3yr old having bad dreams about the days events - what can we do?

[LowFatMilkshake]

Please help. Our DD who will be 4 in September is going through a very difficult patch in terms of her behaviour. She has a 5 month old baby brother so her bad behaviour was'nt totally unexpected, and it's only recently started. Normally she is a real diamond and a lovely little girl to be around. However her current behviour often results in us shouting at her - which we try not to do but sometimes it just comes out, or us taking something away or stopping her doing something.

We are now trying to be consistent with punishment though so she understands the consequences of heractions and we dont spend all day barking at her and so far has introduced a new sticker chart, stickers for good behaviour and crosses for bad. 4 crosses mean we take away one of her dress's until Sunday, meaning she will have to have trousers But 5 or more stickers gets her something favourable come Sunday. So far since yesterday she has got 1 sticker for eating all her dinner, but had it crossed out and another cross as well.

We always give her warnings before carrying out a punishment and we praise her good behaviour and give the sticker etc. But because sometimes her behaviour is putting herself in dangers - such as walking in the gutter puddles and ignoring us telling her to come back on the path or lying on her brother and squashing him we dont feel we can ignore it. The lesser stuff we do try and ignore, although often easier said than done.

My point is that in the last fortnight she has been really disturbed in her sleep, often wakling in a terrible state unable to calm down for up to 45 minutes. As much as we cuddle and reassure her. Sometimes she wakes fully other times she doesnt even open her eyes. But we can tell from what she says that she is replaying the days events when we've clashed over her bevhaviour.

We sit by her bed and say reassuring things, or in the worst case we've had to bring her downstairs to get her out of the crying fit.

We really want to find away of helping her out of her bad behaviour and stopping these bad dreams. Any ideas please

Sorry it's long

hi, not much advice, really, just to dsay my dd (5) was v anxous at night at your dd's age - had dreams about monsters, dinosaurs...very scared of the dark. Really think it is more of a phase that will pass and less of a result of her actual day that she had, that's more how her insecurities are manifesting themselves.

just hug her, bring her in your bed carry on as normal and bet it will pass in about a month.