Parents of Preschoolers  Discussion Forum

My daughter is 3 years old. She is extremely attached to me. When she was an infant she never went to anyone, I was the only one who could hold her( she would cry every time we went to some elses house). To get her out of this I took her to play groups. She recently started preschool. She had a hard time in the beginning, but then she was fine. Just when I thought things were getting better, we met a friend of ours who has child younger than her. That child never did anything to my daughter. But for some reason my daughter is terrified of her. Now, everytime she sees a child younger than her she just starts screaming and starts telling me that she needs to leave. It is very difficult to control her. The last time this happened we were at a restaurant, and alittle girl just came up to her to say Hi! to her. She got extremely terrified. I feel really bad for her.
Please give me some advise on how to handle this.

toothpaste replied. HI there this is toothpaste
A Child's mind is like a hot wax, whatever impression, so created persists for a while till some other incident makes its impression.
Interaction is the key ingredient to fight the fear problem. Interact with her in a way that would help her to give an exodus to her fears. For instance, tell her a story say, about a girl like her who was in some kind of trouble and how a little girl helped her to come out of her troubles. She should be made to understand that little girls are friends and not enemies.
draw a picture of a girl abouther age holding hands or playing with a little girl and paste it somewhere in her room.
Show her movies that would help her get rid of her fear, like Monster inc, where in even fearfull monsters can be a childs darling....
Expose her to other kids and demonstrate her that how other kids of her age love thier younger brother or sister.
With time u shall see those fear would vanish. Sangitaa replied. This technique (or for that matter, any one) takes a few weeks to work......so have patience:-) Sangitaa replied. Just try not to make a big deal about it in front of her. It could be that you're getting either panicked or worried whenever such a situation arises. Your body language speaks volumes louder than your words. Just try to be as matter of fact and non challant as you can. Just try to shrug her shyness off, and try not to push her to socialize. Eventually she'll realise that its no big deal....By sympathising with her, you're indirectly feeding the problem. I used to be a very shy kid, but i've turned out perfectly alright as an adult! Try distraction techniques before she faces a social situation. Inspite of all these remedies if you still see no results, then maybe you need to talk to a doctor if she might have some kind of social anxiety disorder.