18mo really scared of insects

[Hayls]

dd is 18mo and absolutely petrified of flies, spiders, ants and anything else that crawls. Even small black blobs or bits of grass totally freak her out. She gets really upset, crying, shouting 'out' (to me and the sipder) and jumps about. A couple of times one has crawled on her and she got into a real state. They never used to bother her; she used to find it entertaining when ants crawled on her shoes in the garden. Now she doens't want to play on her slide until she's checked for spiders and races about the garden contsantly shouting 'fly, mummy' (her word for all insects) every time she sees anything.

I'm also not too keen on them but I've tried hard not to let her see this. I tell her every time that they won't hurt her and have even tried coaxing one onto my hand (urgh), saying 'awwww fly, nice fly'- what we say to her dollies and teddies- but it has no effect.

This is probably a stupid question but is there anything else I can try? Will she grow out of it? Nothing much else seems to phase her.

[colditz]

get a book with bugs in? and read it to her every day, it would have to be a fun book though.

Learn the words to ugly bug ball?
Ignore it? She is very young, she may forget all about it by the time she is 2!

[anchovies]

We've got a whole cd from sainsburys (£1.99) with songs about insects?

[Hattie05]

Keep doing as you are and never ever let her see your dislike for them. She will forget about it.

My dd was always fascinated by bugs, ( i cannot deal with spiders at all well, ) until the day an enormous tarantula (not really but big spider) landed on my shoulder and i screamed the house down.
Normally i contain my fear but this one took me by surprise.
DD was probably about 18mths, and thereafter every bug she saw she ran away screaming spider. She would often laugh afterwards, so it wasn't a genuine fear, she was just copying me .

Ever since i have encouraged her handling bugs in the garden and she has forgotten about the 'scared' phase and is now actually obsessed by bugs!! She's 2.6btw, and makes homes for any snail, ladybird, spider she finds and gets upset if she drops them and cannot find them again in the grass.

[Hayls]

Bug book sounds like a good idea, as does the CD. I think I'll have a look for them.

Also, forgot to say that she also now has a fear of ducks... We used to feed them regularly and she loved them but now she's only happy from a distance. She has the same reaction as she does to sipders if she gets close to them. We sing 5 Little Ducks and have loads of books with pics in and she just laughs and says quack quack. Suppose it's just as well we don't often see ducks on the garden!

[NannyL]

can you make some bugs / insects...

i rememebr at playschool using egg boxes cut into 1 egg thing and pipe cleaners painted balck made great spiders!

Also what about introducing them trough food?
Im sure come sept they will have flies and bug sweeties available for holloween... maybe you could by these and encourage her to play with them, eat them as a treat...

i went to abirthday party this week where the cake was a spider... a round victoria sponge iced, with black liquorice for the legs and eyes iced on (birthday girl LOVES spiders)

[Lizita]

Interesting. My dd loves bugs.
Funny story: When she was a baby I was round at my mum's and dd was sitting in the high chair next to the table. I saw a dead housefly on the table (You know, one of those horrible black buzzy ones) and pointed it out to my mum, and then for a split second turned to look at my mum. When I turned back again the fly had disappeared! DD was sitting there like butter wouldn't melt, i totally freaked out and fished around in her mouth and sure enough the fly was there. At the time, she was eating an oat pudding my mum makes with raisins in so she thought the fly was a raisin! I felt sick for ages afterwards!
She was about 9 mo or something.

I started a thread about conquering fear of the hoover by letting dd take control of it herself (well, have her hand on it helping me hoover). She gets v distressed if she's not doing that when I have the hoover on. Perhaps it would be similar with a bug, gentle introduction to the bug, maybe put one in a box or glass first and see if she can look at it calmly while knowing it can't actually get at her!

[Hayls]

Thanks for all of these. Funnily enough, Lizita, my dd is liek that with the hoover as well- she's fine if she's helping me but otherwise doesn't like it. I even bought her a miniature Dyson but that didn't help
I think I'll get dh to try and capture some spiders or flies for her to have a close look at...preferably when I'm not around!