It is reasonable for a child without experience with old or handicapped people to recoil fearfully from them at first. It is not unreasonable for a young child to be fearful of doctors and nurses whose treatments are often intrusive, unpleasant, and even painful. In such cases of reasonable fears, the emphasis should be on helping children cope with them. In anticipation of a visit to the doctor, a parent can remind the child of the last occasion when the discomfort was very brief and soon forgotten, as it will be this time, too. Offering a bribe or denying the unpleasantness does not help develop the courage that comes from facing up to reality.
Some children develop fears of illness or handicaps.
In such cases, since you cannot guarantee that these difficulties will never occur, it is useful to reassure the child that, though these problems are unlikely to occur, you would always be at his side and would take care of his needs. Fear of Loss Occasionally, under the pressures of time and daily hassles, a parent threatens to leave the supermarket without her slow moving child if she doesn't hurry up. It is likely that children who openly express these fears are less troubled by them than children who keep these fears to themselves. To make fun or to ridicule these fears, or simply dismiss them as silly, is unlikely to help a child develop confidence in his own capacity to cope with life's uncertainties. Sometimes the fears develop from excessive television watching that can be monitored and reduced.