6 month old terrified of thunderstorms

[Titania]

right now we are having one heck of a thunderstorm! its pretty loud really and the lightening is very bright. The trouble is ds2 (6 months) is petrified......poor love. I have closed the curtains and switched the light on so thats stopped the lightening being so bright, but the thunder is making him sceam!! i cant do anything with him. Even picking him up,....he still cries. what can i do to help him?

Pick him up, talk soothingly, it will be over soon, try and distract him - can you give him a bottle/feed him??

he is in such a state he has now left his dinner on my shoulder!!

Can you make a game of it and laugh every time there's a thunder clap - kind of like "wow there's another one what a loud bang" but with your cheesiest grin plastered on your face. He certainly won't understand that it's only thunder, but he might grasp that "bangs aren't bad".

Or tickle him every time there's a clap, so he starts to look forward to them?

It'll be over soon - honest!

I know my dd is considrably older but I have always made a big thing of the I hear thunder song! as soon as it starts to thunder no matter how quietly I always say listen whats that noise ?....... its thunder........now we can sing our song!
And we repeat it every time it thunders.
Had a massive storm tonight and we sat looking out of the window singing and watching the rain she seemed to enjoy the whole thing as it was more like a game........not come across lightning yet tho its not in the song!!!

I pity you at the mo with all the storms we are having good luck.....hth
btw on a totaly different subject I also sing the peter rabit fly song when she see's a fly/wasp or bee and she is no longer scared of them either...........

sorry dd has just turned 2..........

Would suggest you give Thought Field Therapy (TFT) a try. It's a tapping technique that works on the acupunture points - proven results with all types of stress - even on babies and animals. I work with children in Harley Street using hypnotherapy, NLP and TFT. Website www.thoughtfieldtherapy.co.uk will give you more info or I would be happy to see you. Email: [email protected]

Are you sure it's 'fear'?

Dd (5 months) is better than a barometer at prediciting the weather - always screams 10 minutes before a storm breaks.

Dh always used ot suffer with heavy nosebleeds around the time of weather changing (particularly high pressure going to storm). I've put down Dd's behaviour to a similar sort of sensitivity to pressure changes...