Five year old fears - how to help?

[rosettesforjill]

My five year old DS has developed a fear of going upstairs by himself. ("Monsters", apparently.)

This is a problem because we currently only have an upstairs toilet, and I also have a nine month old DD. I've just had 10 minutes of breakdown from him because I couldn't leave her in her high chair eating her food by herself to go upstairs with him and stand outside the door while he has a wee. It's ended up with me getting frustrated with him and shouting, which I know is at best not going to work, and at worst exacerbate the issue. I've tried a calm discussion and bribery, the latter of which works but isn't practical if I have to reward him for every wee!

Is there anything I can do to break this?

Would he go for something like 'monster spray'? Get a spray bottle full of water (maybe with a drop of food colouring to make it more convincing) or a scented room spray and make a label to put on it, then every morning make a big show of going round each upstairs room spraying to banish the monsters. You could even say a monster banishing 'spell' for added impact.

My children (4 of them) have all been through this. I just pander to them until they grow out of it.

How about doing it gradually. So agree to wait at top of stairs while he's in toilet. Then wait a few steps down. Then half way up stairs until you can wait at bottom of stairs (and keep constantly talking to him and reassuring him while he's in the toilet) as he goes.

Get a potty for him for now?

Thanks all for the suggestions and I'm glad it's relatively normal! I'll try some of these out.