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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

I need advice about how to help dd please

6 replies

pinkbasket · 14/09/2010 19:36

She is 7 and wakes up crying in the night if she has a bad dream. Whatever we say to her to try and settle her she has a reason why that won't help and just now she has come down crying in case she has a bad dream tonight. We have said she can have lights on, if she wakes up we will go to her but nothing helps.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

CupcakesHay · 14/09/2010 20:53

Is she worried about anything? I used to have a lot of nightmares and sleepwalk when I was younger - and even the littlest thigns upset me.

But my mum used to sit and have a chat with me before bed time to discuss my day - and talk through anything that was worrying me - and she got me a dictaphone for work to talk into, like a diary, to say if anything was worrying me.

Poor love.

brettgirl2 · 14/09/2010 21:03

Is she reading books designed for older kids? I read the BFG when I was about 7 and it gave me nightmares (and you aren't allowed to tell grown ups it says in the book) just a thought.

Original poster

pinkbasket · 15/09/2010 08:04

I will talk to her when she gets back from school. Sometimes she tells me what her bad dream was about and sometimes she doesn't want to tell me. When she eventually went to bed she didn't wake up having dreams but she is tired this morning as she was still awake when I went up to bed. Thanks all. I will also check what books she is reading.
brettgirl - what is it in the BFG you are not meant to tell grown ups that is scary? It has been many years since I read it.

OP posts:

ppeatfruit · 15/09/2010 08:24

Sometimes DCs don't want to talk if directly asked. A sideways approach works might work better like get her to tell you a story, or as cupcakes says chat about anything.

ppeatfruit · 15/09/2010 08:26

Also to help relaxing sleep have a cup of camomile tea with her. HTH

WildEepsMomNDad · 24/09/2010 17:40

I used to have a lot of nightmares as a child. What i did that worked was tell myself (when i was awake) that if i got in a scary dream i could do 2 things. 1) i could call 'cut' at any time and the dream would stop because it was just a scary movie and i was one of the actors in it or b) i could pinch my arm which would wake me up.

i think this allowed me to take back control of my dreams and i recall it working really well. maybe it will work for you dd - i hope it does

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