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Is this normal toddler behavior or should I seek


coasterqueen wrote: help?

I'll try to keep this short as possible. Last weekend (not the one we just had but the one before that) we were taking a walk as a family and occasionally on our walk we'd stop so Kylie could roll down the hills. happy.gif Anyways, when we got home she wanted to keep rolling down the hills. Dh told her that it was time to come in and that she might get chiggers if she keeps playing in the grass as long as she had. So I convinced her to ride her tricycle instead. So she did for a second, then got off of it and FREAKED OUT. She started shaking and pointing at the bike telling me to put it in the box and that it was going to roll down the hill into the river. Well the river is a ways back and on the opposite side of the yard so that didn't make sense. But she went balistic so I put the bike in the box and we went inside.

The next morning and ever since then she won't come out of the house into the garage unless she knows the bike is in the box. At first I just shrugged this off but this past Thursday night we took the girls to the mall to get their pics taken. We finished at the studio and went to the food court to grab a bite to eat. Kylie was sitting at the table across from me and Megan was in her stroller right beside the talbe. Megan started getting fussy so I was rocking the stroller back and forth. All of a sudden Kylie went literally FREAK-OID on us, screaming in the middle of the food court, shaking frantically, yelling for me to put the stroller in the van. I tried to calm her down and find out why she wanted me to do it. All she was say is it was going to roll down the steps. dunno.gif

So DH and I decided we needed to figure out what was going on. I call her sitter to see if anything abnormal happened at her house regarding anything with wheels and she said no. She said Kylie rides the bikes there, gets in the grocery carts, etc when with her and very recent as well.

Ok, then yesterday we went to Sears to get Dh something for his shop vac. Kylie was beside me while DH was talking to the salesman and Megan was in the shopping cart. She started to fuss and I pushed the cart back and forth and AGAIN Kylie went BALISTIC. I can't even describe how outrageously FREAKED out she was. We aren't talking like a tantrum, we are talking like something so HUGE that people were staring, I couldn't calm her down, she was so scared, shaking, etc. She told me to put the cart away.

So all I can assume is it has something to do with wheels moving. dunno.gif Nothing weird has happened to her lately either. The only other thing DH and I can think of is she has a "Meet Strawberry Shortcake" dvd and the baby is in a wagon and the wagon gets hit and rolls down the hill towards the river and they all go running after her. So we watched it, thinking she would start freaking out but she didn't and we also talked to her about it and she didn't seem to be bothered.

Do you think I should seek help for her or could this be something that's normal? dunno.gif

jcc64 replied: I would think some weird scary thought got into her head somewhere along the way (the video seems likely to be the culpret), and you may never be able to make sense of it. Toddlers are notorious for large and looming irrational fears- I've seen watered down versions of this type of behavior in Corey before. I think it's the convergence of a toddler's need for control and autonomy with a blossoming but still very immature imagination. I know it's a departure from the monsters-in-my-closet type of fear, but it's on the same continuum, I think. For Corey- it's an intense fear of taking a dump. Does it make sense to anyone but her- no- but it's her reality and we're all stuck with it. You'll find ways to calm her down, help her address her fears, etc and she will move beyond it eventually. In the meantime, I would try to ignore the alarmed stares of disturbed onlookers as much as possible.

moped replied: Gee, that sounds terrible for her......I can't think of what that would be...somethingos obviously bothering her BUT WHAT? I think I need to think on this one!

stanleygirl replied: Kieran went through a stage right before his 2nd bday, and he was terrified of grass! Exactly as you described he would shake and scream, and it was awful. To make matters worse BIL and SIL would laugh at him and force him onto the grass. That did NOT help at all, so I said enough and made it clear that if he didnt want to touch grass then so be it, and let him grow accustomed to it in his own good time. And he did, now it is a distant memory for us.
I think it is very common for toddlers to have extreme fears like this,and with love and support she should get over this too. Sorry I can't be of more help!!

Good luck

DansMom replied: That's definitely interesting! I bet it's the video too, or a dream she had that wasn't quite clearly a dream to her.

ediep replied: yea, i was going to say maybe a dream...or maybe the video caused her to have a dream about it. Poor girl, sounds so scary!

gr33n3y3z replied:
maybe she knows that the video is fake but she also knows that if it happened in real life ppl. could get hurt.

mammag replied: I would be inclined to think the video as well. Hope it gets better soon. Poor little thing!

