And soon two things will happen: Your son will be old enough to reason with, or he'll just grow out of it.

Wish I could offer more help.

Good Luck!

[Robbie]

Mine were exactly the same at nine months - and not much better at two and three-quarters. They scream at sound of vacuum cleaner, hairdryer, electric toothbrush and any/all loud drilling noises. I've constructed an elaborate series of compromises - eg i'll go into my bedroom to use the electric toothbrush, will only have the hairdryer on for 2 minutes and promise not to switch the hoover on when they are around. They are mellowing out slightly about all this now but still go ballistic at those air-dryers for your hands in public loos.
At nine months, though, I just kept the girls and hoover apart though i remember that they improved a bit when they started watching tellytubbies - quite a jolly noo noo in it - you might want to try that.
I regard it as just another wonderful toddler eccentricity and nothing much to worry about.

[Alison222]

Now you come to metion it he isn't too fond of the hairdryer - but I can have that going just about long enough to dry my hair. The electric drill terrified him when DH put up the stairgate I had to go into the garden with him in the end. Also the Blender has a smilar effect - although I'm hardly using that these days.
He isn't a particularly light sleeper - we make tonnes of noise when he is asleep normally it just seems to be that this noise (and the telephone by which he is fascinated - definately a favourite non-toy -oops wrong thread I digress)which penetrates his sleep.
We live in a flat so I can just about do the kitchen with the door shut or my bedroom but anywhere else and he wakes up. As we are trying to sell the flat and move at the moment I do have to keep it tidier and cleaner than I might given how scared he gets, so I can't imagine not hoovering, its just it has to be done in very short bursts.
I'm glad I'm not alone even if I can't understand why at 4 months it was such a soothing sound for him.
Ah Well!!

[Cheerios]

My dd went through the same thing. (She is now 1 yr 1 month)

What we did, was I would get the hoover out, and her daddy would pick her up. For a while he would just take her to another room - she would still cry a bit, but was comforted by daddy. Then he started bringing her to the end of the hall, so she could look down the hall and watch me hoover. Sometimes she took this better than others - if she still cried very much, he would simply take her away again and try it another day.

Then he started bringing her closer ... (you get the picture), and soon, she ended up being okay with it. Then we went through a little phase where she would still get scared if she was on the floor in the same room while I hoovered - I found that if I made a big deal out of putting her 'up high' (on the couch) where she was 'safe', she kind of liked that.

And now, she's totally fine with it - I can leave her sat on the floor and hoover up fairly close to her, and she doesn't bat an eye.

I think the key (for us) was just being very gradual with her, and her daddy talking to her very soothingly and relaxingly. (A gran or friend she is familiar with would probably work just as well, if daddy's not available to help.)

[Willow2]

I have the opposite problem - my son is obsessed with the hoover. He has named it "shooee" - maybe because of the noise it makes - talks about it from the moment he wakes up; has complete tantrums if he is not allowed to play with it; goes straight to friends' under stairs cupboards when we are out in an attempt to locate their shooees; runs into the house calling for it when we get home; says goodnight to it and thinks the toy dyson I found in the local charity shop for £4 is a pathetic substitute. It is now impossible to even attempt to hoover when he is around - although I have found a way to keep him amused is to tear up bits of paper and let him loose with the dustbuster. I have high hopes that he will have secured the cleaning contract for Heathrow by the age of eight.

[Bugsy]

Willow2, your son is obviously the secret twin to mine! Our son is similarly obsessed by the "NooNoo" (our Dyson) and will accept no substitute. If I want to do any dysoning, I have to accept that he will have first go, change all the nosels, turn it on and off enough times to make me want to scream and bang it into lots of bits of furntiture. After about 15 minutes he will get bored and I am allowed to crack on. Perhaps, we should set up a cleaning consortium now!

[Alison222]

Willow2, DS has decided to go from one extreme to the other - he has got over his terror of the hoover (by me leaving it out of the cupboard for several days and patting/stoking it whilst unplugged. we then had an afternoon where we "played" with it for a while and I turned it on and off in short bursts. Since then we haven't looked back) Now he follows me around when I'm hoovering pushing the thing along the floor. As he is only crawling its not too bad but I dread to think what he'll be like when he is walking- perhaps he'll be joining your son on that Heathrow cleaning contract.

[Willow2]

Come to think of it, the chimney needs doing, maybe I could just point him in the right direction.... oh yeah, that's not allowed any more is it? Darn those child labour laws.