Scared of the dark?

6th

Ok so my 3 year old daughter has started saying at night that she is scared of the dark and that there are dinosaurs etc .... no biggy I am sure.

Anyway its just a recent thing for her. My wife thinks she might be faking it to get attention (and she might be right) but I think its genuine.

She has always been great at going to bed, heads off at 7.30pm and gets up about 8.30am - always with the curtains pulled and the lights off. We've decided to get her a night light though I think that will just promote her getting out of bed and playing with her toys.

Anyway I think she's just at the age where this type of things starts, with her imagination becoming more active.

Anyone on here go through similar with their kids?

beaushalloe

a lot of the time this had to do with imagination plus a little bit of testing the boundaries. agood way to play her at her own game is to get a litttle re fillable spray bottle, fill it with water, and write 'dinosaur/ghost/monster killer' on the label, at bed time make a big deal of spraying this around the room (she can do it when she begins to feel braver) its something that she will see as a conrete action as well as verbal reassurance form you.

the nightlight will help also if you feel it may keep her up might you plug it in outside her bedroom door with the door left open. its important to still stick to your original bedtime routine as any afray from this will let her believe she can break boundaries.
best of luck.

tk123

My nephew was like this when he was that age we got him a special dinosaur teddy (greymon from Digimon to be exact - he was on sale ) to scare the monsters away and it did the trick. Does she like Barney - i think he's a dinosaur? You could get her a plush Barney to kill the bad dinosaurs...with love

luckat

Classic at that age - you may be reassured that she's developing along the classic age lines.

When I was that age, it was ghosts. My mother was (most uncharacteristically) sewing something, and had a piece of material left over, and made me Ghostie, a little toy who was terrified of humans. I'd take Ghostie to bed and tell her "Don't be afraid, the humand won't hurt you, I'll mind you", and Ghostie would mind me.

kelle

My 5-year-old daughter started this recently, complaining she could see monsters in her room whenever we switched off her light. Problem's been solved now- I bought her a Princess night light that you plug in from Smyth's Toyworld.

luckat

One warning: a study suggests that children who sleep with a nightlight are five times more likely to develop short sight:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/342256.stm

l3LoWnA

In the past few months my 3 year old (who slept the whole night through from a very early age, 6 or 8 weeks I think....) has started refusing point blank to go to bed AND waking up a few hours after she falls asleep. She crys, screams shouts sometimes. She says there are ghosts/wolves/men in her bedroom sometimes. I don't know what to make of it. She ends up in my bed alot of the time. It' so so frustrating as when we lived alone she always slept the whole night through in her own room. We now live with my parents and I'd say 13 nights of of 14 she ends up in my bed or squished in between my parents in their bed (which absolutely riles me!)

I'm hoping when we move out in a few months the place will be a little more calm and I'll get her back to sleeping the full night again....who knows.

Oryx

My 5 yo wont sleep without his bedside light on, and my 2yo wont sleep without the lamp in the hall on. Its partly habit, because I always have had a light on so I dont break my neck getting up to them, and partly attention seeking with the older child. I notice with my son its worse if hes seen something on tv or if his friends have been talking about monsters or such. He has on occasion had full on night terrors too, which Ive heard, and I hope, are perfectly normal.:)

I dont see it as a big issue. So what if they like a light. I use a low watt bulb, and the children are content which is what matters.