Jenn - posted on 12/01/2008 ( 2 moms have responded )
1
17
A couple of weeks ago I put my son to bed and then started cooking dinner. I accidentally set the fire alarms off and he woke up screaming. Now anything that sounds at all like that, the washer, the doorbell, my husband's electric razor sets him into a panic. I've tried everything I can think of to help him get over this but nothing has worked. Any suggestions? Or do I just have to let time work this all out? Thanks!
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Heather - posted on 12/01/2008
77
6
The other night, my son (who is 17 months old) was playing down the hall in his bedroom. It was dark in there but that's never been a problem for him before he just wanders around and comes back out, usually bored because it's too dark to play.
Well the other night he was down the hall and he pushed a button on the noisemaker I keep in his room. It has all kinds of soothing sounds but I keep it on one called "sunrise." The noise it makes is very quiet so I have the machine turned up to block out some of the noise from the rest of the house when he's napping. Anyway, he pushed the button that plays loons. You should have heard him shriek when they started ululating at nearly top volume in there!
I was cooking dinner at the time and I heard my son scream and my husband laugh. Apparently my son had hot-footed it out of the room and nearly run past my husband, howling with terror the whole way. "I didn't even know he could run that fast." my husband said.
Sure it was cute, a great story to chuckle over when he gets older, but now he's really jumpy about both noises and the dark. I have worked with him since he was a baby to get him comfortable with both and he seems to have lost it with one push of the button. Now in the dark he is reluctant to move even a step and says " dark. scare you." It makes me so sad.
I guess the only think You can do Jenn is to let him know when you are going to do something noisy like vacuum or wash clothes. I bring my son into the kitchen, for example, when I am going to use the food processor and say. "Mama's going to be noisy. Big noise" and I hold him while I grind the food. He's already showing improvement when it comes to noise (just a little, instead of howling, now he just hides his face in my shoulder) but I think it'll be a while before he trusts the dark again.
Amy - posted on 12/01/2008
8
40
My daughter is now 3, and she's always been sensitive to loud noises. Just reassure him that he's ok, and teach him to put his hands over his ears.
All in all, reacting to smoke alarms is not a bad thing - some kids sleep right through them.
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