04.06.2017

What to do if a child is afraid of insects. Fear of insects in a child

What to do if a child is afraid of insects?

This question came to me in direct message: “Good evening! I really hope for your help, since I already don’t have enough strength and nerves: (my 2.9-year-old son has become sharply afraid of flies; at the sight or sound he falls into terrible hysterics! I’m trying to explain to him what they are kind, cute little flies, but it’s like he doesn’t hear me! He’s so dumbfounded! Please help me with your professional advice! Now to go to kindergarten, I can’t imagine how they’ll persuade him to go for a walk :(

He's been watching cartoons about spiders for two months now, there's nothing there that could scare him! Just a week ago, it was a hot day and a lot of insects appeared, just like clouds (we live in a village), he tensed up from their buzzing, and at one moment he waved his hands and apparently accidentally scratched himself or pricked himself with clothes, and at that time he saw a fly and it seemed to him that it had bitten him! And now he is afraid that the fly will bite :(

We treat insects absolutely calmly, we don’t show any reactions at all)"

Typically, children begin to be afraid of insects if the adults themselves react nervously to them, flinch at the sight of a bug or throw off a spider with disgust. In other words, they focus on their negative emotions associated with insects. If this is not the case, then children usually treat all living beings, including insects, with curiosity and exploratory interest. They have no fear or disgust.

In the above story, the child formed the idea that flies can bring pain and discomfort, and therefore fear appeared.

What to do with the fear of insects and flies in particular?

1. If one of the adults reacts emotionally, nervously, or with disgust to any insects, you need to try to restrain yourself and not show your emotions in front of the child. Children feel the emotions and mood of adults very strongly. Especially moms. And the fact that the child began to be afraid of spiders, seeing his mother screaming and climbing onto a chair after seeing a small spider in the room, is not surprising.

In general, the mother’s emotional reaction plays a significant role. If a child begins to become hysterical after seeing a fly, the best behavior is to calm him down, maintaining his own calm, as if nothing terrible had happened. With understanding of the child’s feelings, but without their reinforcement regarding this situation: “Yes, I understand that you were scared. But there’s nothing to worry about, these flies are completely safe. Look, one landed on me. Everything is fine.”

2. It is necessary to show the child in every possible way that insects are safe. Take them in your hands, touch them. Let a fly land on you, let a ladybug land on your hand. You can catch a fly in a jar and give it to your child to hold.

3. Fairy tales, cartoons and stories with positive insect characters help very well. Avoid your child accidentally seeing an excerpt of some kind of science fiction with insect aliens or some other scary negative variations on this theme

4. Children are often afraid of insects because they do not understand what kind of animals they are. Therefore, you can buy your child an illustrated encyclopedia about insects that is appropriate for his age, where he could see how insects work, where they live and what they do.

5. Switch the child’s attention if you feel that he is very afraid and is about to start getting hysterical. Young children are good at switching. Find something interesting and draw your child's attention to it.

Dear readers, were your children ever afraid of insects? Or maybe you yourself as a child? What would you advise in the described situation?

First of all, let's define what it means to you to “overcome your fear of insects”? How will you know that the desired effect has been achieved? For some, “not being afraid of insects” means more or less calmly enduring the presence of them, without falling into a state of panic and hysteria, although without experiencing particularly tender feelings towards them. For others, this means bravely picking up spiders and cockroaches, playing with worms and raising bugs in a three-liter jar. What does the expression “not afraid of insects” mean to you?

It is very important to answer this question for yourself in order to understand your own limits in the help and support provided to the child. For example, think about it: do you want your child, having gotten rid of all his worries, with joyful cries, to place a hefty spider on your palm or lay it out on dining table green furry caterpillars, as you yourself did as a child? Or is it enough that the child, like you, simply may not react too emotionally to the appearance of this or that insect? Having decided on the answers to these questions, you can safely begin to take active action.

There are several extremely undesirable techniques when dealing with fear of insects. The first of them is associated with an attempt to overcome fear by force. In this case, parents, with the best intentions, try to place a spider or ant on the table in front of the child (and sometimes just on the hand) in order to show that they are not scary at all. Unfortunately, in most cases the effect is the opposite, and instead of disappearing, the fear of insects only intensifies.

