1 Year old scared of the hoover - any tips?

[MrsMoppetMama]

My daughter is really freaked out by the hoover, even if she is in another room with her dad. Any advice as I can't stand how messy the house is becoming!

I'm afraid you're going to have to live with it for a while, or get her dad to take her out for an hour or two every weekend while you vacuum the whole place! It's really not worth pushing, they do grow out of fears like this but forcing the issue will just make it worse. Bear in mind their hearing is more sensitive than ours and she doesn't yet understand that it's not going to hurt her. It probably sounds like a pneumatic drill to her.

Brings back memories of sending DS for a walk with his dad- he got better by the time he started school but he still has a love/hate relationship with it and he's 15 now.

It's a noise/ sensory thing it seems.

My DCs are both the same - DD is now nearly 4yo.

We haven't solved it. I got a cleaner.

She will grow out of it. For the time being hoover when she is not around if at all possible (eg when DH takes her out).

Both of mine hate the hoover (2 and 4). No cleaner. DP never takes them out. We live in a dirty house, or I hoover when they are in bed. The hysteria that occurs when I open the cupboard under the stairs just isn't worth it. As I write this the kitchen carpet is caked in spagetti and jelly. I suppose I should be hoovering now rather than sitting on the lap top and watching the tv..............

We've managed to get DS from hysterically freaking out to just disliking the hoover. Earplugs (as it does seem to be related to sensory issues...) and his own toy hoover did the trick. He's 2.7 now.

I let DS switch it on and off and press the button to retract the cord which he seems to like. I've also got a small plastic windmill like the ones you can buy at the beach. He walks behind me holding it over the vent on the Hoover to watch it turn. We've also made hoovering fun by moving the dining room chairs in a line to form a 'bus'. It is about the only domestic chore I know I'll be able to finish when I start!

We got our daughter over the fear at about this age by replacing our vacuum with a pink Hetty hoover and getting her the toy version at the same time. A bit drastic I know, but I was desperate and its a lot better than my original one. It worked immediately, nobody can be frightened by a pink smiling hoover.

Ds was the same at that age. We bought him a little one from the ELC and that helped.

Thanks for all these comments, love the advice about a toy hoover! Just good to know I'm not the only one whose carpet is covered in who knows what!

We had this problem and now have a Hetty and now DD likes the Hoover and chats to it!

DS was like that until just after he turned 3. Apparently children can hear higher sounds than adults and some vacuum cleaners emit these sounds (hand dryers too). So they are reacting to a sound that hurts their ears. It isn't just them being annoying. Anyway, we just made sure that DH took DS out for a bit each weekend so I could vacuum. We swept the floor inbetween times - lots of hard floors and a hard brush for the stairs.

Our vacuum cleaner dispenses sweets to small scared boys

When ds2 was tiny the hoover was about the only thing other than bf I could rely on to send him to sleep.

He's 2.8 now and a complete wuss utterly terrified. I vacuum the downstairs when he's up, and upstairs when he's down, or leave it until the weekend when dh/ds1 are around so they can take him outside.

He's actually improved a bit recently - will deign to be in the same room as it as long as it's switched off, and has very occasionally actually touched it, but he legs it as soon as it's switched on.

We had this for a while. Then I encouraged DS to use his 'cow on a stick' walking toy like a hoover and we'd vacuum together, with him rolling the cow around super-fast. He got the idea pretty quickly and then really got into vacuuming... He now asks to vacuum pretty much every day (he's 2 later this month) - 'Vacoom? I want vacoom!'... My flat has never been cleaner.

We've got a Henry and have always made a real fuss of getting it out of the cupboard nad making it 'bark'. DS has always loved its smiley face, plus it's not very loud unlike other hoovers. When he was learning to walk he used to push it around to 'help' us. The he loved pushing the button on and off, but beware this requires patience from whoever is doing the hoovering: "That's great DS, but can you switch the hoover back on again too?"