My 4 year old is scared of everything

[Emmzie2130]

It's been around 6 months or more of my newly 4 year old son being scared of everything it.

His grandparents he hasn't seen in a day. He doesn't even want them touching him he just clings to me and moans and cries if they try to speak or hug him same goes for strangers.

He's scared of birthday songs and candles. He's scared of face paint. He's scared of getting messy and things being on his hands or face. He's scared of me or his dad showing that we aren't pleased with his bad behaviour so if we frown for example he starts crying and hiding shouting he doesn't want us angry.

There really is just a very long list of things that would take me too long to write and I'm wondering if we need to speak to a dr about it as he's extremely upset and "scared" about something everyday it seems.

Is this new behaviour?

Some of it but not all of it.

Hopefully this will just be a phase, and he's just a sensitive child processing how to deal with the world. I definitely think looking at some of the resources suggested here and finding the balance between recognising his fears and not putting too much emphasis on them is key, but I hope as he grows he can put things in more proportion

A SENDCO is a member of staff who oversees support for children with individual learning differences. They can offer advice about things like sensory processing and social and communication differences.

My oldest was similar to this - scared of just about everything. Telletubbies, furbies, the noisy bell at school - the list was endless. She is now a very highly strung, high achieving adult. She would undoutedly be diagnised as autistic these days, but she isn't interested in pursuing a diagnosis. Her primary school did suggest this many years ago, but I didn't want to pathologise her personality. We have subsequently discussed together if that was the right decision - it wasn't the wrong one anyway. She will always find many aspects of life challenging but excels at others. She continues to need high levels of emotional support from me at times but I am happy to give this - we have a fabulous relationship as adults. I am just laying out how the cards fell for someone who didn't go down the special needs/spectrum route for their highly anxious child.