yr old DS scared of shadows and the dark

[glitterbird]

Hi

I am looking for some advice no how to best to help my son who appears to be scared ofthe dark and shadows. He has slept with a nightlight for the past year which has been quite dim but in the last month he has wanted it much brighter and in last couple of days he has been saying hes scared of shadows and says its too dark. I realise his fears are real and my DH and I have tried to have fun with shadows and showing him the room is same with or without all the lights left on. He has a huge soft toy as a protector and we have left the door slightly ajar so he can hear me downstairs. Can anyone suggest anything else. If he has a light on there will always be shadows and he even expressed this evening he was scared of the shadows from the living room curtains and that is with the main lights on so not sure how to help him. I know its just a phase but he gets so upset so need some help

opps post should read 2.5 yr old is scared of shadows and the dark

Not sure, if you're already using a nightlight, which is what I was going to suggest. Will share our tips anyway in case they might help...

Dd1 (3.3) is quite scared as well, but is ok with 2 nightlights in her room. We've just put up some glow in the dark stars, which she loves (ie is a positive thing about it being dark, she can see them).

We also don't shy away from reading books with monsters etc in (but not at bed time!), and talk about what to say to monsters that you're scared of (we tell her to shout boo, and scare them right back). There's a lovely book called 'emily brown and the thing', although it might be a bit old for your ds.

When she has a bad dream and is scared, I've tried sprinkling 'good dream' dust on her (all make believe, although some parents fill a squirty bottle with water and spray the room) - you could try a similar thing but to get rid of monsters or whatever.

You can also get nightlights that he can actually take to bed and cuddle all night.

Is there anything in his day to day life that's changed and could be upsetting him? Maybe the upheaval of Christmas?

Maybe a dimmer switch for his main room light? Much less shadowey than a low down nightlight.

It's difficult, isn't it? I gave my daylight alarm clock to ds - really miss it on these winter mornings but his need was greater and all that. You can set it to gradually dim so it goes from the equivalent of full daylight ever so gradually down to full darkness. That worked for a while. Now I have to adjust it very precisely to the 'right' setting, not bright enough to keep him awake, not so dark it's scary. We also leave his door open and the landing light on.

It's normal at this age. Our DS is sort of the same and he's just turned 4, has been like this for about 6 months.

No advice, just sympathy.

well so far hes cried out 3 times in past hour and I have been up to reassure him and he seems to have settled now. thanks for the tips, the dimmer switch on main light is good idea and he actually got some glow stars for Christmas but I was unsure over whether to put them up due to his anxiety so maybe we will give them a go.

His general routine has been quite upset due to house guests who only left today and he still naps in the day and this has generally been a bit later than normal so again this could be a reason why its escalated in past few days unfortunatly he is starting a new nursery next week so we are settling in so more upheaval for him. thanks for the advice

We got a Toy Story projector torch for our DS1 (3 next Feb) for the same 'problem'. It's only £4.99 and the best thing is you need to hold down the switch to have it turned on. So he can do that while he is awake and when he falls asleep, it stays off! It's perfect. We haven't had an issue with him wanting the door ajar / hall light on since...

It's this one.

That sounds like a great idea angel, we might try that as well!