DS scared of the dark, noises and more ...

[rubyslippers]

DS is 3.6 years - fab boy in general

He has developed a fear of noises - after we put him to bed he starts to call out

wants to know what the noises are (he can actually hear the heating and some noise from next door so nothing sinister)

he sleeps with the light on and has done for well over a year since he became afraid of the dark

this bedtime stuff has really come to a head within the past few weeks - and me or DH are up and down at least 5 or 6 times before he will settle

i have tried to explain that the noises are nothing to worry about but DS is not reassured

he has a new baby sister (she is 4 months old) so not sure if this is related ...

any ideas?

bump

My DS is 4 and is never very happy in a room on his own. He imagines all sorts of scary things ('birds don't really eat children, do they?' etc).
Every so often he goes through a stage of being particularly anxious at bedtime. If he's having a nervous stage we tend to sit just outside his door reading a book or something while he falls asleep. Doesn't take long and it seems much less annoying to me than going back and forth seven million times.
We also try to choose non-scary bedtime books. DS usually picks his own 'no, not that one, it gives me scary dreams' and so on.
I think they can have such a vivid imagination at this age, and it must be hard for them to work out whats real.

I started a thread about the same thing a few months ago. Got loads of fab advice, which I'll try and summarise for you:-

Has he told you what/who he thinks the noises are made by?

Try spraying the room with a plant spray (magic dust) every night, to get rid of any scary creatures.

Draw some happy faces, cut them out and stick them in the areas of the room that frighten him the most.

Buy a torch that he can have in bed - did the trick with DD - its now her friend "Torchy".

Leave some calming music on in the background.

I'll try and track down my thread for you as there are loads more.

He will grow out of it - DD is now happy to stay in bed without screaming every time the wind rattles the windows, or DH marches past her room. Infact, tonight for the first time she put herself to bed!

Dont really have any advice but just wanted to say that ds, 3.10, has had various fears over the past year or so and from what I gather its just an age thing.
At the moment he is a bit spooked by wind and television (particularly kids tv (?!)), previously its been noisy, busy environments, cars and lots more that I cant quite remember.
They tend to come and go,and they're now strting to become less intense nd less frequent - hopefully this will be the sme for your ds.

Jeremy's right - its definitely an age thing. Apparently my mum would wake up every morning to find I had moved my bedding onto the floor next to her side of the bed. I thought the noisy radiator was my big bear growling at me.

thank all both very much

it is reassuring to know it is an age thing ...

the tips are really useful - will deffo try the torch thing

thanks again

Just to say that dgs was/is terrified by what he demonstrated as a rhythmic growling noise which he said came from the church tower.We think it is sil snoring but giving dgs a torch has worked wonders.