Toddler terrified of hand driers in public toilets

My daughter's the same she's terrified but it hasn't stopped her using the toilet. Have you shown her how they work? Used one with her there

She won’t go near it unfortunately, absolutely terrified of them!

Put a Hoodie over her head or cover her ears. Or ear defenders.

If I remember I take ear defenders with me, these help a lot for us. And hand sanitiser so we don’t have to use the dryer 😅

I have an issue with hand dryers too lolol so we just always aim for use of a family access or accessible bathroom

Ok the feeling of being scared and help her breathe through the fear, let her use her hands to cover her ears to muffle the noise, and you hold her on the potty so she can go. "It's ok to be scared. It's really loud, but you're safe. I'm right here with you. Take a deep breath with me. You've got this. Let's go potty." Then on the way out, carry her past the hand dryer and touch it somewhere that won't set it off to show her it's not going to hurt her. Then offer to let her touch it. Accept her inevitable "no" and try again next time you are in a public bathroom with hand dryers

My daughter has slowly started to grow out of it! No advice, but I’m sure she’ll grow out of it!

Use disabled/baby change/family rooms. My toddler is the same, he's getting better now at 3, but he's been toilet trained for 18 months already and we still use the disabled/baby change rooms. It means no hand dryers randomly going off! And if we do have to use a mixed toilet, we loudly talk about the hand dryers so anyone else in there hears, or even turn them off at the wall as we go in 😉

Just don’t use them? Or avoid them in the bathrooms? My daughter’s the same and it hasn’t affected toilet training.

My son was the same. I used to say to him when in the cubicle as you can hear others. “A woman is washing her hands and may use the hand dryer but it’s ok” so prewarning it’s about to happen. Hold my hands over his eyes/give a cuddle whilst sat on the potty/toilet. I’d sing to him. Slowly he got better. Even now after being trained for almost 2yrs he will still say “I don’t like the hand dryer” but he doesn’t freak out u less it’s those like Dyson ones which are super loud. Hes only now just starting to use a hand dryer. I would dry his hands with tissue then use the hand dryer for me to show him they are ok.

Try to use the separate family/disabled toilets and carry a cloth with you so you can dry her hands after washing and she doesn’t need to use them.

Try gently introducing the sound at home with your mobile and intensify it and then finally try with a hairdryer at home. It's most likely the shock of the loud noise at once that startles them x

Work with a hair dryer! At home that's what I still do so mine gets use to them

Mine is absolutely fine with a hairdryer but is the same with hand dryers! Really scared of them, I always tell him it’s okay and often ask people if they would mind waiting until we’re out of the room and nobody has ever said no or been funny about it. Hopefully they will grow out of it! X