nearly 3yr old terrified by loud noises

[senectus]

My boy has always been wary of loud noises, but it's not getting any better and I'm a bit concerned about it.

We took him to a "fair" or "Show" in Perth's northern suburbs on the weekend, and when the fireworks display started he was so terrified he was shaking and his little heart was hammering away while cried and repeated "Don't want, Don't want, Don't want" over and over...

I had to leave at that point because he was obviously seriously distressed by it all.

He also gets frightened by Loud motorbikes (like Harley's), or hotted up cars and the like.

Has anyone else had this with their kids at that age?
We do live a very quiet life, we're not overly social people so I'm wondering if this is in part because of that. Maybe we need to introduce him to more public life activities?

[simonecuttlefish]

I have no idea, but it should be something worth speaking to a professional about. Some kids develop fears, and I've heard that loud sounds can be one of them, or dogs, or water, or all sorts of things.

There might be some kind of hypersensitivity to sound as well, so it's definitely getting his hearing checked out. This sounds like something a professional really should be consulted about. It might just be nothing, but if it's a fear association with some other problem it really should be looked into. I used to have all sorts of things, like a shark that lived under my bed, and I would wake up, wet with sweat and paralysed with fear if my arm was over the edge. I could barely breathe and not even move or call out.

It wasn't a shark of course, but there was a problem, I was just turning it into a shark.

[bruce1937]

Yes, my second daughter loved fireworks but was terrified by the sound at that age.
She grew out of it eventually, we watched from inside the car a distance away so that the noise was very low.
An interesting strategy I have heard for dogs that are scared of loud noises, is to play the noise of lightning or whatever the problem is, quietly, while they are being fed and they learn to associate the noise with something enjoyable.
It may be worth a try to see if it helps.

[Goldenmane]

Protes knows about noise.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

I don't have much experience with children who hate noise, although I do understand their situation; It's private messagin' time!

[senectus]

Wow, several of you have noise sensitivities.

Quite surprising, I wonder what the Per capita numbers are on this.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I suspect that he's no different from other kids from what you've said and PM'd.

But I'll keep an eye on other potential warning signs.

[66 vegie]

I've sent you a PM..about my son and the same problem.

[Senexis]

Yeah mate, my now 5yo was scared by loud noises when he was younger. We took him to a Wiggles concert and had to leave during the opening because it freaked him out so much. And we were near the back, y'know?

He grew out of it, but it stuck with him a while.