Anxious Toddler?
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Category: Have A Baby?
Forum Name: Toddler Times
Forum Description: Is bubs growing up and getting into everything? How do you train them to use the potty? When do you start feeding solids? Share your tips and advice here!
URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6284
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Topic: Anxious Toddler?
Posted By: caraMel
Subject: Anxious Toddler?
Date Posted: 22 March 2007 at 8:51am
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Just wondering if it is common for kids around 2.5 - 3 to suddenly develop anxieties?
Just in the last couple of weeks I've noticed Ella becoming anxious about random things, that have never been apparent before. For example, BIL & SIL were babysitting on Friday night and when we got home they told us about how when BIL had raised his hand to give her a high 5, she'd cringed and said 'Don't hit me!' She was the same a few days later when I got a knife out of the kitchen drawer, she cried 'Don't cut me Mummy!' (Needless to say we have never hit her or cut her with knives!) When Daddy leaves for work now she often frets as he walks down the stairs 'Daddy don't fall!' and when he's driven off she worries about if he is coming home again. There are other things too, but I can't think of them all right now. Things at home haven't changed or been more stressful than usual and the majority of the time she is her usual happy self, so is this just another stage of development or is this something I should be concerned about? In the past I've had anxiety disorders, I really don't want my kids going through that! ------------- Mel, Mummy to E: 6, B: 4 and: 
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Replies:
Posted By: Roksana
Date Posted: 22 March 2007 at 9:33am
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Hmmmmm...thats a bit weird!!
May be she watched a movie or heard some one say some thing along the line of cutting, hitting, dying etc...and now its registered in her mind? does she go to Day care? May be some thing is going on there?? I dont know really but I was all grown up when my Bro was at that age, and I have cousins and never heard that before.... May be you guys should sit down with her and when she is all relaxed then ask her casually why she has been worried about things like that?? You never know, she might tell you! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 22 March 2007 at 9:43am
Hmmm I'm with Roksana... scary stories, news on TV, movies? Do you live anywhere near the recent Hutt Valley stabbing incident with that guy and his kids? It was all over the news and some of her friends may be anxious about it and spreading stories. Poor girl!  -------------  |
Posted By: mum2paris
Date Posted: 22 March 2007 at 2:11pm
Kids at early childhood places can scare them too - they can get ideas from what other kids say and do when playing (especially boys who like to scare them and talk about fighting and shooting and cutting and monsters!).. icky boys!).
Paris started talking about werid things.. about 2 or 3 months ago, she one day screamed really loud and suddenly came tearing down the hallway after playing in her room happily, talking all about a black monster that had gone under her bed. She could describe it, and said it had stood there and had it's back to her and then went under her bed. we went through all the things of "was it a spider?/a fly/shadows,imagining about dogs, maybe she saw something out of the corner of her eye as she moved etc" she got angry at us because she thought we were making fun of her, and we searched under her bed, and showed her nothing was there. For about a month she wouldn't even go in her room cos "the black monster" was in there, we had trouble at bedtime.. she wouldn't even go up the hallway without one of us with her. We just kept reassuring her and teling her that mummy and daddy were here to keep her safe, that monsters are make beleive and there was nothing there, and bit by bit it slowly faded out, cannot remember the last time she actually said about it and she happily plays in her room again no problems. So yes, they get weird anxieties.. just keep doing the same as you always have and she'll know theres a safe base to always return to, the same routine etc, Reassure her and ask her why she though these things are going to happen.. sometimes it's good to nut out what it is that made them make that connection. Ie do you ever say to her when she's going down stairs "be careful not to fall" or something like that?.. at this age they also get concerns over other people too cos they start to realise theres a whole lot more out there than just their own little world ------------- Janine and her 2 cool chicks, Paris & Ayja 
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Posted By: meow
Date Posted: 22 March 2007 at 2:26pm
My Ella just developed a fear of the dark a few nights ago. So I'd say yep, this is a phase too  We have no idea why she's scared, she wants us to leave the door open "a little bit" so that it's light in her room, therefore taking ages to go to sleep  ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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