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Home › Articles › Behavior › Stranger Anxiety

Stranger Anxiety

When Your Baby is Afraid

By C.J. Johnson

Pages:  1  2  3  

Genetics
Dr. Dorsey believes genetics plays a large role in whether or not a child develops stranger anxiety. "If parents are anxious, they tend to have anxious children," he says. "Some people are cursed by this. It has nothing to do with an absence of assurance, it is simply the amount of alarm hormones each person is born with." According to Dr. Dorsey, some children are born with a tendency toward anxiety because they have a higher level of alarm hormones present in their body chemistry. A perfectly content infant may become anxious around strangers because of a release of these hormones.

Beneficial Fears
According to Dean Cloward, a child psychologist practicing in Rigby, Idaho, it is important to remember that it is developmentally appropriate to develop fears at this age. "The fear of height, the fear of loud noises, etc. all develop in the early months and years of life," he says. "They are only maladaptive when they impinge upon the development of other skills and abilities and slow or hamper a child's development."

Cloward believes fears can also keep children safe. For example, it is better for a child to be too frightened of falling down the stairs rather than not scared enough. That anxiety will ultimately keep them from tumbling down and becoming injured.


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