Son sensitive to some noises-help please

eamor

Hi All,

I hope you can help and please excuse me if I start to babble !!!!
My son has started to become very sensitive to noise..he's the type of child that could hear electrity humming...'whats that noise mammy' is a constant refrain in our house...It wasn't really a problem until lately with loud noises..Lawn mowers, tractors etc etc. The thing is I can't pin it down, but it seems to be unexpected noises...He will immediatly say I don't like this, and clamp his hands over his ears. Today I brought him to a playcentre, and he spent a half hour walking around with his hands over his ears.

I sat with him, and gently encouraged him to take one hand away and see how he feels and then the other one, and eventually he was fine...to be honest my instinct is telling me its more to do with anxiety than hearing... He's a very bright child, excellent language skills, good logic and reasoning skills, and generally seems to be fine in other ways.. I had my daugther a month ago, and I know this will have increased his anxiety, he's fine with her, and even when she's roaring her head off, he's absolutely fine, so its not ALL loud noises..He was at creche 2 weeks ago, and someone in the premises next door, started a lawnmower, and he nearly lost his life...He says to me everyday no school today mammy...I just don't know what to do.

.I've googled this (not a good idea when your worried) and Its only made me want to clamp my ears shut!!!!! Can anyone advise? I've made an appt with GP just to be on the safe side, sleep deprivation is kicking in with me, and making everything seem worse....
THanks in advance,
Me

crazy cat lady

My friends little one was similar to this, she wouldn't like loud noises and she was afraid of singing santa's and snowmen etc... at christmas.

I think its just something she has grown out of over time.

Just a suggestion, but could you maybe get him some ear-muffs and tell him they are magic ear-muffs or something? He could put them on when he hears noises he doesn't like and take them off when it has stopped. It could be like a security blanket kinda thing, so that he doesn't mind going to school if he can block out noises he doesn't like

metrovelvet

My son is like this. Has always been like this. He bears it, just about, now. When he was younger, he would scream. But in crowded noisy places I have to take him out.

I also have this. Its not anxiety, but very acute hearing, maybe over sensitive hearing, I don't know. I have to leave supermarkets sometimes because I cant bear the white hum of the refrigerators layered under the overhead pop music coming through the speaker, mixed in with all the other noises.

Recently a friend told me she had the same thing and that it is a condition. Unfortunately, she only knew the name of the condition in French.

littlebug

Both mine were like this, more so the eldest. I remember changing her in the hallway outside hotel toilets (v quickly no one around!) as the throwing a wobbly everytime someone in the toilet (where the changing table was) used the dryer. My husbands work ear protectors have come in very handy over the years... the only way the grass could be cut without tears. My son wasn't quite as sensitive but some noises would bug him. At playschool they went through a week when there was a fault with the fire alarm and it would go off at random times. He would bawl the place down. The ear protectors went to playschool with him for the week

The good news is they do grow out of it though my daughter will still stay inside if the lawnmower is going and will avoide hand dryers.

Eta.. my daughter was the same with tractors, motorbikes, loud trucks and hated places with lots of noisy kids.

Chuchoter

If he is exceptionally bright as you say he is, gifted children can be prone to hypersensitivity towards touch/sound/etc, so that might be something interesting to look into. I'd be one of those kids who hated (and still hates!) loud busy noises (ie teachers trying to talk over a class not listening to them) for this reason. Its only certain sounds, I don't mind traffic or lawnmowers, but classes and selotape kill me :P