A lot of toddlers are afraid of movies, plays, stories and T.V. shows. Any distressing element in these formats can cause intense upset or fear, nightmares, sleep disturbances and tummy aches. Kids who react to media this way and have other specific fears and phobias (i.e. of animals, clowns, bees) may have an anxious nature or even a predisposition to anxiety. To treat fear in the short run and help prevent later anxiety issues, parents can certainly try Bach Flower Therapy for their kids. Bach Flowers are a harmless form of vibrational medicine - safe enough for babies, pregnant or nursing moms and people with flower allergies! You can look up a Bach Flower Practitioner in your area or on-line at www.bachflower.com. This treatment can cause your child to come back to his normal self within a few days so it is definitely worth a try. If you'd rather not go this route, you can simply use Emotional Coaching (see Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice book or the download on this site on this specific technique for detailed instructions). Naming your child's feelings can provide support while your child works through his own fear. It can help him explore and resolve his fear. If this isn't sufficient within a couple of weeks, you might take him to a therapist for a bit of extra help. A child specialist who uses EMDR would be a good choice since EMDR is a technique that can quickly resolve fears like the one you are describing.

My son was also scared of movies so I stopped letting him watch them. I figure he has lots of time in  his life for movies and when he's older he'll be able to handle it better. I was also sensitive when I was a kid and even now I never watch anything upsetting, violent or scary - I think some people are just like that and it's not a bad thing. I don't think we need to help our kids learn to watch upsetting things! Maybe the sensitive ones are smarter than the rest!

I agree. When kids still feel scared or upset at scared and upsetting stories and movies, then they are still in touch with their natural feelings. It's when they shut down and can no longer feel the appropriate response that we should all be worrying! Grownups can watch killings and gruesome things on the news every night on not blink an eye - is that what we consider "normal?" Personally, I'm just fine with my kids having a bad reaction to bad things. I hope they never become insensitive to pain, suffering or any other form of ugliness. I don't want them to develop a "thick skin." I myself don't watch the news or bring newspapers into the house because I don't want to fill my mind with disturbing images, so why would I want to expose my kids to their version of the same?

Don't you think it would be better to help your child cope with the world? You can't hide everything from him. If he sees something that bothers him, well, that's life. It has a down side. Not everything is rosy and fine and trying to pretend that the world is like that might end up backfiring when your kid grows up a little and realizes you've been lying the whole time. Or maybe he'll be faced with something really bad and then he'll just fall completely to pieces. At my daughter's school one of the kids slipped recently and cut his chin really badly. There was blood everywhere. A little boy who was nearby had a complete meltdown - screaming, crying, running away. Maybe he never saw anything that looked confusing or problematic before. How is your kids going to grow some coping muscles if you overprotect him so much?