scared at night?

How do you handle this? DD barely started this up. She seems genuinely scared and often comes into my room at night. We've had no sleep issues for years. She already has a nightlight in her room and all kinds of stuffed animals/special blankets. Thanks for any help!

 

That's so strange, my ds just started doing the same thing! We don't let him come in our room but I find that talking him through it helps. But I have no advise on how to stop it and look forward to hearing the words of wisdom you'll get

 

Yeah the only thing I have found so far is to stay in her room with her until she falls asleep. She falls asleep very quickly (under 5 minutes) but I am thinking this is not a great long term solution. Wish I could think of something clever!

 

My son does this every now and then. He will hear a strange noise or see a shadow and get freaked out. He has a lot of stuffed animals and I told him one of them (gray dino) will protect him from bad things at night. When he gets a little scarred, I give him gray dino and he puts it by his pillow and is fine.

 

We have gone thru this with meara on and off for a long time. At 2ish we used to stay in her room until she fell back asleep. Then we went thru a period where we let her sleep on our floor. Both of these are not great solutions. Now that she is older we are able to bring her back to bed, rub her back for a little bit and tell her to think happy thoughts. Then we give her LOTS of praise in the morning if it works and she goes back to sleep. We never did the "monster spray" or anything like that because I don't want her to think there are real things to be afraid of in the night. But I know that has worked for other people. Good luck.

 

What is she afraid of? A Spray bottle labeled monster spray worked when my son was afraid of monsters and would not believe that there are no such things.I did not put anything in the bottle, he would have soaked everything so I told him that you cannot see the monster so you cannot see the spray. With my girls, we have told them that there is nothing to worry about because we live in a safe house, free of anything scary. Also, do your kids share a room? If not maybe you could let them for a little while? Maybe it is just being alone that gets her?

 

They don't share a room anymore. We just barely split them in November. I've thought about putting both of their beds in one room and all the toys in the other one for awhile. Unfortunately I have no idea what she's scared of. She hasn't been able to articulate it. She just says she's scared. She's not scared at all if I'm around so maybe it is just being alone. It's weird that she's suddenly afraid though because she was just fine all this time until a couple weeks ago. So frustrating!

 

My girls don't come out of their room...ever...so I have no advice there. But...we went through a phase recently of night wakings because of bad dreams and scary thoughts. I took one of my t-shirts and wrapped it around the bear of her choice and told her if she wakes because she is scared or has a bad dream then she can hug the bear tight and remember I am close by. It totally worked!! Now, the last thing I do before I leave their room after saying goodnight is to help them decide what happy thoughts/dreams to have that night.

 

This has worked for me in the past (it is also great if you are going to be away for a few days!). If that doesn't work, I would definitely consider letting them share a room for now. I can totally remember being scared when I was little because I felt so all alone in my dark room. I would have loved to have a sibling sharing with me, just knowing that I wasn't the only one in there would have been such a comfort to me!

 

This is the first time she ever has! She's been afraid to come out of her room until now. I think I'll try the t-shirt on stuffed animal trick and put another night light in her room. Thanks for the advice.

 

what about the lights they can hold?

kinderglo we have this one. ours aren't scared of the dark, but this light is cool, she could put it on and be able to hold it...

good luck. I know that for a while mine would also say "leave light on in the hallway"... we have a gate outside their door, so leaving the door open to the lighted hallway was ok since the gate keeps them in their room.

 

A sound machine helps my girls now they dont hear all the scary noises in the night!!!