53
I heard that when you insist that there is no scary things out there, she feels alone. Because she is sure of what she sees, and she needs your help, and when you keep saying that there is no scary things, monster or ghosts, she feels abandoned.
I think when she is terrified, it is better not to mirror these feelings. When she talks about a scary things, and ...
48
It sounds like your daughter may be experiencing night terrors:
Night terrors are common in children aged between 3 and 8 years old.
A child who experiences night terrors may scream, shout and thrash around in extreme panic, and may even jump out of bed.
Their eyes will be open, but they're not fully awake.
[...]
The best thing to do if your child is having ...
40
This answer might just save your life...
Get a carbon monoxide detector, make sure yours works.
"ghosts" and spirits have never been real, but they were much more common before the age of electrification, when houses were lit by burning gas indoors....
Even modern houses burn gas indoors, but today we mostly vent it outside. But if your venting or ...
13
On a whim of the moment I helped my 3-yearold out of fear of ghosts by quickly ad lib-”befriending” the percieved ghost from my childs imagination.
Like: Oh, but that is just my friend... (surprised deer in headlights stare from kid, gears in head moving)
From that position of friendly imaginatory relationship, which invited questions and curiosity more than ...
9
That sounds relatively normal.
Note that a newborn has no concept of day and night yet - at least in the sense of what is a time for activity or sleeping. Even older babies that have good "sleeping habits" often get an early evening bout of activity - the time window in the evening many working dads (and moms) enjoy.
Also, being put down in the bassinet ...
8
You may not actually be dealing with nightmares. You may be dealing with night terrors. From the NIH website (linked), night terrors are disturbed sleep, usually waking up in a terrified state. They are common from ages 3-7, usually in boys, but not uncommon in girls. The cause is unknown, but the site indicates that stress, emotional tension, fever, or lack ...
7
One of my nannies used a trick on me and I have used it since then and it has worked well.
She put her hand in her pocket and handed me an imagined object, an invisible wish stone. And she then told me that I would always have this wish stone with me when I was dreaming. And I could wish for anything and it would happen in the dream. I could even use it to ...
6
If your daughter is gaining weight well, I would just let her self soothe back to sleep and consider it a blessing that she is able to do so. I would not wake her up to feed. I think that if she was really hungry, she would eventually cry.
My own daughter (second child) was also breastfed and began sleeping through the night at 2 months old. She also sucks ...
6
Hallucinations can have a medical cause
Your description of a "black doll with no face" sounds a lot like things I see when I have an episode of sleep paralysis. People tend to hallucinate the random patterns of noise from the small amounts of light they're seeing into figures standing over them- with different interpretations depending on cultural ...
5
This is something I and a lot of parents I know have done.
Religiously every night at 10pm we would wake our young children and take them to the toilet, and then a dry night would follow.
The nights we did not wake ours, he would usually wet the bed.
We did start waking him later and later and then not at all. For us this lasted around 2 years until he was ...
4
I think Chrys' comment is correct.
Also, it takes a while for the baby to find and settle into her own personal rhythm, and there is lots of variation between babies. You're probably right that 13 hours per day is on the low side but that doesn't automatically make it something to worry over. Give it two more weeks and you'll see a sleep pattern.
You can ...
answered Nov 15 '13 at 8:21
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
34.1k18 gold badges106 silver badges207 bronze badges
4
Given your description, it is not paranormal, it is NORMAL :)
These are called night terrors, which children in that age have, and they are perfectly normal. You may still want to check this out with your pediatrician, since the normal age for night terrors to develop is 3 years old+ (though children as young as 6 mos. can also have them).
If you want to ...
4
Oh, the joys of the night-waking toddler. My daughter was a terrible sleeper and woke at all kinds of random, crazy times. Rarely did she ever sleep for more than three hours at a time and she often woke us, wandered the house or turned on the tv by herself. She never went outside though, thankfully.
First, if they haven't already done so, I would recommend ...
4
Perhaps this is just a difficult time and she is getting used to be separate from her mother (after all she has been with you her whole life) now she must learn to be separate. I think babies learn very quickly that if they cry they get comfort, and so if she is crying at night repeatedly then perhaps she has already learned this ;)
I don't think crying ...
