Sudden fear of anything that flies. Any insects.

[chuckeyegg]

Bees butterflies, birds, spiders, ants! We had an afternoon in the garden yesterday and it was a nightmare running indoors every few seconds because of flies almost to small to see. Then of course there were some in the house too! He has been really screaming too which is not like him.

[clumps of chuckeyeggs hair in garden and house]

Please any advise, I stand very calmly with him and say flies and bees are very small and they will not hurt you. God forbid if he ever gets stung, he'll never trust me again. I can only think he has picked this up at school because we've never bothered about insects. In fact DS often see us rescuing insects. He is 5 and has ASD.

My two NT children had it at similar age and it went away gradually in a couple of years. Feel for you, as insect is everywhere... The only thing that helped a little bit was a narrative e.g little fly is just looking for its mummy, it's lost...

Mmm... This has NOT gone away for us. It is a struggle every summer for ds. It started around 5 and has continued and got worse... Some summers worse than others. It stopped summer for us one year. Wasps are his worst .He is now 15 (asd) and will still shriek and throw off hIs top if he even thinks a flying insect is on it.
He's ok with crawling things.

We were waiting on CAMHS for some help ... But am now pitching more hope on a child's counselling service which deals with anxieties in children with Sn.

Short term , we have had success with insect sprays and Arnywear here.... As it has allowed him to at least feel like he has some control/ protection... But essentially , it is a big problem.

Good luck... Let me know if you find anything else that helps!

No improvement here either, we have flyspray in every room and spray as soon as one comes in. Ds keeps his bedroom window and door shut all the time. He's anxious outside but manages to hold it together mostly will be trying the insect sprays I think. He's 17 now.

Ds is 11 and is the same about flying things. Ok about crawling things. It has only been an issue for the last few years although he used to be terrified of the wind and other movements back then. Also afraid of dogs, both the sound of barking and the sudden movements that they make. He is also nervous of toddlers in that he doesn't know how to interact with them but I think he dislikes the uncertainty of where they are going to land next! The types of things at he is afraid of comes and goes. he used to be afraid of butterflies but now he is fine with those. Bees and wasps remain the worst . Ds h got great road sense but when confronted with an approaching dog or wasp I worry about him throwing caution to the wind and taking off. No help sorry but you are not alone

Dd2 is 3 and is the same. We just got back from Tunisia and the huge dragonflys there were a real struggle!

I've still not grown out of freaking out at flying things (I'm in my late 30s I have a visual impairment and probably have ASD) I have got better at hiding the terror but it's there on the inside. I avoid being outside if I think I will encounter flying things. I love my cats for killing moths for me! The saving grace is I am probably aware of only a tiny fraction of them because of my lack of sight.

I've always attributed my fear to my complete lack of depth perception. If something is flying I don't know how far away from me it is.

A battery powered tennis-racket shaped fly-zapper similar to those on this page
has saved our sanity many times.
www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=fly+zappers&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=8915363433&hvpos=1t3&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5508518821213750105&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_6ktl82ya3h_b

also net window screens
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=insect+screens&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ainsect+screens

Otherwise cbt to tackle the fear itself, if you can get it...

We had the same problem up until a few weeks back!! My daughter received a bug catcher set from ELC for her birthday! And I thought put it away and never bring it out!! Lol. But my son started playing with it by putting ants in the box and using the magnifier glass to have a close look etc and to my surprise my daughter took to playing with it to! Since then she has really calmed and doesn't get freaked out with insects anymore! I am not sure it will help but might be an idea to try!! I think with my daughter it's being scared of the unknown but since seeing them up close they are not these horrid little things that fly past and make a buzzing noise!

when dd was young and she and I were in a flat there was an ants nest built in the wall and they crawled through. She was terrified. I plainly said "if its in your house give it a headache and I gave her a fly swat and told her that was the magic headache wand :)

I didnt sleep much that night as all I heard was my 3 yr old shouting "hes got headache Mum!" about every few minutes or so lol!

DS went through this phase at about 4 and jumped at anything that flew or moved so I gave him a magic headache wand too. If its in the house it gets a headache, if its in the wendy house it gets a headache but outside it has the right to fly and if you press a button and magic want will woosh it away instead. That worked for me and now he will quite happily go up and look at anything.

Thanks very much for all your ideas. Maybe a bug set would be a good idea and I like the magic wand too! :)

Thanks everyone. x