2 year old scared of children/people

[Revdog2711]

Good morning peeps

After some help and advice for my 2yr old ds. My dh and I are really concerned about his behaviour, since turning two he has developed an extreme fear of people walking behind him but even more scared of other toddlers or children.
Every time a child comes near him even if there not paying attention to him he throws a massive tantrum starts screaming and wailing,throwing him self about, we end up carrying him away while he has a complete meltdown, takes ages to calm him we try and explain nothing to be afraid of but he's having none of it.
We had this before when he was about 18 months old and I thought it was down to the fact he hated being in confined spaces like soft play/ baby groups etc, so I started taking him to gymnastics and groups with big areas where he could run around and this really helped his confidence but it's returned again even worse. He loves the park going on the swings but if a child gets in the swing next to him he freaks out.
It's getting really hard to take him places I just don't understand why he's so scared of other toddlers/children.
I'm 38 weeks pregnant with horrible spd so I haven't been able to take him out as much as I would like too but my dh try's to make up for this on weekends by getting him to parks gymnastics etc. Also he doesn't go to nursery as I'm a sahm but I am going to view one this weds for him to attend two mornings a week to help him and to help me with a newborn, but I'm already fearing the visit cause I know he will just freak out at the other children there.
We try to take positives from him, he a fantastic sleeper, eats really well, and loves bathtime also his communication is pretty good, though I know he does get frustrated if we don't get what he's saying but that's expected. But the fear of children I just have no idea we have always been social with other mums and children he's never been a massively confident child with other kids but he will at least accept them in his area, but now he hates it if they walk past. Maybe it's the new baby coming freaking him out.

Really upsetting cause he can be so loving and brilliant and I want him to enjoy going to park,play areas etc.

Any ideas/ advice greatly appreciated

🙂

[Floowho]

Have you thought about a childminder instead? They would have a smaller group of children than a nursery, but he would still get some socialisation. How is he is you have a friend over with a child? Can he handle that?

[Revdog2711]

Hello floowho thanks for your reply, yes I thought that maybe if nursery didn't work out a childminder might be the next option. We do have a few friends that pop over and normally he is weary and tends to sit with me but after a while he starts to get a little more confident. But since he's turned two, he just cries the whole time there here literally holding on to me the whole time, it's like he fears that there gonna do something to him and I feel awful for my friends children as they think they have done something wrong which is not fair. We are not looking to start him in nursery till July time so I'm just hoping he will come out of it again. I guess kids get fears around this age and unfortunately my lo is other children