Toddles nightmares - V. specific

[lawson007]

For the last 2 - 3 months our 2yr 8 mth old DS1 has been having quite upsetting (for him) nightmares. Each night he wakes once whilst we are still up, then a further 2 times thru the night. Same pattern every time.. Wakes up - "I've had a bad dream" ...shouts for Mummy (altho doesn't mind if Dadddy or Mummy sees to him). we switch on his night light and ask him if he is ok and what happened in his dream.... The ONLY answer we EVER get back is "yellow".

So we've asked him, what/who is yellow both at the time and at random times in the day (not constantly tho) and to no avail.

Has anyone else had anything similar? We are due to move DS2 into DS1's room in the next few weeks (only in a 2 up. 2 down cottage),so any hints/tips to resolve are v. much appreciated. Thanks!

There's probably no sense to it at all unless.. what colour is his night light?

thx for posting Jareth - nightlight is a white/blue!!

damn, that would have been too easy.

DS frequently has night terrors about his hands.. talks in his sleep saying 'where have my hands gone'. It's bloody horrible.

How old is your DS1?

Is it possible that he has synthesia? It's a kind of different perception of the world where the senses get a combined. A friend of mine from uni had it and she heard colours, and one she heard as screaming. I can't remember which colour it was, and I don't know if it would be the same colour linked to the same sound for everyone, but that would be enough to scare anyone I think. Is it possible that yellow represents more to him than to you? and that he just can't explain it because he doesn't realise that you don't hear the colour too.

I had a repeated nightmare as a small child set in my house where everything was tinted yellow - I associated it with cheese which as a child didn't entirely agree with me. Not sure if that helps...

I remember having a reoccuring nightmare too. Everything was brown. As an adult I can now describe it as being set in a factory with me attatched to a conveyor belt but at the time I used to keep reteating how everything was brown.
Could you ask him to try and draw the dream, then explain what he has drawn? Or would that be too traumatic?
Good luck.