Irrational fears...

Jackson is really perplexing me at the moment.

Ever since he was a baby he has been terrified of the vacuum cleaner. When we found out about his sensory issues we figured it had something to do with the pitch of the noise or something. But he also freaks out about the dust buster, so I don't know.

This morning he had an absolute hysterical meltdown when he saw his dad with the iron. And just before I was going to the loo and J was in the bathroom happily wandering around. He went up to the shower and was touching the glass and I said "Shower" to him as I normally would to teach him words and he completely lost the plot. He raced over screaming and saying "Up! Up" (note I am still on the loo!) and was inconsolable, clinging and sobbing. I have only just been able to calm him down now about half an hour, and he freaks out whenever I look to be going somewhere.

He's normally happily independent at home, so I just don't understand this. Once he vomited on himself and I had to give him a shower, he didn't like it but wasn't freaked out. And it was me saying shower that made him cry.

This seems irrational to me and I don't get it. Do kids have strange fears like this and is it normal to flip out? Do they grow out of it? I don't want Jackson to have bizarre fears as he gets older. It's just so strange.

Any comments or experience would be greatly appreciated!

Puppies. Completely irrational - we have a whopping great hellhound at home who she spends all day playing with.... She loves other dogs, but puppies are very, very scary... Tears and screaming and needing to be held, and more crying if the puppy looks at her or walks past....

Chloe hates showers. She goes nuts when I'm in the shower, even if I'm in there with Ollie and we are bothing smiling/laughing away she will just scream like we are being tortured until we get out, even though DH will be hugging her etc.

She used to hate the lawn mower and the vacuum cleaner but she's okay with them now.

Chloe has meltdowns about all sorts of things... like if I try take her socks off. She even wears them to bed.

Lilly has developed all sorts of fears. She use to like riding on the bus but now whenever we walk pass the stop in town we have a complete meltdown. She use to love everything about the bath (even the water going down the drain) but now if we give her a bath (its normally a shower now) when we say its time to get out soon she goes crazy trying to climb out in absolute fear. There are so many more but I will just leave it at that.

LittleBug wrote: Chloe has meltdowns about all sorts of things... like if I try take her socks off. She even wears them to bed.

LOL! Cute!

Good thought Emz, but I don't think so. He is nervous around new people and really does freak out when we go into hospitals, especially when we go into "a room" (two trips for emergency patching up in the last couple of weeks!!), which I think it due to all the poking and prodding all his life, but we've not noticed anything else like that.

That said, he might just end up being a bit of a nervous kid because of what he's been through.

You're right though about the age, I think he is just starting to get the concept of scary, and you can never tell what goes through their wee minds.

Poor wee Jack... hope he outgrew/outgrows it!

Lilly loves the doctors. She explores all the different things in the room and when the doctor is examining her she will sit there calm as. But I guess she has never been that sick (hospital sick)

DD is terrified of the vaccum, she always has been. When she sees me getting it out, she runs at full speed to the couch and hides under the pillows saying "Mummy off, Mummy off" and cries the entire time I am vaccuming.

She also saw a bird die the other day, it flew into our window and flapped around a bit and then died. Now every time she sees any kind of animal she asks me if it has died

Oh I forgot to say Chloe's most annoying one...

She hates if people have their feet on her chair. So when DH or I rest our feet up on the side of her highchair or something she gets really annoyed and says "no! no! no! no!" and waves her arms frantically until the offending foot is removed from her chair.

Tom doesnt like the vacuum either...but James starts grooving to it ...actually this worked well for us one day. We had left a shop and Tom was throwing a tanty about going back inside. We told him we were going home and he told us he was going to the shop...just as he walked in the door a girl started vacuuming....he ran out screaming with tears streaming down. She felt awful...we were laughing.

Tom is obsessed with the shower but screams if we turn it on...go figure?

there are some other equally random things but I cant think off the top of my head.

Oh, with the bath...get some bath crayons. they work wonders for enticing stubborn little people into the bath.