Toddler suddenly terrified of wind

[Notsupersticiousbutalittlesticious]

I was wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and come through the other side? My soon for be 3y/o DD is suddenly petrified of wind blowing.

It seemed to start at nursery a couple of weeks ago. It was a really windy day and they opened the windows to get some air in the room, and we think the wind must have knocked some things over and blown some papers about. Since then, it’s been hysterical tears whenever outside, even in the smallest breeze or when it’s really still. One of the first things she asks in the mornings is “is it windy today?” When we go somewhere, it’s “will it be windy there?” And last time she was at nursery I had to pick her up early as she got really, really upset and withdrawn, and on the way home she said it’s because the wind had scared her.

I really don’t know what to do. We’ve talked about the benefits of wind (kites, blowing bubbles, drying laundry, generating electricity, etc.), made up songs about how good wind is, played songs that mention wind 🙈 but nothing seems to help. We’ve tried to not avoid being outside, as we want to encourage her to keep trying to be outside in it, but she point blank refused to come out today. She’s also very obviously nervous about nursery tomorrow, when she’s usually so excited. And I’m really worried she’ll need collecting early again because she’ll get into such a state about it all. I’m contemplating contacting the health visitors but have no idea if they’d be able to help?

Does anyone have any advice? Is this it forever now?!!

Sorry just to add as well, on days she’s spooked by the wind, all potty training disappears. She is usually amazing and has no accidents, but suddenly, as soon as she’s aware of the wind, she wets herself for the rest of the day. I know regressions happen but it just seems to have had such a huge impact on her over pretty much nothing?!

Contacting the HV doesn’t sound like an unreasonable thing to do at all. You could mention what’s happened and ask if they can see her.

You might want to fill in both of these first:

3 year Ages & Stages

and the 3 year Social & Emotional Ages & Stages just so the HV has a clearer picture of what’s happening and if your DD needs any support.

I’d also ask the Nursery Manager what happened on the day she got frightened and if they’ve noticed her change in behaviour and if they have any suggestions to try and help her

I forgot to thank you for your advice!

Thank you so much, I did speak to the HV and nursery manager. We really focused on the positives of wind, the science of it, its importance, recognising her feelings and not playing them down etc, and after a few weeks she had calmed right down. She eventually got to the point where she was clearly not happy about the wind, but could express to us that she was scared yet stayed out in it without more fuss! She’s great with the wind now. Always happy to say if it’s a windy day. So it looked like I was just panicking over a phase 😅