16 month old developed sudden and extreme fear of fluff/hair/anything tiny

[kerry.finlay]

Hi

My 16 month old daughter has, over the last week, suddenly developed an extreme fear of bits of fluff, or stray hairs on the floor (I have long dark hair). She has never been an overly-sensitive one, nothing much phases her. So this has got me totally baffled. It started where she would see something on the floor, point to it shouting then come and take my finger and walk me to wherever it was and put my finger on it. Now this has escalated to full on screaming, hysterics and red-faced tears. The last two nights' bath has been a wash out. Each time I put her in she'd spot a tiny black fleck below the bubbles and go ballistic actually hooking her foot over hte bath top and trying to climb out herself!

Anyone else experienced this? I'm hoping it'll go as quickly as it came. But not sure how best to handle it in the mean-time? At the moment I just calmly remove the offending particle and tell her there's nothing to worry about and it's all gone. Help!

[amydown]

Our son started noticing really tiny things like this at about the same age. He wasn't distressed as such but really pointing them out all the time - things like hair and fluff. According to our nanny who used to be a nursery teacher, this is a normal development milestone. I shall ask her about it again on Monday!

[bluesuperted]

My 18mo started with this new level of awareness (but again, no fear) about a month ago too, so hopefully the hyper-sensitivity to it is just a phase, poor little thing!