Need Advice for Dealing with Fears

I dealt with this very thing when my son was approximately 5 years old! He was terrified of insects, particularly crickets and misquitoes. My husband and I always reassured him and told him that the insects were afraid of him because he was so much bigger. We would sigh and say, "Poor misquito, he is so afraid of you. He is singing a good moring song to you just to say hi." We would shake our heads and walk away, not wanting to drive the point home too much. The point was to give him some cognitive techniques to manage his fears. We had to teach him to restructure his thoughts (fear) into something more palatable. In the same way, we referred to crickets as "Jimminy Cricket", a character he was familiar with and who was safe and cute. We would say, "Did Jimminy say hello this morning? What was he up to?" That way my son could think of it in a different and more safe way. My son continued to disdain insects (later it was spiders)and to this day does not like them. He did however find a way to deal with his fears so that they didn't control him. He is now almost 20 and he (and we) laugh at those memories.

L.

Sounds like its time for a bug project. Have her help you learn about bugs. Cool facts, neat colors, what they eat (and don't eat). Help her find out that bugs can be cool not scary!

Have you been to the Peggy Notabart Nature museum in Chicago? They have neat exhibits with different insects, reptiles and amphibians in aquariums that your daughter could look at, knowing they will not touch her. There is also a butterfly garden - although they're insects, somehow kids are never afraid of butterflies! There are scientists there who could talk to her and answer questions. Hopefully a controlled environment could help her "get to know" what she's afraid of, and see that insects can actually be beautiful and interesting! Good luck!

Dear S.,

I agree with a bug project. My daughter is two and is afraid of bugs also. I have been reading books to her about the different bugs. When we are out side, we play a game about stepping on the bugs and ants. This seems to be helping. My daughter was waking up every hour screaming no bugs. Now she is only getting up about once a night and I can hear her stomp on the ground and then get back into bed. Good Luck.
B.

This sounds like" I don't feel safe or protected." I would work on reinforcing the world is safe and how to protect a person. I would start with mosquito repellent( small) and go to how she can get help from grown ups and who is safe to ask for help.
Just a thought,