Sometimes adults show a child how easy it is to crush an insect that frightens him, and invite him to try to do it himself: crush a cockroach with his foot or swat a fly with a newspaper. But showing aggression towards someone who causes fear does not mean getting rid of fear. If you think about it, this is how parents invite their child to commit, albeit small, murder. This is unlikely to be a positive educational lesson for a child! After all, it was not without reason that back in the fifth century BC the ancient Greek sage Pythagoras said: “Severely punish your child who is guilty of killing an insect: this is where homicide begins.”

Just as when working with the fear of water, working with the fear of insects is built “from simple to complex.” The techniques that will help your child get rid of their fears are very diverse and allow for all sorts of modifications in accordance with the interests and inclinations of your child.

The most common method in psychology of dealing with fears is drawing. Draw with your child huge spider, a butterfly or a mosquito - the one he is afraid of. Then take another piece of paper and draw a smaller version of the same insect. Then draw it a few more times until it becomes a dot. After this, all the drawings can be torn to shreds or even burned. In this way, by drawing, the child influences his own subconscious and helps it eliminate fear.

Perhaps after two or three such drawing sessions, your child’s fears will subside. If this does not happen, we will be patient and deal with the fear of insects step by step.

First, let's create a favorable background for conversations about insects. People close to the child need to demonstrate to him with all their appearance that they do not experience worries or fears about insects, even if this means gathering all their will into a fist. It is quite possible that before you help your child, you will have to help yourself by choosing one or another of the methods described below. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to maintain benevolent statements towards insects and resist attempts to warn the child from contact with them.

We need to radically revise the list of signs that we know in connection with insects. Here are a few examples of “positive” signs that may well compete with the horror signs listed above:

• A fly gets into food or drink - a gift.
• If a spider falls on your face from the ceiling, this is a good omen.
• Finding a spider on a dress means profit.
• Ants in the house are fortunate.
• Cockroaches in the house - to wealth.
• When there are no mosquitoes, there will be no harvest.
• A butterfly landing on your head means an interesting trip.
• A large beautiful butterfly circling overhead is a sign of money.

In situations of collision with insects, tell your child about these signs, make up stories that play with them. Even if they are not entirely truthful, the main thing is to help the child understand the abstract meaning of the signs using specific life examples.
Choose cartoons in which insects that frighten a child look kind, funny or touching. These could be the famous “The Tsokotuha Fly”, “The Dragonfly and the Ant”, “The Butterfly and the Tiger”, “Anansi the Spider”, “The Braggart Ant”, “Ant’s Journey”, etc. It is very important to watch these cartoons yourself before how to show them to a child. By doing this, you will kill two birds with one stone: make sure that there is nothing in the cartoon’s graphics that could aggravate fear, and think about how you can comment on them in order to achieve the most positive impression on the child.

If your child is interested in coloring books or puzzles, you can print out a picture with a frame from a cartoon that your child is already familiar with with a frightening insect and use it as an outline for a future drawing or cut it into fragments, like a mosaic. In this way, the child will gain the experience of touching the insect that frightens him.

When the child gets comfortable with talking about insects, you can move on to the next stage, which is quite difficult at first. Get a toy spider, cockroach or butterfly (depending on who your child is afraid of). It is important to pay great attention to the choice of this toy so that it is cute and not at all scary. If such a toy is difficult to find on sale, then it is quite possible that you will be able to sew it yourself. By the way, it has long been noticed that toys made by the hands of parents, in which a piece of their soul is invested, evoke much greater sympathy among children than store-bought ones.

Together with your child, come up with a funny story about how this creature ended up in your house, so that it becomes obvious to the child that it needs care and attention. Now you and your child can take all possible care of this toy - feed it, put it to bed, treat it.

