I'm in a quandary as to what to do here. DS, who will be 2 in a month, has always loved being outside and running around, unfazed by mud or insects, has quite suddenly become terrified of being outside, either in the park or in our garden. He seems scared of spiders, caterpillars and bees where before he was fascinated by them. If we take him to the park he'll cry to be held all the time. He has always been scared of cats, but this has got a lot worse recently, and now he's scared of dogs - he'll quake, point and cry at a dog being walked on a lead on the other side of the playing field. I'm struggling to think where this has sprung from. Possibly, it's from when - about a month ago - he saw DD (4) being chased by an over-excited dog. At the time he didn't seem bothered, and we did chat with them both about how dogs can get overexcited and that DH and I will always come and help them if they get chased, and that most dogs don't do this. I'm not sure where the insect/outdoor fear has come from. We're all pretty unsqueemish about bugs as a family, so he hasn't seen anyone getting upset by creepy crawlies.
I'm unsure as to whether we should carry on taking him to the park to try and break the fear, or stay inside for a while and hope it passes...
Thanks for any ideas!