Slightly spooky subject here - honest opinions required of those with knowledge either in early child development or in ethereal matters

[lisalisa]

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Just a few things.

I have no opinion either way as to what it might be.

HOWEVER, I do know that both DP, DD and now DS a little bit can all, sleeptalk - eyes open etc and have a conversation with you except be fast asleep and have no knowledge or perhaps only a very vague recollection of the conversation. Therefore a babycam/webcam probably wouldnt tell you anything if he was in fact, dreaming.

It does seem quite a leap for a 14-16 month old to have the same thing about a dog every night. My two developed a 'fear' of monsters in the dark from god knows where. DS buys into it very much at the moment (he's 2.5). But it's not daily. They do talk to pretend things though.

What happens if he sleeps in another room? Have you tried this? Perhaps move his bed/cot into a sibling's room - or even your room to see what happens?

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How intriguing. If it's a recurrent nightmare then the best solution would be to put him in a different room - or take the cupboard out if that's where the dog always comes from - to break the pattern. I would do this in addition to saying he can tell the dog to go away. If it does have a more spooky explanation then you may have to go down the "cleansing". I hope you get a solution soon your DS is obviously very distressed by it.

No LisaLisa, my point is rather that this is already what your child does? She told it to stop. The dog then attacked again, didnt it?

This morning dd1 aged 11 heard ds chatting in his cot and was about to open the door to get him when she heard a big thump and heard ds shout " No doggie - you hurt [ds name] again. Bad doggie [ds name] won't play you now" . She then heard ds scream out loud " Ooooouuuuchhh -" and start crying "mummy mummy".

I dont think children that young do that kind of imaginary play! Dog bite, child scolds dog, and dog hurts the child again. Very unusual.

Which is why I dont think that teaching him to say stop and dont do it, and go away wont necessarily work.

Have you tried asking questions about the dog? Maybe you could take him to a toyshop and look at jellycat and other soft toys, and ask which most resembles "his" dog? Maybe buy him the dog? See what happens if you let him have a "real" toy dog to play with? Ask some questions, such as "is the dog hurting you?" "Is the dog nice to you?"

Children sometimes do see more than grown ups do. There used to be a storage shed for fallen soldiers during ww2 on the land we built our house on. We've had the priests around, to put it that way.....

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lisalisa, to assume for a moment that your ds is having a nightmare, could he not have bumped his leg on either the base of the cot or the bars of the cot as part of the dream and then reacted to it as though it was real, giving the sound of him 'escaping' whatever it was? You know how you dream the phone is ringing only to wake up to hear it is? Just trying to find a possible explanation for you.

OKOKOKOKOK....cross posts!!! That is very f-ing spooky!! I have goose pimples all over now!!!! Totally changed my track, get him out of that room and into yours and get a rabbi or whoever to your house ASAP!!!!!! I'm sorry, I know I'm being alarmist but F-ing hell!!!!!!!!! Surely, even if the window was open, it wouldn't have blown the cot over surely?

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Jeez, Lisa, that scared the shit out of me just reading it! I'm a wuss though, you might want to figure that into weighting my response.

Either your nany's spinning you a line and terrifying your DS in the process, or he has an incredible imagination, or something we don't understand is going on.

Also, the wind blowing a cot over? What sort of cot do you have?

Actually, wouldnt a mark be quite reassuring? Because if he had really gotten his leg trapped in the cot, or bumped it in the cot, there would be a mark.

personally, I believe that some people are more sensitive to these things than others and yes, kids are more sensitive than adults.

surely the fact that his cot was on it's side would be enough to not put him in there until things have settled, what if he'd been in it? Sorry - horrible idea I know, but....

LisaLisa, I fear you will have all of Mumsnet watching your thread with keen interest for developments (hopefully there would be no more scary ones), just as with your oh so funny knicker in lunchbox incident. Sadly this is a little more sinister. Talk to your Rabbi or a priest. Wont hurt.

DS2 was once terrified one night and clung to me for an hour, just cuddling me. Didn't want to feed, just cuddle. Kept looking at the window in our bedroom. Really unlike him - he was whimpering and very scared. This was when he was about 16mo. But I'm sure it was the curtains blowing in the wind that scared him and he's not done it before or since.

I do remember being scared of the lion on the Noah's Ark poster I had in my bedroom when I was about 2.6. But both of these things are utterly different from what you're describing, LL.

AAAhhhh that Lisalisa, I wondered why your name was so familiar

I wouldn't want ds to sleep in that room in the circumstances - would want to do something to 'cleanse' the house/room even if I felt really silly requesting it.

Re spirit dogs - I certainly think that this can happen. I used to regularly walk in one location first thing in the morning (ie 6.30am ish, so few people about) with my dog. We used to walk down a snicket with high walls then come out on an open section with the path at a T junction to the snicket. Some mornings my dog would tear up the high wall to the right in a very aggressive manner, hackles up, barking. Other mornings she wouldn't do anything.

I mentioned this to a friend I regularly met - she had grown up in the area. She told me that she was once walking near this area when she saw a very large Alsatian - her dog didn't like Alsations so she called him to her and put him on the lead. She continued to walk towards this dog, which walked along the path towards her a bit then turned and walked into the wall. She is a very grounded person and I believe what she said - particularly with my dog's attitude.

Hope nothing else nasty happens - keep us posted and let us know what you decide to do (and, if you do anything, whether it helps)

lisalisa, our spirit boy threw a CD off our shelf, switched things on, put money in my handbag ( donlt have an issue with that! ) and various other things.. we were happy to live with him, until he started to get more bold, and was going into DDs room

the man who cleansed the house told us his name was Stanley, the same name as one of our dogs, and had a sibling with the same name as our DS., so he was thinking the boy thought he was being called by us, and that we were his family ,due to the names.

it was the cheekiness that made us ask him to leave, as we thought things would get spookier

i suppose it depends what you believe

our house is old, and we know at least one person died in it

i was told that salt is a good cleansing thing, and to put a plate of salt in the area we were getting more activity, i also put a big rse quartz crystal thre, but other types of crystal are more effective. don;t know if our religion frowns upon such things, but made me feel better

also, had 4 other people tell me independently they could 'feel' something in the house

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Yes, of course you trust your nanny - sorry, should've thought that one through!

I'm going to avoid giving you any advice, LL, after last time