DD has been crying for 45min over loss of caterpillar

[ArabellaBeaumaris]

Seriously. DD age 5 gathered 4 caterpillars in the garden yesterday. Today one is gone. She has been crying - proper full hysterical sobs - for 45 minutes.

She often has this sort of hyper emotional reaction to things - fall out with a friend, having done wrong. Nothing seems to reassure her or coax her out of it & tbh I run out of patience.

Has anyone else had a DC like this - ways of tackling & reassuring? I would like her to be more resilient.

I think one was to tackle it is to scoop her into a safe place. Quick hug and glass of water and then leave her to it. Afterwards a gentle observation of 'that made you sad didnt it' and another quick hug.
As she gets a bit older when she is calm and over it you can talk about putting the event on to a scale. Out of one to ten, how big a disaster was that really?

You need to step in- go in to hyper Mummy mode and help her understand how she's feeling. She's unhappy not just because the caterpillar's gone but because these emotions are so intense and she feels out of control.
When you say gathered do you mean she put them on leaf or jar? Either way you can explain that he was probably hungry or wanted to get more comfy.

And what kitten said ^^