DS (nearly 3yrs) afraid of the dark

[mamalula]

Ds is regularly waking in the night and saying he is scared! We ask him what he is afraid of but he just vaguely points around the room, so I guess it is the dark (he doesn't have a huge vocab yet as he is being brought up bilingual). My dh and I try to reassure and tell him we are here but we are exhausted and rarely have evenings to ourselves (just got the 7 month old ds2 sleeping thru) and we are now spending most of our evening trying to calm him. It is hard to be sympathetic after the 10th time going upstairs to him. Any suggestions!?

Does he have a comforter at all? Or a toy he can talk to. I assume you've tried a nightlight. I don't have much experience of this so can't offer any good suggestions I'm afraid. How long has it been going on?

Think I read on here of someone who gave their child a torch they could turn on if they were feeling scared. We have one of these from Ikea which is bright enough to light up the room but not so bright it keeps you awake.

Do you think it could be nightmares / night terrors? Talking to him about how dreams are just stories in your head might help.

Apart from ds2 have there been any other changes in his life - starting nursery or something that might have unsettled him?

A torch sounds like a good idea, especially one of those windup ones. My DNiece used to have a child's CD player so she could listen to stories.

If you can find books on the subject then that might help?

Thanks everyone! He has his doudou (french for cloth comforter) and nightlight and a cd player with his lullaby songs he's had since he was a baby but a torch is a good idea, slightly worried it will keep him awake playing but worth giving it a go, thanks!

We just leave the landing light on for DD.