Select fairy tales, poems and nursery rhymes dedicated to the insect that frightens the child, tell and discuss them. Organize your child's contact with insects that are not scary for him. Your ideal ally is the ladybug: almost no one is afraid of her, because everyone knows that she brings happiness. Take it in your hands and place it on the child’s palm (if he doesn’t mind, of course). Look closely at it together, highlighting its similarities to other insects. And finally, release it along with the saying:

Ladybug,
Fly to the sky
Bring us bread!
Black and white
Just not burnt!

Ladybug,
Fly to the sky
Your kids are there
Eating candy
They give it to all the kids,
But they don’t give Vanyushka

Look at the illustrations in the Encyclopedia of Insects, read different Interesting Facts from their lives, focusing the child’s attention on how they can benefit.

When the child agrees, show him the object of his fear “live” by placing a spider or butterfly in a glass glass and tightly closing it with a lid. Before taking on such a risky activity, let your child make sure that the glass closes very tightly and the insect has no way to get out of there. At first, perhaps, the child will only be comfortable if he is at a great distance from the glass. But after some time, hearing your surprised exclamations like “Look, he’s scratching his head with his paw” or “I think he’s smiling,” the child, driven by curiosity, will definitely come closer. Some children will even agree to “touch” a spider or bug through the glass.

By the way the child treats the insect in the glass, it will be clear how strong his fear remains. If he is ready to look at it closely or even touch the glass, it means you have achieved your goal
and the fear receded. There is no doubt that through
After some time, you will definitely be able to help your child cope with such fears!

So, if you want to rid your child of fear of insects, you shouldn’t:

• force a child to pick up an insect and place it on the child;
• Offer your child to kill an insect or do it yourself in front of his eyes.

You can help your child cope with his fear of insects in the following ways:

• drawing a frightening insect with a constant decrease in its size;
• organizing “non-scary” contacts with this insect (in cartoons, books, pictures for coloring, toys);
• studying the characteristics and lifestyle of insects using books or documentary videos;
• communication with insects that are not scary for the baby (for example, ladybugs) and with “scary” insects in a safe situation (when the insect is securely closed in a transparent container).

It's summer outside and there's a lot of people around insects, both very harmless and very dangerous. Of course, we, adults, are able to cope with the fear of insects, but small child This is not possible. Today we will talk about what to do if your baby is afraid of insects and how to cope with this phobia.

Caution towards insects was not accidental, since it was precisely this that helped our ancestors continue to exist. Today bites Many insects, as well as the infections they transmit, do not pose a particular threat to humans. However, we all know cases where the bite of a very small flying and crawling creature could lead to death. A cockroach makes us feel disgusted, and we associate flies, bedbugs and fleas with dirt, various diseases and products that have expired.

What are the causes of entomophobia?

Why kids so afraid of insects? What is the reason? Or maybe the parents themselves are to blame for this? Think and try to remember if you showed any particular hostility to insects in front of your child. In most cases, toddlers borrow their fears from adults. And if a child saw his mother scream loudly when he saw a small caterpillar, then he, when faced with this creature, will react in the same way. After all, if a mother, so big and strong, is afraid of this strange insect, then the baby himself has something to fear. And don't be surprised by this! And in order not to “infect” your baby with such a phobia, you need to learn to control your emotions.

Opportunistic insects

It is well known that some insects are opportunists who live at the expense of man. The butterfly can do it on its own, but cockroaches or mosquitoes take advantage of us.

“Oh, cockroach, hit him” - quite natural reaction any person. Of course, cockroaches are not welcome in any home. Seeing this “monster”, you want to take a slipper or a newspaper and slam it down. But don't shout loudly. And it’s even better to deal with these insects without a child. This is, after all, the killing of a living creature, even a pest. The child shouldn't see this. Stay calm, don't let your emotions out and don't show your hostility to your baby.

How to help your child overcome his fear of insects?

