2yo suddenly very upset at nursery and also complaining of loud noises

[PickledLily]

My 2yo has always been fine at nursery, but she's suddenly become very clingy (she's always been clingy, but this takes the biscuit) and very upset at going to nursery. She's getting more difficult to get to sleep at night and nap time (says she's scared), says she doesn't want to go to nursery and wants to stay at home, wants to be on mummy's lap whenever she is in the carseat, and is constantly saying 'what's that noise?' at every little sound. Last week she was saying things were too loud. She's also got very upset when her step-siblings went home, which is a first.

She's had glue ear, so I wondered if that might have suddenly cleared, and also seems to have had a development leap. Nursery are being very good, arranging extra staff for more 1:1 time, putting a story book together to show which days are nursery, which are mummy days etc.

Has anyone else experienced this? What can we do about it? It's not like her to get so upset.

Anyone?

I would get her hearing checked again. It could be that it has cleared but it's usually an instant improvement in the hearing that they adjust to over a couple of days. When DD had grommets put in for glue-ear, coming around from the operation she complained about the noise but by the next day she had adjusted.

But DD complained about noises more BEFORE she had the grommets because normal everyday sounds echoed and were more uncomfortable.

So it could be that the glue ear has got worse maybe? Definitely worth getting it checked again.

Also bear in mind that your DD could just be going through a clingy phase. Again our DD had that to the extent that we thought she was really unhappy at the nursery and was going to move her. But a month or so before she was due to move to the new one, she re-settled and said that she loved it there again. Very strange...

Thanks KE. Difficult to know isn't it. She's not complained about noise before, but quite often doesn't react to noises that would make most children (and adults) jump a mile, due to slight hearing loss. Doctor's appointment is booked, so we will see what he says.

Could just be a phase too.

Do you know I was thinking glue ear before I got to the bit where you mentioned it. Best to get it checked out I think.

It could of course be a phase...

My two year old went through a very clingy, scared of noises phase a few months ago, he was 21 months at the time. It came totally out of the blue. We took him to the doctors and he was given a clean bill of health so it wasn't his ears. Then almost as suddenly as it started he went back to normal. Like your LO, he'd never mentioned noises before, or been bothered by loud noises. I'm inclined to think that it's a developmental phase. Having said that it wouldn't hurt to take a trip to the doctor, just to be on the safe side.

So the GP says glue ear is still there but ears are fine. I'll have to put this one down to just being a phase. Let's hope it's a short one!

My DS is just starting to come out on the other side of an almost identical phase - unconsolable about going to childminder's, saying he's scared at night, being frightened of loud noises. I think it stems from one particular day when his childminder had a baby for the day who isn't usually there, and the baby cried a lot with an extremely loud and piercing cry (I heard it - it was phenomenal!) and DS was a bit traumatised by it. Perhaps something happened at nursery that upset your DD, related to noise? The good news is, our phase seems to be ending after a few weeks, he's fine with the childminder now and the "I'm scared" thing seems to have turned into a way to get attention rather than being genuinely scared.

Ooh, that's interesting cobo, on the day DD said everything was loud, she said the babies were crying really loudly. They often play next to the babies so didn't think anything of it as DD would normally also say 'baby was sad' if one of them had been super noisy but she didn't.
I think you may have cracked it. The power of mumsnet!

Hope it sorts itself out for you too! I guess a baby crying a lot must be quite traumatic for a toddler if they don't really know how to process it.

She's also just said to me (she's at home today) out of the blue, 'i lost my mummy. I miss you mummy. Jodie gave me cuddles' Perhaps she thinks the babies were abandoned or one of the key workers said something that got DD worried.