14th month old scared of her surroundings??

M

mayami

Registered User
I have a lovely, happy 14 months old daughter, who gets scared of her surroundings almost daily .. like the curtain in her bedroom, dad-mom's foot, loud noise of the vaccum to name a few.

What I dont understand is what triggers such behaviour? Is this normal for a 14month old? Is it something to do with her personality , something she is unhappy of? Something she is trying to convey us but we dont get it? Does anyone have a similar experience? How long did it stay?

I'm worried that this should not affect her personality , may be i'm thinking too far but i seriously have this in my mind and need help/guidance?

We are full time working parents and try to catch up with our daughter in the mornings before work or evening/night if we she is awake. Weekends are totally dedicated to her. She is accompanied by her nanny during the week and is very much comfortable with her.
 
I have a 17month old and like yours is easily scared of her surroundings. She is just timid. When she was a newborn, she loves white goods noise but we noticed from around 11-12months she started to get scared of vacuum noise. It is usually if she has her full concentration on something - playing with her toys, watching tv/iPad etc...she gets a jump and quickly drop whatever she is doing and run to the nearest adult. She also jumps when someone suddenly come out of a room or suddenly just call out to her or whoever else in the flat. This usually happens when she has her full concentration on something and isn't 'prepared' for the sudden change in her environment.

My husbands 3yr old niece is afraid of the vacuum cleaner - the hose - as she thinks it looks like a snake! lol

Personally, I just think it is part of their personality coming out. Just like how some people are more daring, confident, active, assertive etc..we also have some that are somewhat less confidence, shy, timid. To me, I don't think you can teach someone certain traits of personality eg. to be less shy, fear but you can expose them to an environment to help them overcome it.

With my daughter, she is getting better (less scared) as she grows older. She doesnt really jump on noise that much anymore. I feel it helped when we exposed her to different environment often eg. Surrounded with screaming/loud active kids in playroom, going out to malls, going away on holiday etc..instead of being at home all the time.
 
My older daughter used to be scared of some things like that. What I found helped her was to familiarise her with those objects in a less "scary" setting. For example, she was mainly scared of the vacuum cleaner's noise - so I would bring it out and not turn it on, try to show it to her, show her the buttons and the hose. Whenever I needed to turn it on, I would warn her first and even tell her to cover her ears if she wanted. With time, she grew less scared. Also things like the curtains, she might be scared of the shapes they are making. If you take them down (if possible) and let her see that it's just a big piece of fabric... maybe scrunch it up and play with it... that kind of thing might make it less scary. Often things are scary because they are foreign and not understood. If you can teach her about them in a non-threatening environment, that may help.
 
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