1. Explain to your child that not every insect is dangerous. Often, children under five years old watch insects with interest and are quite friendly towards them. He just studies them, thus trying to understand the world around him. The phobia arises closer to the age of five and is accompanied by other fears similar to it. In reality, entomophobia is not a stupid fear at all. After all, many insects can bite. As a result, the bite site may itch, swell, and turn red - this is at best. All this causes discomfort to the child. And some representatives of the fauna can be very dangerous. Therefore, you should not be delighted with the fact that a child picks up anything that buzzes, crawls or flies. It’s better to show your child which insects are harmless and which ones should be avoided. Buy a bright one encyclopedia with pictures and tell the little one about each insect.
2. Fairytale insects. Children love it very much fairy tales, they can listen all evening long about the travels of funny heroes. To rid your child of the fear of insects, look for fairy tales, poems and cartoons about funny and kind mosquitoes, butterflies and worms. You will see, the child will really like it and soon he will not shy away from a flying fly or moth.
3. We materialize the phobia. Psychologists say that fear can be overcome by materializing it. Experts suggest that children who are afraid of monsters appearing in their dreams draw their. In the picture it turns out not so scary and the phobia disappears by itself. Ask your child to draw insects that they fear when they see them. You can also sculpt them from plasticine. The drawings and figures will be funny, especially if they have kind eyes and big smiles. Use multi-colored pencils and plasticine for this, and creativity will turn terrible insects into cute and harmless bugs and spiders. Invite your child to come up with funny names for them. stories. And you can even play with the figures by making a real house for them. Believe me, these methods will allow your child to forget about the horror that these harmless creatures instilled in him. We wish you success in the fight against entomophobia!

Insects are unpredictable: they move quickly, they fly, they can bite painfully. Even adults are often afraid of them. It is the deep subconscious of people that they need to be afraid of insects, because many of them are really dangerous. All the prerequisites for this exist.

The way to deal with these fears is this: make the situation as predictable as possible, give the child ways to defend himself, give him other ways to react.

Let's look at each of these methods in more detail.

You can make the situation predictable by talking with your child about an exciting topic. You can watch a film about insects, or read about them in a book. Definitely together. The film and book provide information that reduces fear and anxiety. At the same time, in the arms of mom or in an embrace with dad, the baby feels safe. You can look at a frightening insect with your child. In daddy's hands it will lose all its terrible qualities. While looking, be sure to draw the child’s attention to how small the insect is and how big the child is compared to it.

Teaching a child how to defend means figuring out together how to defeat an insect. For example, take a water pistol with you and. When a fly approaches, shoot water at it. Or, when you see a bee, teach your child to quickly run away from it.

In fact, any method is suitable, as it gives the child the feeling that he can cope with the situation.

Introduce other ways to react, not just fear and cry. For example, you can scream loudly and scare an insect. You can run away to a safe distance. You can make an insect your friend.
Here's how one dad dealt with his three-year-old son's fear. His son was afraid of bumblebees. When he saw them, he began to scream loudly and ran away, his eyes full of horror. Dad went with his son into the forest and, seeing the bumblebee first, shouted: “Oh, this is our familiar bumblebee! He has already arrived to us! What shall we call it? To which the son replied: “Misha!” Dad said: “Misha, hello.” And he told his son that this bumblebee would now show the way so that they would not get lost. Then they continued to walk in the forest and, seeing another bumblebee, the boy shouted joyfully: “Oh, look, it’s Misha! He came to us again!” And he smiled.

The example shows that dad made the situation predictable - he was the first to see the bumblebee and warned the boy about it, saying that it was a familiar bumblebee. Acquaintances are a safe category. The second thing he did was to suggest giving the bumblebee a name. This made the insect not a faceless, but a concrete creature. Dad also described him as good and helpful. Thus, there was no room for fear.

Insectophobia is the fear of insects. Find out why it occurs, how it manifests itself, and how to treat it. Certain types of insectophobia.

There is not a single person on earth who is not afraid of anything. Fear is a natural, protective reaction of the body that helps us survive in this world. But there is no need to confuse fear with phobia, a pathological, neurotic condition that does not help one survive, but, on the contrary, significantly reduces the quality of life. There are different phobias, psychology counts hundreds of them. Some are very rare and even curious, for example, eichophobia (obsessive fear of speaking and hearing good wishes) or aulophobia (obsessive fear of the flute), while others are found quite often in psychiatric practice. One of these is the fear of insects. So how to live with insectophobia? Can it be cured?