Kirstenmumof3 replied: dunno.gif I would think if this continues talking to your pediatrician about what is going on. I hope things get better! grouphug.gif

mckayleesmom replied: I don't know....Mckaylee will go swimming but is absolutely terrified of the sprinkler. She also won't get on any of the animals that move...like horse rides in front of the stores or any carnival rides,,,basically anything that moves...She hates the swings at the park also.

ian'smommy replied: I don't really know what to think about that. But I do agree that toddlers do have extreme irrational fears. Ian will be 3 on the 8th and he has had 2 big fears. It seemed that out of nowhere he got totally freaked out by his toddler bed. I had such a hard time putting him to bed at night and he would constantly wake up too after crying for so long about the whole thing. This was about 6-7 months ago. I tried to talk to him and he told me that the bed bites. ohmy.gif Totally irrational, but he was convinced and he never slept in it again. He would sleep under it or on the floor beside it. Never again, in it. I was baffled. We finally took away his bed and just left the mattress. It helped, but he still fussed about it. We eventually, about 4 months ago or so, got him a regular sized twin bed. We haven't had a problem since. During all that time with that fear he also had an intense fear of taking a bath. He screamed and panicked like I'd never seen before. It started happening last August after he was with his aunt and uncle for a weekend. His aunt bathed him those 2 nights. Since then, bathing him at our home got difficult and it seemed to get worse and worse. I was at my wits end with it. So in February after months of dealing with it, I started taking him in the shower with me. He didn't like that either. He cried and didn't allow me to put him down, but it wasn't as intense as his reaction to the bath. Every time I took him in with me it got easier until he finally let me put him down. Then I introduced a bath again. I sat him in the empty tub and put the water in with him already in. It was different than just dropping him into an already full tub. He now loves his baths. All I can think of is to keep talking to her. Ask her when she isn't upset, why she gets so scared when things like that are going on. Eventually she may tell you. It will get better... Wish I could say something else to help. Good luck. thumb.gif

mummy2girls replied: That is very odd! but i agree toddlers can get wioerd fobias. jenna she can go in tht ebatha nd let me as well but the pool..she wont go near it unless its just her feet. And if i get in she gets balistic because she wants me to come out as if im going to drown.

MommyToAshley replied: Sorry I missed this post. But, I would bet it has something to do with the video as well. I think fears like that are normal for Kylie's age and I wouldn't be overly concerned. I am just not sure what to suggest to help her get over the fear... I hope this stage passes quickly.

mommyangie replied: I have read in some books regarding toddler behavior recently that it's very normal for a kid this age (around age 3 and up) to have fears of things. The fears can come out of nowhere to the parent, but be a very big deal to the little toddler. They can have something that seems very small to us that will trigger a big fear for them. It sounds completely normal to me after the books I have read recently.

coasterqueen replied: Thanks everyone. This phobia of hers is really making things difficult because we can't even put Megan in the stroller right now. rolleyes.gif As it is I told Dh make sure she doesn't see one of us pull in or out of the drive in the car or she'd freak out about that and wouldn't get in the car. Whew! I hope it goes away soon.

Josie83 replied: Karen I'm so sorry, I don't know how I missed this! blush.gif I agree with what Jeanne said (and others, but hers is the post that sticks in my mind). Kids this age do get a lot of irratnional fears, generally about stuff that they (and you) can't control. I hope that it passes soon grouphug.gif xx

mommyangie replied: I would try not to let her have her way about putting your younger child in a stroller. I think I would try to figure out a way to let her know you have to have the baby in the stroller. She will get over her fear soon and go on to something else, but in the meantime I wouldn't let her control whether or not you put your other child in a stroller. I would think up some kind of trick to get her to agree with it. In the book I read they said to have a bottle of water and use it as a spray to get rid of bad things. Maybe you can spray a bit on the stroller and tell her that it's okay now and you sprayd the bad away. laugh.gif Just a thought. You have to remember that at this young age they take anything and everything to heart so she would probably believe you. It sounds silly but if it works to get her through this rough patch then I would try it.


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