Fear of Smoke Detectors and Vents

Hi, I know this was posted years ago, but I was wondering if you ever figured out a way to help him with this fear. My 2.5 year old is scared of the smoke detectors in our apt. This happened out of no where and nothing provoked it. One day she was just scared of them. She won't sleep in her room. She has to sleep with me. If I put her in her bed after she's asleep she'll wake up SCREAMING, and I mean SCREAMING, in the middle of the night. My husband and I have no idea how to handle this. We have explained to her that it's helpful and gone through any kind of explanation we could to help her understand smoke detectors are not scary things! She's a smart girl! I mean, she's starting to sound out words and everything. I just don't understand where this fear is coming from. Any help would be appreciated.

He's probably fearing a fire in your house. the smoke detectors have made it a real possibility to him. Get some books from the library about firefighters and fire safety. October is fire safety month so look for local events. Maybe even see if you can get a tour of the fire station. Educating him about what to do will give him some power over the situation and hopefully make him less fearful.

Hi K.:
I think your toddler was frightened,when they installed the smoke detectors. They are a new addition to his enviroment. I'm sure they had to be tested, before they left. He probably is a bit frightened, by the fact that these new things added to his room and yours, make this gosh awful sound,and its scary.If hes like most little boys,he probably loves fire-engines. Maybe it would be worth it, to take him to see the fire-engines,and let the firemen explain what they are,and that they will only make a loud noise,to warn him and his parents if there were ever smoke from a fire.I wish you and your growing boy the best.

Hi K., I can't imangine anything in a smoke detectors that would cause a child to be scared of them, I have a smoke dettector and a carbonmanoxised detector in my daycare room, and the kids are all different ages and none of them are afraid of them, The only thing i can think of, was strangers came into the home and put those in, maybe that is why they are afraid of them. I would hold them up let them touch it so they see it is safe. J. L.

Never seen that one...but, my son recently became afraid of the dark. He will not walk into a room without a night light, otherwise he wants me to carry him. So, we went to my favorite place and I let him pick out night lights for the house. Then we went and plugged them in all over the place where he was afraid, and now he's all over the house AGAIN!

I like the suggestion of letting your son pick out stickers or things that make the detectors less intimidating. Our local Fire Stations do tours all the time for the local schools, see if you can get a play group together to go to one and ask them to talk about fire detectors. If they tested it before they left and he heard it, he may afraid it's going to make the noise all by itself for no reason. Those things even scare me when they go off, but I guess that's the point right?

The sleep thing could definitely be a factor in his behavior. My little dude, gets super cranky with others when he hasn't gotten a good nights rest and isn't a pleasure to be around...

Did any other changes happen around the same time, that he might associate with the change in his room? When my son started his visitation with his Dad, he refused to go in my room whilst home with Grandma...her friend suggested it was because I was the hand-off person and this new change disrupted his routine and hense the aversion to Mommy's room. Never would have put that together, but I made extra efforts to make the hand-off happy and smooth, and now he's over 'mommy's room being bad'.

good luck.

Let me preface this by saying that I have no experience with this, but just thought of a few ideas for you!

What about letting your son pick out some of his favorie stickers and let him place them on the wall/ceiling AROUND the smoke detector? (not ON TOP of it of course, because it could interfere with the smoke detector's function) Or pictures of Sponge Bob or whoever he's into? Or maybe you could hang a mobile or toy airplane or something else in his room to distract him from looking at it?

On vents you could let him attach a pinwheel to the front of them so that when air comes out it spins? Or some colorful small ribbons?

And yes, my son gets a bit more aggressive when he isn't sleeping well. Usually doesn't last more than two days and once he gets a good night's sleep he's back to normal!

Let us all know how you solved it. Good luck!