What is the name of a phobia, a disease of fear and fear of spiders, cockroaches, ants, bees, wasps, worms, insects?

On Earth, from 2 to 6 million species of insects coexist with humans; scientists have not been able to determine their exact number; tens of thousands of new species are discovered every year. Most of us hardly pay attention to wasps, bees, worms, cockroaches and spiders. They can only cause hostility, and we try to at least not have them in our homes.
But there are people for whom these insects are a real problem. When they see these insects, they are seized with animal fear with such manifestations as panic attacks and somatic changes.

IMPORTANT: In psychiatry, fear of insects is called insectophobia or entomophobia.

People are susceptible to insectophobia, regardless of gender and age. In children, due to mental instability, it can manifest itself as more intense symptoms.
When seeing insects that do not pose a real threat in general or in a specific situation, healthy person causing only disgust, a patient with insectophobia experiences irrational fear, which manifests itself in:

• an irresistible desire to avoid contact with insects
• inability to hear and perceive arguments about the irrationality of fear
• changes of a somatic nature (tension of the muscles of the back and face, dilation of the pupils, paleness or, on the contrary, redness of the skin, profuse sweating, nervous excitement, etc.)
• inappropriate, uncontrollable actions and actions (a person tries to run, waves his arms, etc.)

Insectophobia is an irrational fear of insects, in which a person may stop behaving inappropriately.

IMPORTANT: You may have seen such a person on TV, or you have a friend who constantly disinfests the house, even if there are no insects there, sprays himself with poisons, wears repellent bracelets, or does not leave the house at all in order to avoid meeting “reptiles” flying or creeping." This man is mentally ill and has extreme manifestations of entomophobia.

By the way, insectophobia is the fear of insects in general. It has special cases:

• apiphobia – fear of bees
• arachophobia – fear of spiders
• blattophobia – fear of cockroaches
• cnidophobia – fear of insects that can sting
• myrmecophobia – fear of ants
• Scoleciphobia – fear of worms, others

Phobia - fear of spiders, cockroaches, ants, bees, wasps, worms and other insects: causes

Where does the fear of insects come from? Can we call it groundless?

IMPORTANT: Some scientists call insectophobia an instinctive, subconscious fear that arose in a person at a time when he lived in the lap of nature and, in order to survive, had to beware of insects so that they would not bite him, climb into his ear or nose, etc.

1. Most often, insectophobia arises in childhood in response to a strong experience caused by contact with an insect. For example, a child was stung by a wasp, as a result of which he experienced fear and pain, or he had a severe allergic reaction.
2. A phobia can also arise as a result of a child being frightened by what he thinks is a scary sight or behavior of an insect.
3. Think about what you allow your child to watch on TV. The cause of insectophobia can be films and cartoons about giant, militant, deadly spiders, bees, flies and ants trying to take over the earth. This “trash” will most likely make an adult laugh, but it can seriously frighten a child, causing mental trauma.
4. An inadequate reaction of an adult to an insect can lead to the development of insectophobia in a child. If a mother, at the sight of a cockroach, jumps screaming onto a chair or, screaming and waving her arms, runs away from a wasp peacefully flying past, the child may think that these insects represent a very real and very serious threat. Well, or he’ll just start imitating adults.

Science-fiction films about giant killer insects are one of the causes of insectophobia.

How to get rid of arachnophobia - fear of spiders: treatment

Arachnophobia is an irrational fear of spiders.

IMPORTANT: It would seem that spiders should not frighten Europeans, because there are no species near them that pose a real threat. But the inhabitants of the Tropics, for example, like our distant ancestors, have something to fear: they live side by side with poisonous arthropods, the bite of which can be fatal to humans. Surprisingly, arachnophobia practically never occurs among them. This is explained by the fact that they simply cannot afford to behave irrationally for fear that panic could cost them their lives. Where poisonous spiders live, they are shunned, respected or idolized. But among residents of large cities, fear of spiders is a common occurrence.

