ranisaha posted on Wed, 01/19/2011 - 00:03
My son who is going to be 3 yrs has been waking up in between sleep and he is very scared. Many a times he cries and does not want to get back to sleep. What could be the reason and what can be done to help him.
Kids go through so many thing throughout day that they dream of similar stuff. Has your child got scared of something recently. If so then maybe your child has come across friend who talk to him about things which scares him and he is getting such dreams.
I am sure either your son has been hearing of or seeing something which scares him and he is getting dreams of those thing. One thing that you can do is tell him some humorous stories and something which makes him feel goo so that he goes to sleep with good thoughts. One more thing you could do is provide him with a cozy and safe atmosphere for sleep, maybe you could lie down with him and put the night lamp on.
Has there been any change in environment around your child? Actually when my son was about 3 years old we changed our apartment and for a couple of month he used to get up scared from sleep. Slowly he adjusted to the new environments and things were back to normal.
Actually you are right. We have not changed our house but during the winter vacations we went to a nearby place for vacation. We stayed in hotel for a week and that place had lots of greenery and hills. He enjoyed the stay but after returning from there we have observed these changes.
rani, I hope things are fine with your child now. If there are changes in environment you need to talk to your child and find out whats going on in his mind. As one of my nephew had similar issues and because of the parents ignorance later it took long time to come out of that scare. Even the psychologist said that such situations should be handled by parents at an early stage. I am sure with love and talking your child can come out of this phase soon.
Sometimes telling some stories from our religious epics help our child get out from these scary thoughts. Rani, why don't you give this a try I am sure it will have good results.
nina is so right. Telling some model stories of brave people and making your child feel that he is a brave chold will get him out of these scares.
In addition you should make your child feel that you as parents are always there for him. And he has nothing to worry about as you are present to help him in any circumstances. This gives the child a feeling of security and warmth.
I remember my son had to go through a phase when he used to wake up scared and he would just not leave me. To get him out of this I gave him all love and affection and for a week I slept with him so that he felt secure.
He used to get scared as he came across something scary on the TV when he visited a friend.