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Behaviour/development

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Help at Bedtime for a 4 year old

1 reply

matchmaker86 · 29/12/2011 22:51

My 4 and a half year old seems to have developed a real fear of sleeping on her own. She did sleep with me until she was about 3 and a half and for the last year she has been fine until I let her sleep with me on holiday and sleep over at her nanas house that lives near me. Now bedtime is a nightmare, she is genuinely afraid and she goes on about bedtime all during the day. When I have given in and let her sleep with me she is like a different child. She was ill a few weeks back and I said I would let her stay in bed with me and I could not believe the change in her, she was like a dream. It?s got me worried, it?s not about the dark and I have put a TV in her room to keep her company and I always stay with her until she falls asleep but she wakes up and it?s more the build up to bedtime that?s distressing her. She is a smart kid but I don?t think she is playing me, I can see the fear in her. I plan to ride it out but wanted to reach out and see if anyone can offer some advice or share similar story.

OP posts:
TamIAm · 30/12/2011 16:11

My advice would be to follow her lead. Co-sleep with her until she's developmentally ready to sleep by herself again. If her fear is genuine, you're just going to compound it by forcing her to engage in the thing that is so scaring her.

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