Symptoms of arachnophobia can be expressed with varying intensity:

• there is a feeling of discomfort or disgust at the sight of a spider, alive or in a picture
• there is a desire to run away from the spider
• there is a desire to kill an insect
• at the sight of a spider, a person has a panic attack, during which he loses control of himself - he begins to scream, wave his arms, run away, or, conversely, falls into a stupor, etc. (in this state, a person can harm himself or others)
• there is an obsessive desire to protect himself from contact with spiders in the future (he looks for spiders in his home, tries to poison them, tries not to appear where these arthropods may live)

With arachnophobia, an encounter with a spider can result in a panic attack.

The only one effective method The treatment for arachnophobia is to work with a psychiatrist, during which the patient is taught to overcome his own fear. The task is to help the patient convince himself that the object of his fear is not a source of danger. During psychotraining, the patient gradually comes into contact with:

• objects resembling or related to a spider
• images and dummies of spiders
• live arthropods

IMPORTANT: In case of panic attacks, the patient may be prescribed sedatives or antidepressants.

VIDEO: Treatment of phobias - arachnophobia

How to get rid of blattophobia - fear of cockroaches: treatment

Cockroaches in the house are unhygienic and disgusting. But it is not mortally dangerous, especially since they can be successfully fought. If you are familiar with this problem, read the article “”, it may be useful to you.

Blattophobia: disgust towards cockroaches turns into wild fear.

But people suffering from blattophobia, at the sight of an ordinary domestic dog, its bursa or even feces, experience terrible fear, fall into panic or hysteria, their pulse rate changes, their legs go numb, and a stroke can even occur.
The irrational fear of cockroaches must be combated using psychotherapy methods:

• hypnosis
• cognitive therapy
• taking pharmacological drugs

How to get rid of myrmecophobia - fear of ants: treatment

IMPORTANT: Myrmecophobia is a word of Greek origin: myrmex - ant, phobos - fear.

The fear of ants is justified by the fact that some of their species are dangerous to humans (the bite of a fire ant can cause suffocation and death, and red ants bite very painfully) and his property (black ants can destroy wooden buildings). Fear is fueled by numerous stories and films about deadly ants. Ant bites on the street can lead to the development of a phobia in children.
A person with myrmecophobia is afraid of the sight of ants, it seems to him that small insects they live in his house, crawling on his things and products.

Having diagnosed a patient with a fear of ants, the psychiatrist will advise him to desensitize his fear in the same way as for arachnophobia.

How to get rid of apiphobia (melissophobia) - fear of bees, wasps: treatment

Bees are useful insects for humans; beekeeping products have medicinal and gastronomic value. But their bite can lead to a fatal allergy. In addition, this bite is painful, especially for a child. There is something to be afraid of, but not to panic.
The first manifestations of apiphobia are the desire to run away from it or kill the insect when they see a bee. As fear worsens, a person may avoid spending time in nature, drinking and eating outside, to avoid being stung by a bee or wasp. Then feelings of anxiety and panic attacks appear.

Apiphobia - fear of bees and wasps.

To cure a patient of a fear of bees, a psychiatrist will try to slowly and gradually bring him closer to the object of fear, and if necessary, prescribe medication.

VIDEO: Apiphobia (melissophobia, sphexophobia) - fear of bees, wasps

How to get rid of scoleciphobia - fear of worms: treatment

Worms are vile and disgusting. They, like huge inhabitants of dungeons, became heroes of ancient myths. Not everyone dares to pick up a worm. But those who are terrified of them are said to suffer from scoleciphobia.

Art therapy is used to treat scoleciphobia.

In addition to desensitizing fear, a psychiatrist, as part of the treatment of fear of worms, can recommend art therapy to the patient - draw a worm as the monster the patient imagines it to be, and then destroy the drawing.

How to get rid of a phobia of insects - insectophobia?

If insectophobia interferes with life, it must be treated. Do not be afraid to contact a specialist with your fear. It will help reduce the intensity of fear, help you see danger only where it really exists, using cognitive behavioral therapy methods.

When treating insectophobia, cognitive behavioral therapy is the most effective.

VIDEO: Funny statistics. Ethnomophobia