3 year old ds has lots of phobias

[sausagewallet]

Hi all

My ds, 3.8, has many, many phobias. He's terrified of any insects, especially spiders. He's even scared of my older ds plastic bugs, hex bugs etc. He's scared of everything in the playground bar slides, unless they're quiet high. He's scared of those kiddie rides in supermarkets, all rides at fairs and theme parks. He screamed on the aeroplane going on holiday, and all the way back home again.

I don't think this is normal, dh thinks he's just a nervous kid. What do you think?

Thanks!

Well some kids are just nervous/dramatic. How do you react when he shows fear? If he senses your stress it might feed his reactions....are you a calm person? Is DH?

My older DD is 7 but when she was smaller she was terribly anti social and very sensitive about noises, strangers...all kinds of things...shes grown out of it all now.

Yes we are both quite calm, we don't push him. I always ask at the park if he wants to go on something, he says no and we just leave it. With regards to bugs, no-one else in the house is scared of them so if, for example, he spots a spider I'll just take it out.

I'm very nervous on planes myself, so even though I tried my hardest not to show it, he probably picked up on that.

Glad your DD has grown out of hers, hopefully DS will soon too. He's only little!

Hi. I think it may be partly an age thing. My sensitive DS, now aged 8 years and pretty sorted, was just like that at 3 years. He was scared of dogs, men he didn't know, monsters, and cars (not travelling in them, just carparks etc). Oh, and shops. And helicopters. He would simply freeze up, and scream.

He also had a lot of nightmares, quite often recurring.

It was very hard. I spoke to the HV, GP, and his nursery, all said he was a deep thinking child, who soaked up everything going on around him, and it was just his way of processing things.

It eased gradually, and more or less stopped by the time he started Reception at nearly 5 years. He is still nervous of new things, and worries about being late etc, but those early years all just a memory now.