Blueberryphobia

Blueberryphobia:

Definition: The irrational fear that eating food/candy/Popsicles that transfer their color onto your face and hands will change your whole body that color permanently.

Symptoms: Crying, screaming, and breaking down when they see color from food on hands. Loss of interest in previously loved edible items.

Cause or source of fear: Watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and believing it as fact and not a whimsical tale of fiction.

Cure: Unknown

I am sad to inform you all that Hannah has developed the above phobia. I don't know what to do. I first became aware of her symptoms when she asked for a gumball. I gave her a green one. She put it in her mouth and then took it out again. She then looked at her hands, saw they were green, and then broke down crying. Now she will only eat the white gumballs. Another day she had a Popsicle that turned her blue. She cried so hard she almost threw up (not a hard task for her, I know). I had to put her in the tub and wash her down before she stopped crying. Yet another example; when I picked Hannah up from nursery on Sunday, she told me that she had cried. She told me that she cried because they had marshmallows for snack and she didn't want to eat them. I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Hannah loves marshmallows. Then I understood; they were the colored marshmallows! The last example I have is the other day at the store she wanted a dried fruit roll. We got it, but from the time we left the store to the time we got to the car she decided that it was going to turn her colors and refused to eat it. She wanted me to throw it away!

I don't know what to do for her! I have tried to explain that the show isn't real. I have tried explaining that even if food gets color on her hands, it will wash off. Nothing has worked up until now.

If anyone has any suggestions for treatment I will gladly try it. I will keep up updated on her progress.