4
This sounds quite normal. If you are sleeping in the same room as the baby, they can smell your lactation and in my experience then tend to wake up more and tend to be more hungry. Cosleeping also intensifies you response to their cries, every whimper you are instant access, which debatably creates a situation where the little one doesn't have time to learn ...
4
Night-time dryness requires a particular hormone to be produced which slows urine production while sleeping. This isn't something you can train for. If you went to a doctor they would just tell you to come back if he is still wetting at 8 years old. He can use pullups until he is dry on his own. Rewarding or punishing based on something he has no control ...
4
My son had night terrors occasionally, and would wake in great fear, screaming. Simple comfort until he was calm worked, plus open discussions about what nightmares and dreams are. It might also help to introduce your child to a book of optical illusions to talk about how things are not always what they appear to be. When a young child is in terror from a ...
3
At this age, a smaller bassinet with close sides might feel more comfortable than a giant crib.
3
Some ideas you could consider (these are all based on personal experience):
prewarm the crib with a warm hot water bottle
get the baby to sleep in a sling-type carrier, and when it's time to transfer to the crib, bend over and undo the carrier at the shoulder, so you can gently set the baby and the sling down on the crib together.
noise machine or radio ...
3
That sounds like an absolute NIGHTMARE. If he's not a fan of loud noises, they could also add door alarms so that if he opens off-limits doors, the alarm goes off (doesn't have to be a full security system, and I know there are door alarm systems where you can turn the alert on and off).
I honestly don't believe a simple lock on the bedroom door for a child ...
3
It looks like Kari Gunnarsson has about half of what my answer would be in a really fun way. Put simply - teach your child he can control his dreams once he knows it is a dream! Best advice I was ever given as a child myself too!
I would Add a couple more things though too.
If there is something specific in the dreams that are scary and your child can ...
3
Oof, that sounds miserable. I am not a doctor, and this is not a forum for medical advice, yet that report sounds like it may be worth talking to a doctor, if it is disruptive to normal sleep.
There are myriad, innumerable causes for problematic sleep patterns in little ones, a lot of which involve situational/circumstantial stimuli around lights/screens, ...
3
Night noise is linked to insomnia and lower sleep duration. This link is mostly supported by multiple research studies. This association was considered substantial enough for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue the night noise guidelines in 2009 (see below). I show 2 relevant research studies below, but one can quickly find multiple other research ...
2
The clinginess and lower appetite has absolutely nothing to do with night weaning, most likely. It is 100% normal at this age. Separation and stranger anxiety are very common in 11 month olds. This behavior may last, with some ebb and flow, until 18 months or even later. Also clinginess is associated with developmental leaps, and there is one around 11 ...
2
I have 5 kids, my oldest is 14 my youngest is 4 years old, and every time they woke up with a nose bleed I knew that there air ways were dry. The results of the allergy treatment Exedra.
I give them saline spray or drops: it moisturizes and flushes out mucus to clean little noses and it has not the side effects of drops or sprays with alcohol.
2
About one in forty children aged 7 will wet the bed at night.
This website gives some information about bedwetting, including information about treatments.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Bedwetting/Pages/Introduction.aspx
sweet food could stimulate production of urine while salty food could decrease it.
Do not give your seven year old child salty food ...
2
There are a lot of possibilities, but a few to check. Definitely talk to your pediatrician as soon as you can, both because it's possible there could be an underlying medical issue, and your doctor will know your child better than random strangers on the internet and have good advice.
Acid reflux. Is it worst when he's lying down? Try not feeding him ...
2
White noise machines are great, but in my experience the ROUTINE is what will make the difference. You say he goes to bed at different times every night; that makes a routine very hard for him to get into, and if he cannot reliably predict what will happen (bath at 7, book at 7:30, lights out at 8) it makes it more difficult for him to settle down. Can all ...
2
We found a cradle swing extremely useful with both of ours, when they were overtired and really needed to sleep but couldn't get off to sleep.
White noise + swinging motion + dim moving lights + mobile + mum or dad nearby = baby hypnotism machine.
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
