Thunderstorms

[no1abbafan]

Not sure if anybody can help but any advice would be grateful. I have a 5 year old boy who is terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks. He cant handle the noise. Last night there were a couple of rumbles of thunder in our area, nothing much, but enought to freak him out, he got so upset he made himself sick, which he has never done before. Now we are heading into Halloween/Bonfire night etc.. there will be fireworks going off from the end of this month, I suppose. Can anybody give me some ideas on how to get him over this, we talk to him, explain he can't get hurt etc.. but he is so hysterical it doesnt seem to through.

[Jojo]

Is he too scared to watch them? Through a closed window? My 4 year old hates the loud noises but once he starts watching the fireworks, he settles down a bit (albeit sat on my knee having a big hug).

With thunder, mine also hated it, until he saw an episode of Balamory. In it, Archie explained that it was like popcorn popping in the sky above the clouds, and demonstrated it with some popcorn too, so my lad could visualise it a lot easier - its worked for him. That might help - good luck.

[no1abbafan]

Thanks Jojomum, he wont even look at fireworks, hands go over his ears and he disappears behind the couch or under a table. They tried at school to tell him that the angels were playing bowling and that was the sound but he wasn't having any of it. Its like there is a block there and he wont be talked round.

[Jojo]

I think the loudness is the main problem - what about ear plugs (special ones you can get for children for when they are flying etc) - maybe if he can't hear them has the ear plugs in and then sees them, he'll start to realise there is nothing to worry about. Mine have all been scared of them (not to this degree, but certainly of them) and they have all (bar my baby) grown out of it. Its trying to keep him occupied whilst they are all going off, although that can be anytime when the lead up to bonfire night etc is happening.

[Siobhan]

this is not going to help at all but my brother was 16 before he stopped been afraid of thunder and fireworks.. it took a lot of work from my mother to get him to look at thunder storm. With my little girl I just tell her it is a camera taking photos and I get her to look at the different colour fireworks and she has to guess what colour is next.. she is not afraid anymore

[no1abbafan]

Thanks for the tips - might try the ear plugs, It's not a problem to carry them in my handbag amongst all the other children's stuff

[pinkfirefly]

Not sure if this will help but when my son hears a thunderstorm he thinks the rumbles are a train coming and when it flashes the train has crashed, he's mad on thomas the tank.

not sure on fireworks though, but you could adapt what I did with Lion's. - We went to the zoo and a big lion was roaring really loud when he was little and it made him really scared of them, he was even scared of pictures of them afterwards so eventually after many tears and tantrums I pretended to be a lion and whilst on all fours I started to roar at him really loudly and make him jump which made his dad fall about laughing at me and then he started to laugh and now he pretends to be a lion and scare me, so now he thinks there really cool. So you could adapt that method to loud bangs.