Plane phobia

[Caroline5]

Dd1 who is 4 is terrified of planes. We live near a private airfield and also an RAF base and we now often have B52s and other similar planes flying low right over our house. The local airfield is home to a number of fighter planes which roar about over our village. Every year, they have an Air Day there which involves the Red Arrows and lots of other fighter planes, all roaring deafeningly over the house!

While I quite enjoy the Air Day (sat in the garden and watched a stealth plane and the Red Arrows fly over our roof!), dd has become totally sensitised to the planes. Last year, she was so terrified she couldn't go in the garden for most of the summer, and couldn't join in with the local playgroup's games in the park.

Isn't the treatment for phobias generally exposure to the feared thing ? This happens here daily, and it's not getting any better. The nice weather has brought the planes out and dd is beginning to get scared again

Has anyone else dealt with this (or lives near Heathrow!)? If so, I'd be grateful for any tips. Plus we're going on a plane on holiday soon, so am a bit worried about that too!

we lived very near heathrow and my son was terrified of concorde i used to hold him tight while covering his ears,we moved a bit further and we now cant hear the noise of concorde and my son loves flying,sorry i cant offer you any advice i hope shes ok when you get on the plane,i would probably avoid the subject until youre about to board the plane so she hasn`t got time to worry about it,good luck!

Apparently I was terrified of planes and would run into the house everytime one came overhead (we lived on the flight path to Manchester airport).

Mum & Dad got round it by taking me outside to wave to the driver, unlikely as it sounds, it apparently worked

I grew up near Manchester airport too and one of my friends was very scared of the planes when we were at primary school. She used to sleep with earplugs in. I don't know whether that would solve the problem for your DD outside but it might 'soften' the sudden noise of them.

I like the idea of waving to the driver - must remember that one!

Have you tried buying her some toy planes, and playing some games based around them? What about books about planes? "Amazing Aeroplanes" is really good - all in rhymes, and explains what a plane is, how you go to the airport to get one, etc. My ds, who is 2, loves it.

I don't think you should worry about getting on the plane to go on holiday. She probably won't even relate the experience to the noisy things that keep going overhead.

The treatment for a phobia is gradual exposure- but if it's fear of the noise she may just be very sensitive to that particular frequency of sound. In that case ear plugs would maybe work better. Is she frightened by any other noises?

As a baby she hated the hoover, but is fine with it now. She does generally dislike loud noises, e.g. lorries, tractors. I think the whole thing is a quite reasonable fear really, because the planes do fly very low, very fast and loud. We have managed to get her to accept 'small' quiet planes, but it is the noise factor of the other ones which makes her want to rush straight indoors. I like the idea of her waving to the pilot, I might try it. Not sure about ear plugs as I can't imagine her allowing me to put them in her ears!

Thanks for all your comments, I'm hoping the airport won't be too scary if we can get in there without any planes roaring overhead!!