My baby is terrified of the outdoors.....?

B

Belle

New member
I feel kind of silly asking this question, as this is my 6th child, and I am an 'older' (hate that word lol) mother.
My 10 month old goes into an almost panic attack if he touches anything outside, like grass or trees or leaves.
We did not realize he had this aversion until about a month ago, when at a cook out we sat him in the grass to take his picture. He totally wigged out. Then this week, we took him outside to stand him beside a tree, and got the same reaction. He is okay as long as we hold him outside, but as soon as his little feet or bottom hits the ground, he wigs out. Inside we can hardly hold him in our laps. He is cruising now, and crawling at the speed of sound lol..and wants to get down and get into everything. But the outside is a totally different reaction.
Any suggestions from other moms who may have had a baby that reacted like this would be helpful.
How can we help him overcome this fear of the outside world, well touching the outside world?
Thank you
It's not cold here..lol..at least it wasn't until today. We live in NC, so the weather is usually pretty nice.
I have tried sitting in the grass with him. I have tried handing him leaves and twigs, to show him they are okay and won't hurt him.
I am just scared he is going to grow up to be a neurotic mess.
I also think part of this is me being an over protective 'older' mom. lol
To Miss information...
He is 10 months old! Who takes a baby camping? I don't want to traumatize the child!
 
LOL. My daughter did the same thing. She mostly had a fear of the sand at the beach. I think the problem is that maybe it is very new to her. Sometimes new things can be scary. She just has to get familar with it. Maybe their is a book or something you can read to her with grass in it. Try pulling some grass out and showing it to her and let her feel it. Once she realizes it won't hurt her, the fear will gradually go away.
 
What I would do is sit down with him in the grass...use a blanket to sit on so she's got some room to move- then have dad or other kids have fun where she can see them (playgrounds are great for this). Eventually she'll want to join in, but she'll have to figure out how by herself. She may not get off the blanket the first time, but eventually she will. You can even go out with a smaller blanket each time...then she can slowly realize that it's nothing to be afraid of.

Then again she might be freaking out because of the texture (if she was shoeless before) my own daughter did that the first time she touched grass. If that's the case take her outside without shoes and have her stand on your feet...then walk with her and let her slip off a couple of times knowing that she can come back onto your own feet at any time and see how that works.
 
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