Terrified by certain tv programmes.

[MrsWillis]

My DS is 2.4 and is very easily scared by things on the television. It's nearly always children's programmes but occasionally adverts too.
Most of the time he just shouts no and brings us the remote to turn over but sometimes he will burst into tears and shake and scream until we turn over.
I spoke to a nursery nurse about it and she said it was strange behaviour and she had never heard of it before.

Does anyone else have any experience of this?

Sounds perfectly normal to me. Dd at that age was scared of people dressed up in animal costumes or indeed any costume: Guy Fawkes was a nightmare. My db was scared of open fireplaces, railway crossings, tunnels and a few other things that I cannot remember. He grew up into a perfectly normal well adjusted little boy, and then into a perfectly normal well adjusted adult.

Why not just give TV a miss for a while? Not something he has to be exposed to at the moment is it?

not weird behaviour at all - quite normal IME!
programmes which have freaked my dcs out have been

Lazytown
Grandpa in my pocket
Gogglebiz
Dirtgirl world

Just respect your ds's dislike of those particular programmes and turn them off when they come on. My ds comes running to me saying "Mummy, don't like this" and was once in floods of frightened tears about seeing Grandpa in my pocket scurrying across the screen!
So I switch off - simple. No reason to think there's something wrong with his behaviour!

Perfectly normal, IME. At preschooler age, ds1 was terrified of certain parts of certain Thomas episodes.

Dd totally freaked when she first came across Sportacus (it was at a playdate, and I have no idea what about it freaked her, but it wasn't many weeks later that she decided she wanted to be Stephanie), and was so terrified of the Numbertaker that she wouldn't watch Numberjacks until she was nearly 6.

I haven't yet come across anything on TV that frightens ds2.

He doesn't watch much tv tbh as we are out everyday until 3pm so usually just an hour or so whilst I am making tea and doing housework but I was a bit shocked by the nursery nurse saying it was odd behaviour.

Glad to hear it is quite usual for them to react like this though as he has slight speech delay and I worry enough as it is. At the minute it's Brum and Super Why which he asks to be switched off and the advert for Rayman raving rabbids that results in the screaming. He is getting a lot better though he used to get very distressed by a lot of things when he was younger.

normal
my 2.2 ds exactly the same - will say "not like this mummy" and turn tv off or bring us remote
esp thomas the tank engine! (??slightly scary voice of ringo and scowling engine faces)
he even gets scared of the pontipines on ITNG

Do they watch tv at nursery then???

He doesn't go to nursery it was the nursery nurse that did his 2 year check that I mentioned it too. She just said she had never heard of that before which got me thinking it was something strange that no other child did. Obviously not the case just me worrying too much as usual.

oh, Brum did it for my ds2 - he really didn't like that at all and ds3 has been quite anxious even with just trailers for numberjacks (the characters in that are a bit odd for preschoolers!)

I would say its normal.

I can still remember being terrified of slapstick style comedy when i was 3 years old. custard pie in the face style gags used to make me cry my eyes out.

Oh god dd hated Brum as soon as she saw the beginning with the car in the garage, she would run out of the room. She is still scared of some cbeebies programmes now - she is 6 - if she sees grandpa in my pocket jump in the tea pot, she is off and running!

I think its a sign of a vivid imagination myself!

DD used to petrified of the cow leaning over the hedge in Rosie and JIm. It was only on for a split second in the opening credits but she would hide behind the door.

My DS, just turned two, loves Postman Pat but there is one episode where Postman Pat gets into a rocket and it takes off by accident. My DS cries and gets very upset at this crying 'Postman Pat, Postman Pat;'. I then sit with him and tell him to watch and that he'll see that Postman Pat is OK! Its quite upsetting to see but I guess at this age they are starting top become more sensitive to the things they see and hear.

My older dc didn't even realise that programmes existed until they were about 6 and 4, and didn't discover the children's channels until last year (8 and 6) when we were on holiday at a place with Freeview.

Until then they only watched videos and DVDs, did not get frightened, and enjoyed watching the same things over and over again.

Perfectly normal (another nursery nurse here). I remember one 2 year old who was traumatised when he saw Gene Simmons from Kiss in full make up. He wouldn't sleep that night and when he did he had nightmares. Poor thing!
To us, Gene Simmons is an ugly man made uglier by too much make up and we think he should know better.
To a 2 year old he could be a monster about to leap out of the wardrobe and eat him.
Some children have very vivid and creative imaginations.

When DS was around the same age he was terrified of Brum. He used to do the same things as the Op's DS.

We also would have to avoid Come Outside as it used to make him very emotionally upset and he would be sobbing his heart out.

My dd is 6 this week and she is still scared of Swiper the fox. My friends ds who is six is scared of Thomas's moving eyes.

I am still scared of the stick creature from the Rupert the Bear series in the 70s.

my dd is still terrified of Numberjacks

ds2 and I watched an episode of Come Outside with Aunti Mabel where Pippin gets left on the bus - my ds suddenly burst into tears and was distraught that Mabel had got off the bus and left her dog!

I think it show our dcs are good judges if certain things make them concerned - cars that have eyes and move on their own (Brum), strange insecty things with human faces (DirtGirl world), weird men in pointy hats, cloaks with long sleeves (Numberjacks Numbertaker) and miniature men (Grandpa in my pocket) are NOT natural things, so I think if they find them unsettling it shows they are able to differentiate between what's normal and what's just odd!

I'd say the one thing that is not normal in this context is a nursery nurse who has never heard of toddlers being freaked out .

I wonder if many of these fears revolve around things with faces which shouldn't have them? My friends DS has always been scared of numberjacks and the CBeebies one with the house with the face on the side! There seems to be a common theme...

That episode of ITNG where the pinkyponk crashes into a tree terrifies DD...