Toddler Cooking: Combating Fears With Food

At about 18 months old, Miss 2 developed a fear of vacuum cleaners, which then extended to a fear of most electrical appliances that make loud noises, including hair dryers, hand dryers, lawn mowers, mixers... One day, she had gone for her nap and I was making a cake using the mixer. I realised that she was in her room crying, because she was afraid of the noise, but when I pointed out that I was making a cake, she announced "I like cake!" and went to sleep.

The way to her heart is through her stomach.

We decided to help her to learn that loud noises don't have to be scary by letting her use the juicer. So, when we have uneaten fruit and vegetables on the weekend, we make juice out of them. An adult cuts up the fruit and vegetables and Miss 2 feeds them into the noisy juicer, under close supervision.

 And then she is allowed to drink the juice, which is quite a treat.

This system means that now she is no longer scared of loud electrical appliances, although she does give them suspicious looks when they're in action and is still not impressed by lawn mowers.

Have you come up with clever ways of helping a toddler combat their fears?

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