Right, how do you combat the monsters in the bedroom when your lo is too scared to go to bed?

[panicpants]

Ds, 3.10, has suddenly decided that there are monsters in his bedroom (under the toybox) and is now finding it hard to settle to sleep.

For 3 nights now he has gone down ok, and I think he has fallen alseep, but after an hour or 2, I have heard him in our room.

Each time he has crawled into our bed, and is crying, saying there are monsters in his room and it is scary.

He does go back in, and so far, everytime he has fallen straight back to sleep. And stays there the rest of the night.

Today I have had to take the monsters and let them out of the front door so it's safe for him to go to sleep.

We will get a nightlight for his room and see if that helps..but has anyone got any ideas for nipping this in the bud?

TIA

We would hoover the monsters up before bed time and that seemed to help. Also gave DD a 'bad dream fairy' to help chase away the dreams.

Tell him there are no monsters.

The chances are they are shadows or maybe he heard a noise of a toy falling and can't forget it.

A teddy to snuggle up with?

Everyone knows that monsters evaporate if you spray them with water so just a small water spray at the side of the bed should sort out any monsters left.

A spray bottle of "monster repellant" (rose water or lavander water) might work. A quick spray before bed could help as long as you make sure your DS knows that it keeps monsters away for the whole night. Otherwise you could help him choose a new soft toy that monsters are scared of that could then sleep on his bed with him.

Has he seen Monsters Inc? The monsters in that seem quite scary but turn out to be very kind and scared of children. DS loved the film.

bloomin eck bran - great minds and all that lol

I would try a couple of tactics. Flushing them down the loo normally works or kicking them down the stairs. I do not think it is right at this age to just dismiss it with 'there are no monsters - go to sleep'. We also use 'fairy dust' (invisable magical dust that protects the child from monsters and gives them nice dreams.) I would also recommend trying to find some books to help dispell the myth that monsters are bad. We have foudn Silly Billy is a good book about being worried but it might involve the purchase of worry dolls.

My DS1 has always worried about things and has trouble getting to sleep. I think it depends on the temperment of the child. I do not think this is something you can 'nip in the bud' and you will probably have to keep coming back to this issue again if he is susceptable to feeling like this now.

DS used to have an imaginary dog that slept at the end of his bed to frighten away any imaginary monsters. it had all sorts of magic powers...

It's a teddy bear's job to keep away monsters - they never lurk under beds where there's a teddy.

It is possible that my DCs still believe this, as they both take their favourite teddy back to university every term....

I had my own monster to fight the bad monsters when I was his age. His name was Pimpson.

I made his acquaintance on my own, but I wonder if you could introduce him to your son. I don't need his services so much anymore

Monsters Inc was like seeing a film about my life as a 3 year old. Wonderful.

Has he seen Monsters Inc? Or would that be too scary?

I've always booted our monsters out of the window pantomime stylee since I am the meanest person in this house and all monsters are frightened of mummies; it's a well-known fact.

I had the monster repellent spray/fairydust on stand-by but fortunately not needed...yet

Pants.
Under the bed.
They just go. They can't stand them.
Also there is a cleaning product you can buy called Vanish, but it might not smell very nice.

The bad dream(DS1)/monster(DS2) fairy delivered some fairy dust (body glitter type stuff) to our house that was sprinked to get rid of them. Plus the fact that monsters are really really scared of mummies!

Some lovely ideas..thank you. Really like the ideas of the sprays....will try them tomorrow night!

We put a dream catcher in the window, it kept out bad dreams and more importantly monsters.

We don't have monsters in this house yet, but DS has been waking screaming in the early hours because the mysterious 'Fixer Man' has been under his bed. Poor lad (not quite 3 yet). We've told him to cuddle his bear tight and tell the monsters to go away.

I read somewhere that you weren't supposed to say they didn't exist as they are v real to the child...

We had a special monster scaring soft toy. It checked the bedroom before bed and then sat on the windowsill all night keeping them away. I think it was a rabbit, but any teddy will do!

The Fixer Man?!

The poor child. That sounds terrifying. Perhaps I will need Pimpson back after all.

Good thing he has that bear

The whole point of a teddy is to keep the monsters away, but demonstrating a quick kick down the stairs by ninja-mummy never hurts.

Oh, and if some little shit darling introduces your DCs to the idea of ghosts, then you can 'accidentally' let them in to the secret of the (usually golden) shield DCs carry around them, which ghosts can't get through and which gets topped up every time you hug them

We have a crocodile on the rug which eats any monsters as they are not allowed in the bedroom. Dd's choice to eat them rather than scare them away! Seems to work.

I know skidoodle! I think I'm a little scared myself...

We used to have a Knicksock Monster (a small plastic dinosaur) that sleeps under your pillow and frightens all the other monsters away.

We always remind our kids that monsters only exist in stories, however they all have a little mirror each for extra re-assurance(courtesy of Claire's) as its a well known fact that monsters are easily tricked, you tell them that you have a bigger monster than them as your friend, then you show them their reflection in the mirror and they run away scared.

We made posters saying No Monsters Allowed, with Monsters in a circle with a line through and stuck it on the front door and bedroom door. It has worked a treat!