To ask you all to reassure me?

[Blubell78]

Ok. I have posted about this in behaviour development but there's more traffic on here so I hope you don't mind me asking. I have a docs appointment about this on Wednesday so I will be asking a professional but i'm tying myself up in knots in the mean time.

I have a four year old son who has started hearing things. He has mentioned a knocking sound a couple of times and recently said about the man in his head. He also says my brain told me that (which I less worried about).

I've been thinking about it a lot (possibly overthinking!) and realised that he has also been talking about seeing things before he goes to bed at night. I gently asked him about them the other night and he said they didn't bother him and that they were his strange kind of dreams - so he know's they're not real. He sat there and pointed them out to me. I jokingly said 'arhh, you're having me on' but he said very straight faced no I'm not and I'm sure he wasn't lying.

He says he has seen them outside during the day but that he doesn't see them when he's at nursery.

The reason i'm so worried is that i have a family history of schizophrenia (one uncle) and bi polar (cousin).

Has anyone else experienced the same, either themselves or with their dcs? How did it turn out?

Other than the seeing and hearing things issue he seems fine, happy and sociable.

YABU to think that we can reassure you. In your place, I'd be worried. Take him to a specialist doctor.

Just to reassure you a bit, schizophrenia in children under 18yrs of age is practically unheard of - try not to worry, you can discuss everything on wed :)

I do remember hearing a voice in my head as a child, it had no words but a scolding and nagging tone. It went away as I grow up and so far I have had no mental health issues as an adult, I'm now 37.

Is quite common for small kids to have "imaginary friends" and hear voices - I remember experiencing it as a child and am now perfectly sane

Bless you. I would be very disinclined to worry personally in a child of that age. Four years old can be very imaginative.

Best speak to a doctor tho anyway, to put your mind at rest.

I think they may be imaginary friends and he doen't see them at nursery because he is happy and engaging with his peers. Is he kept stimulated enough at home or do you think it could be that he is highly intelligent?

I had an imaginary friend for a long time as a child, and it drove my mother up the wall.

She said that is did start as voices in my head (about 3yo) and ended up full on setting him a place at the table until I was about 6 and she put a stop to it.

I distinctly remember being absolutely convinced that Macinroe was in fact real, and being amazed that no one else could see him.

I wondered about an imaginary friend, too. Hope you get some reassurance from the GP, OP.

Thanks all.

Actually Sole i wondered if I was overstimulating him! We do a lot when we're together as he acts up if he's bored. Not sure about intelligence. He certainly has a very lively inquiring mind but he's never been first to hit his milestones and his art doesn't seem as advanced, or, ironically, imaginative, as many of the other children's.

you are massively overthinking. I have a 4 year old dd and she regularly says things about her brain...also now and then sees things "Look mummy...an angel!" jus the other day...she pointed at nothing.

My older DD saw "ladies" in hr bedroom...yes..they may have been her imagination...or ghosts! I don't know...but I never thought she was loopy.

Macinroe Great name!

My youngest son has always had an unusual way with words and phrases, he has his own way of expressing himself and describing the world. As a toddler we often joked about what was going on in his head. We had some very odd weeks when we did wonder if there was some kind of issue.

At 7 he's still the same, he tries to tell how he feels, not how he should say it. Very unlike his brother, who was always very textbook in his language. Last week we had "There's 3 of me, there's 3 of me, there were 2. I don't like 3". That was him with a tummy bug feeling sick. I know what he meant, that fuzzy head, hot feeling. He stuck with it and described the rest of that illness in terms of how many versions were around.

You don't need to worry about the onset of bipolar - the general view is that children don't get it - onset is after puberty. (late teens, early 20s).

You sound a very caring mum,

My 5 yr old ds talks to himself all the time and tells me his brain tells him to do things too, I've a mum who is schizophrenic/bi-polar and a cousin who is schizophrenic too but the onset of schizophrenia happens during teens so I'm not too worried just now, I'm putting it down to age.

Speak to an expert. There are so many possibilities that are not scary e.g. knocking noises can be caused by earwax (I get a high pitched whistling if there is too much wax in my ear - sorry TMI) . His strange kinds of dreams can be just that - dreams - I once had a conversation with a friend on a sleepover only to realise as her answers didn't really fit the questions that she was actually still in a light sleep even though her eyes were open.