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Behaviour/development

toddler anxieties

6 replies

furniture · 10/05/2004 20:43

19 month old dd is starting to get her first 'worries' (don't know how else to put it) and I was wondering what is the best way of handling it. She fixates on certain incidents that have happened for instance when she was having her bath on Friday night someone came to our flat and pressed the buzzer repeatedly (it's quite noisy and we never have visitors at that time). In the bath she did her usual thing when she's a bit freaked of freezing solid and putting her head onto me. As the buzzing went on and on I got her out of the bath and we went to the door (it was a male friend bringing some photos from a party dd and I had been to). I was very calm and reassuring all the time and we had a brief chat with the man at the door and he went off pretty quickly and dd and I enjoyed looking at the photos. But since that happened she hasn't stopped talking about it in an increasingly anxious way. She says 'buzzer buzzer! Man! Mamma! Door! Oh dear oh dear' etc. and gets herself into a tizz. So far I've just repeated the story of it over and over for her in a very neutral calm voice and tried to make it funny and friendly but she can't stop thinking about it, especially at bath and bedtime.

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furniture · 11/05/2004 12:50

Posted this last night and didn't get any replies. Is it because it's too pathetically neurotic to respond to?!

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bootsmonkey · 11/05/2004 12:57

Don't really have an answer for you, but my DD has just turned 2 and has fixated on things like this in the past (particularly cows??) I think in her case she is just mulling it over and making sense of it in her head. She is a creature of habit and picks up on the smallest discrepancies. I think you are doing exactly the right thing in responding in a calm way. HTH

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cab · 11/05/2004 13:01

Don't really know but wouldn't worry too much. Until recently (dd now 3.5) I daily got "do you remember when you crashed down the car in that funny shop" - ref. to a bump I had in a garage when she was about 18 months. Thought she would never let me forget!! Still gives me lots of driving advice

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cab · 11/05/2004 13:01

wrong grin there

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furniture · 11/05/2004 13:08

They are funny creatures aren't they? Dd even said 'buzzer' in her sleep about 5 times last night. It's obviously got a meaning I can't put my finger on. Dp thinks it's because she thinks that when she goes to sleep a 'man' comes to the door and mummy runs off with him. Hmmm ... wonder who's being paranoid there ...

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secur · 11/05/2004 13:26

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