How can I help my 8 year old daughter overcome her irrational fear of seaweed and other things in the water?

Irrational fears and/or phobias are cured by exposing somebody little by little to what they are scared of.. (find a way to do that).. and little by little, the fear will be lost.

My grandfather always told me really good sayings. One was: Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain. Maybe you could pull some seaweed out and talk to her about it. Show her it doesn't hurt you and that it's not going to hurt her.

Though, I feel her on this one and have no room to say that it's irrational ... I have been scared of the ocean since I was a kid. I still have nightmares about the water and can't watch movies like Open Water. I even have a problem with being in the deep end of a swimming pool without someone in with me.

The best way, I would think, is to slowly work it on her. Ever year we go to the beach I have to have my friends go in first and then come back and practically carry me out into the water with them.

Good luck to you!

Oh the poor little child, truly I felt it for her when I read your words. Though we as adults can also experience fear, its never as terrifying and confusing as fear is to a child. for a child it becomes terror, and this dear little child is suffering very badly now. It must be a terrible thing for you to have t go through too, and it's obvious that you're at your wits end with it all, have done all you can think to try and help this little girl, but for sure its time for the professionals now. Seek help for your daughter, and plus yourself, part of getting the little girl better is the professionals helping and advising the parents what they need to do, so its learning for the whole family really. Last but not least, I wish you all the best, and wish I could wave a magic want and make your little girl 100% better overnight. Just stick with the lengthy procedure that will get his little child happy again, it will happen with counseling etc, and thankfully children are so resilient, once she is over it, she will let go of that bad part of her past. Children are precious to us all, the sun will come out again for your little girl, just hold onto that fact. Best wishes to you all. Billie UK

Well, what I did, I first put my foot in the seaweed..tell you.

I was not to happy about it. However when he saw me do it, with a laugh and every think it ok....he did.

And with the water, his dad ( my husband) was in the pool,

little tyke than, 12 months old.....would just jump into his fathers hands.

At 8 years old.....it will take some time. Was she ever in a

situation, before that made here scared? If not, first take her to a pool, and let her jump from the board........You have to do it first..

As far as seed weed, I dislike it now...to each there own.

If she really does not like it, do not push here into it...it will be awful,

Poor girl, she's missing out on loads of fun. Whatever you do, please don't scold or tease her about this fear.

Perhaps taking a book on marine life along with you to the beach may prove interesting. Get one with good illustrations and gather seaweed and such and try to get her to help you identify them. Maybe in time, when she's reassured that most of the "creepy" things are harmless, she'll develope enough curiosity to wade into the water in search of things.

Good luck and have fun at the beach.

Short of finding out why she is so afraid, try gradual desensitization. Slowly expose her to the object in a familiar setting. ie, a museum or aquarium with a hands on exhibit with small marine life, or letting her hold seaweed and explain that it's just like sea grass. Failing that, my guess is that she'll grow out of it.

information, if she knows more about it there will be less to fear.

{ my husband will expound on a subject at length to the kids until they are bored of it! }

also, compassion,

it is not irrational to her,

it is pretty hard to overcome a fear based on self preservation,

no matter how much we know it is still going to scare her.

Her best bet is to be left alone until she has to decide,

do I let this fear ruin my time at the beach,

or do I overcome it?

EMDR Therapy. It stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. it works really fast in children. it could be one session and she's done with it forever. find a therapist in your area that does this.

or if you can't afford it, here's a very simple EMDR solution. tell her you want to play a talking game. sit across from her, have her knees together. with your fingers extended and one hand (set of fingers) on each knee. have her talk about sea stuff, like beaches, foam, waves, fish, seaweed, etc. While she is talking, tap her knees with your fingers. left right left right.....not too fast, just two taps per second. in a few minutes, the problem should be gone.

good luck.

seaweed can seem pretty gross, especially to a kid, so you probably don't have to worry too much, but maybe something you could do is get a piece of seaweed and just show it to her and try to get her to touch it and generally show her that it's not really that scary and that there's no tiny little scary monsters living in it.

tell her that they are magical sugar feiries swimming around underwater, and if she steps on one and she thinks really hard and is a good girl, they will grant her wishes...and irrational? :( she has the right to be afraid of something