my son (3.5) now keeps wrapping things round his neck, it terrifies me

[TiredFeet]

My son has always had a thing about wrapping things round his neck. He just likes doing it I think. But it terrifies me and I don't know how to stop it. I remove/hide obvious hazards but he'll do it with anything he finds. (Maybe once or twice a week I catch him doing it)

At the moment I stay calm and tell him not to and that it could hurt him/its dangerous and its scary for mummy. I need to stay calm I think so if he ever got into difficulties he wouldn't be worrying aboutgetting into trouble

Any other tips for what I could do?

Now I have a 2nd child I need eyes in the back of my head it seems!

Little bump...

Have you tried talking to him about it at a different time? Not when an incident has occured but separately.

You could get him to use his own hand to press on the front of his throat and see how it makes it hard to breathe and it doesn't feel nice. Then tell him that it is very very important to be able to breathe and that breathing keeps us alive. It's okay to scare him a bit when it's a life and death safety issue! Tell him that he mustn't ever put toys or anything around his neck or a friend's neck because if he pressed too hard then it can strangle you and that he could die.

Try doing a rhyme/game thing. Talk to him about it and say something like 'never ever put things round your NECK' and clap at the same time. Get into a rhythm. Then you can get him to say 'NECK' while still clapping. Then you just need to say it at odd times and get him to say 'neck' - especially when he's playing with something he might put round his neck.

I give you it sounds mental but it has (more or less) worked with my dd who llikes putting coins in her mouth!

But I would probably do what BertieBotts says as well as the game.

Good ideas, thank you I am thinking as well maybe I should get him a book about how our bodies work to help him understand the importance, we've just found out he has asthma as well, so we have been talking about about breathing and the medicines that help him.
Its so scary when he wraps things round his neck!

I went with bertiebotts approach. Very firm and factual. If you put things around your neck, you won't be able to breathe and you will die. Same with small toys.

I can't say I've ever been as anxious as I am, now I'm a parent.

Good ideas, thank you I am thinking as well maybe I should get him a book about how our bodies work to help him understand the importance, we've just found out he has asthma as well, so we have been talking about about breathing and the medicines that help him.
Its so scary when he wraps things round his neck!