Need advice on waking up screaming/paranoid

I need some advice on how to respond to this. We were outside a couple of weeks ago and the kids saw a bee and Abigail just flipped out. Ever since then, she's been very scared of bugs and freaks out if she sees one. She's also been waking up at 11:30pm and then not able to fall back asleep. She'll scream bloody murder, is very difficult to calm down and she thinks she's seeing bugs (shadows, fuzz on the blankets, etc.). She's keeping her older sister (they share a room now) and me awake all night. My husband just started working midnights and it's me at nighttime and I'm getting exhausted. I just don't know if I should keep telling her nothing is there, turn the light on, cuddle her, rub her back, etc. It just doesn't seem to do the trick though to calm her down. Any advice/suggestions? It doesn't seem like night terrors b/c she's awake, talking/screaming, answering ?'s and pointing things out unlike when my older daughter went through some night terrors where she didn't seem really coherent. HELP!

 

That sounds exhausting! ds was REALLY scared of bugs last summer thanks to dh (another story <_< ), but did not wake up screaming about them (he would just SCREAM if he saw one). I think maybe reading some books about bugs, talking to her about them and how most are ok, they are real small and we are big so it is hard for them to hurt us, how most are outside not inside.....

 

I would try 'bug/monster spray'---put a perfume/scent in a spray bottle and mix with water. Spray it around and tell her it bugs hate it and will stay away(at least in her room). She can spray before she goes to bed and/or if she gets up.

We used this for my younger sister when she had a bug/monster phobia and it worked well!

 

That's one that I was thinking of...getting one of my water spray bottles and filling it with some special "bug be gone" water and spraying it every night with her. I'll try to look for some books too. Thanks for the suggestions. I find myself getting really angry after the first hour of hysterics and have got to figure out a way to respond to this.

 

My oldest son had a period of being deathly afraid of bugs.. I would spray his bed with bug spray (which could just be water) just to get him to go to sleep.. If he saw something on our ceiling, like a smudge, I would have to use white out to get rid of it. It's exhausting, I know just how you feel! My girls are on their way to being scardey cats like their older brother.. We avoided outside for a long time in case we ran into bugs.. but the bug spray thing worked pretty well..we just letting him know that if he saw a bug outside it was ok b/c he had the bug repellent.. Good luck!

 

Love the spray idea. no idea. I hope it's a quick stage.