Mine does this too. We asked our Ped; paid it was normal. It's a sign that he may be overwhelmed.

Fwiw, I do suspect that he is highly sensitive and/or may have anxiety (family history of anxiety). But, even so, he doesn't do it often anymore. So it does feel like it's going away.

Also, it might interest you to look up the HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) trait. This is for if it persists or you notice emotionally or sensory sensitivity in other areas. This is NOT a disorder or a diagnosis. About 15-20% of the population have increased sensitivity in the form or higher levels of mirror neurons so they are literally processing more.

Honestly my daughter is the same and also a lot of these things feel “too noisy” to me too. I agree with other posters about it being a phase, and I also believe people have different thresholds as to what seems noisy to them and at what point they feel overwhelmed. I notice my husband and I have very different tolerance levels when it comes to noise. Mine being much lower.

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, I find movies to be way too loud for me, too.

Same here.

Op, my now 13yo was very sensitive to loud noises as a preschooler. I had to keep post-it notes in my purse to stick over the auto flush sensor on public toilets because she couldn’t handle the sound. She’s now a perfectly normal, though still rather sensitive, teen. It doesn’t hurt to bring it up with your pediatrician, but she might just be a highly sensitive kid.

my three year old grand daughter does this to EVERYTHING thats kinda loud. it concerns me due to her 4 year old sister is autistic. should we be worried. other then the noise she is a very smart active (almost to active) little girl. except she acts like a grown up (i joke she is the oldest three year old ever) but im genually concerned is something else wrong?

Interesting! My 2.5 year old son has been doing this as well! He's also been saying he's scared a lot which makes sense because he gets our attention with that one. But I was a little worried about him covering his ears and saying "too loud" so frequently. I will say, mine started this after I started on a smoothie-making spree with ds, who stands on a stool to "help" me. I started to cover his ears with MY hands when the blender was running because it is so loud. I think he got a kick out of it, and has now discovered he just likes the cause and effect of covering his ears to make things quieter and louder.

Anyone else have parents who are convinced that their precious grandchild has superhuman hearing, especially because their own hearing isn't great?

Lots of toddlers go through this, and either grow out of it as they get older, or learn to cope with it.

It seems excessive to you because you are thinking like an adult who has already had their hearing compromised. WE live in a noisy world and take it for granted.

Movie theaters are sometimes too loud for ME!

I would advise you against the pattern of pathologizing anything that seems in any way remarkable to you. The reason the pediatrician is unconcerned isnt because they missed the significance of what you said. As Im writing this I see it sounds more judgy than I am meaning...you arent wrong to notice, but worrying is something you save for when its time to worry. Learn this now and save yourself alot of grief!

Anonymous wrote:Did the pediatrician check her ears or did you just call?

Get a second opinion.

Sorry, but most doctors aren't worth anything. In my experience, most are too scared to diagnose an illness or they go to the other extreme and scare you into thinking you have an issue, so they can medicate you.

NOT this!

LOTS of children are scared of loud noises. And I mean LOOOOTS. About half the kids I worked with over the past 7 years in my childcare career had a phase were loud noises scared them. About half didn't care. Everything you describes is actually loud, especially for a young child's sensitive ears. They are more sensitive to loud sounds than adults are as our ears have been exposed to loud noises for all our lives and eventually get used to it (or well...die out more and more so we actually don't perceive the loud noises as so loud anymore) Unless she has trouble with sounds that are actually not loud I would not worry at all. Again, everything you mentioned is actually loud. Not for you, but for children - yes absolutely.

Anonymous wrote:+100 on the Dysons electric hand-dryers. My 3 year old often won't even go into a public rest room because she is so terrified of those things -- no way she'll relax enough to actually go if they have one of them. Like the auto-flushing toilet, clearly not invented by a mom.

Totally agree. They all grow out of it though.

+100 on the Dysons electric hand-dryers. My 3 year old often won't even go into a public rest room because she is so terrified of those things -- no way she'll relax enough to actually go if they have one of them. Like the auto-flushing toilet, clearly not invented by a mom.

Anonymous wrote:Did the pediatrician check her ears or did you just call?

Get a second opinion.

Sorry, but most doctors aren't worth anything. In my experience, most are too scared to diagnose an illness or they go to the other extreme and scare you into thinking you have an issue, so they can medicate you.

Don't worry OP. PP is overreacting a bit. It's common. You and the doctor shouldn't be concerned. I would be concerned if there was actual pain or if the kid couldn't hear the sounds. Just get a good pair of headphones or ear plugs and carry them around. It's more common than you think.

We have the same issue with our 4 year old. We bought some headphones and he wears them to shows/circus, etc. Some kids are just like that. If it's not an actual medical problem, then it's no big deal. Just get a few pairs of headphones from Amazon and keep them handy. Earplugs work too but our kid wanted something to actually cover his ears.