She's driving me crazy! "Mummy I'm scared..."

[razzle]

For the past month or so, 4 or 5 nights a week, DD has been waking up 1-2 hours after we put her to bed saying that she's scared...

About 6-8 months ago there was a huntsman outside her bedroom door and she watched me vacuum him up. Since then we've seen "Harry the Huntsman" outside a few times. When she tells me that she's scared of the spider, I've told her that Harry has told all his spider friends not to come inside the house because she is Harry's friend, and that seemed to work until recently.

She's still sometimes scared of the spider that's not there, but lately she's been scared of other things too, like the fan's falling off the roof, or the letters on her door are falling off, just silly things. Or she'll ask me for a little bit more milk, or that she wants to talk to me, or sing me a song (that was tonight). Sometimes she'll combine two excuses, like she's scared of the fan and when I tell her that it's not falling off, she'll tell me that she's scared of something else.

It's seriously driving me nuts. :banghead: It's like she's making up excuses as to why she's waking up. I go and spend 5 minutes with her, reassuring her if she's scared, or talking to her, and then I tell her to go back to sleep and she does. It's weird. She's always been such a good sleeper - a real 7pm-7am kinda gal.

Has anyone else had this problem? What can I do? Is it a phase?

[alana1]

my 4.o went thru a stage like this about a year ago. Was just a phase for her

It drove me crazy! Especially when she would sleep well at nanna's house.

But at home we found reward charts worked well for us - also we used to ( & still sometimes) spray the "fairy" spray bottle for some extra protection ~ works a treat!

[razzle]

Thanks for that... I have tried spray before, can't remember what I called it now... and we have reward charts for "going straight to sleep".

What I can't understand is why it's so all or a sudden. :confused:

[cwsmum]

My DS, now 4yrs old, also went thru a stage like this about a year ago. He would come tell us there was monsters in his room. We also did the 'monster spray' thing, which worked most of the time and when it didn't DH would have to go in there and drag the monsters out :laughing:

I never worked out where the idea of monsters came from, I think it may have been daycare. He did eventually outgrow it tho, but he does try the same thing now so he can stay up later.

Oh, he also used to tell me that there were little tiny people in his room scaring him:laughing:

[reAllytee]

I dont have any true advice but i have heard this is quite common for toddlers to go through these stages. Probably because they are learning more about life etc & understanding so much more.

The only thing i could suggest would be somehow trying to boost her confidence in that not everything will hurt her etc.

But then as i said i have got any true advice because im yet to get to this yet ..... Boy dont i look forward to yet another "stage" :rolleyes:

[AVR]

I can actually remember doing this....:detective:

Once I came upstairs and sang my times tables ( well tried too lol - ) just so that I could buy myself some time lol:laughing:

I remember it being because I wanted to stay up he he - night owl now so maybe its just "her" - she may have just decided that she is a party girl.:fingerscrossed: Hun

[pinkandblue]

My 4 year old has been waking up this last week or so saying she is scared of the dark so I have to go in and put a little night light on so she can go back to sleep. Maybe a little night light might help? Or maybe a special toy that she can take to bed to 'protect' her?

[TwoBlue]

We have been through this with Samuel already.. the few things that helped with us was a night light, letting him fall asleep in bed reading and saying a prayer before bed... We dont really have a problem anymore, very rare..

We did discover though that a toy was scaring him, it really was kinda scary in the low light / dark... perhaps check that out too

Hope it passes soon mate :hugs:

[Rainbowbrite]

She's still sometimes scared of the spider that's not there, but lately she's been scared of other things too, like the fan's falling off the roof, or the letters on her door are falling off, just silly things.

That area stood out to me......only because when I was younger I would hallucinate that those things were happening & it scared the cr@p out of me.

MJ has been getting scared to go into her room the last few days also, day & night. Nothing has happened to cause it either. Hopefully its just a phase :fingerscrossed: :hugs:

[funnyfarm]

DD has just turnt 3 and for the past month, she has been sleeping on a mattress on our bedroom floor as she was waking 3-4 times a night scared about different things etc. She tells me now that sleeping in her bedroom makes her feel sad :gloomy: . She is also very clingy to me at the moment so i am assuming its just a stage she is going through and hopefully with DD2 is a bit older and sleeping through i can put them in a room together and she will settle down again (although the way DD2 is sleeping at the moment, this doesn't look likely for a while yet):rolleyes:

Good luck and i hope things improve for you soon.