My 2 Year Old Has a "Scary" in Her Bedroom...

What I did quite a few years back is to have the child help me make a magic potion that would get rid of all the "scary" things. I mixed up a little flower, salt whatever I had that was lying around (spices etc) and then we both sprinkled it all over the room and said over and over "scary's" don't like this and it will make them leave. After that I never had an issue. You could try it and if it doesn't work, mybe see a counselor.

Try getting a dream catcher for over her bed. Make a ritual of putting it up. Maybe do some kind of dance or song to get rid of the scary. That is what worked for my daughter when she did the same thing. Even now when she has a night mare she sings her song to get rid of the scary.

Okay, I am going to go out on a limb here....

I personally believe that children can see angelic beings. Whether they are good or evil. I think your child actually saw one and has a legitimate fear. I saw one when I was a child and the description has never left my mind. It is truly frightening even to this day. I believe that your child is in some way a threat to evil beings, whether it be now or in the future. Her very name dictates such: Haven is a harbour or anchorage protected from the sea, or, by extension, a place of safety; a refuge or sanctuary. Names are very powerful!

What I would do and have done is pray. I pray specifically and with this language. 'Lord, I pray a hedge of thorns around this child and that you would protect her. I pray that you would send guardian angels to stand guard at the four corners of her bed and that they would stretch their wings and protect her from any harm.'. After the prayer recap what you just said and let her know that the 'scary' no longer has permission to be in her room and that she will be cared for by the angels; that they will fight the 'scary' off and that she is now safe.

This is a visual prayer for your child that not only has genuine power over the 'scary', but helps her to visualize the four angels at her bed stretching their wings and protecting her. This is very powerful and I would encourage you to listen very closely to things she says and what she sees.

Believe her, it is true, but the prayer works and is powerful.

Sean and I say, "God is bigger than the Boogy Man and he's taking care of YOU and ME."

Let me tell you a little bit about my kids:

Hunter doesn't like the dark as he falls asleep, we leave the hall light on for him. But, he did suffer from night terrors for a long time. He'd sweat and kick and scream as he woke up. I'm sure you are familiar with night terrors. It's scary for kids because they are neither awake or asleep and the sensation is very weird (freaky). They scream and kick because they are just trying to cope with it or make themselves wake up the rest of the way.

There was only a short time that Hunter spoke of the "Bad Mans" in his room. We just told the bad mans to stay out and go away a couple of times and that was the end of that.

Lilly is afraid to enter dark rooms. For her it was a two fold problem; the first being a fear of not being able to see in the dark.

I thought it was absolutely adorable when her mind opened up in this way. She would turn the light off and then run for her life out of the room. She'd also dig her heals in and pull away if I tried to make her enter a dark room. How I helped her overcome her fear is by making her walk into the room (while I held her hands) and turn the light switch on (via step stool). I taught her that the light switch was the solution to make the scary dark go away.

It's good for kids to be afraid of the dark because you can't see in it, might trip over something, and it's not wise to enter dark places where you can't see what hazards are around. It think that a fear of the dark is a simple as that.

But the second fold of this problem was the ghosty. We also went through a ghost phaze. Lilly would say that she sees HALLOWEEN out the window. I'd ask her if she sees the Moon? She'd reply, "No, not the moon." Then, I'd ask her if she sees a pumpkin. She'd reply, "No, not a pumpkin." I'd ask her if she sees a ghost. She'd reply, "A ghosty is out there; mean ghosty." This started about 6-7 months after the holiday so I was very impressed with her description of what she was seeing.

During this phase we had many long conversations about the ghosty outside. She'd talk about it and repeat her comments and my comments over and over again until she was done talking all about it. Some conversation would last up to 20-30 minutes. I let her carry on like that and just remained patient as we discussed the same thing over and over. I also gave her a lot of feedback. For example: I'd stand at the window and say, "Ghosty, go away." or I'd say, "No ghosties allowed in this house. You stay out... go back to the moon." She eventually started commanding the ghosty to stay way in a big strong voice of her own. We never officially prayed on bended knee, but we spoke to the ghosty simply as children of God.

Ghosty has been away for a few months now. Both Hunter and Lilly have two ways to deal with their fears, one tangible (the light switch) and the other intangible (self-confidence -of course as children of the Almighty God).

We also read the Veggie Tales book often.

So, based on my experience... I think that the both of you have a good grasp on the situation. It may be as simple as a big imagination and it also might be a spiritual thing.

Lilly's ghosty might have been raccoon eyes in the back yard. Hunter's "Bad Mans" might have been a peeping-tom (God forbid-that's just gross). Or who knows...

Either way, God is bigger and God is the best... HE can take care of it.

I don't have any advice, but I had to respond to your request because of a situation with my sister and her daughter. I also believe in "spiritual beings". I have never had any experience myself, but that doesn't keep me from believing...especially after hearing other's stories. Anyway...In March of this year, my grandfather passed away from what the coroner ruled to be a "sudden death" heart attack. I called my sister to tell her what happened. We all took the news pretty hard. Starting that night and for about 2 weeks after, my niece would just cry and cry at night until my sister came and got her and brought her to bed with her and her husband. At the time, my neice was 11 months old and from the time she was about 6 or 7 months, she had extreme stranger anxiety towards men. My sister said that she cried those 2 weeks the way she did when she was approached by a man that wasn't her daddy. She had only seen her great-grandpa twice since she was born, so to her, he would be a stranger. One other night in that two week timeframe, my sister went into her daughter's room to comfort her because she had woken up and was crying. She picked her up and started to sway and rock her back to sleep. She caught a glimpse of her mom's shadow on the wall and completely lost it! She started crying hysterically. Anybody that believes in "spiritual beings" will tell you that children are more susceptible to seeing them than adults. Mostly because as adults, we've already made a decision whether or not we believe in them. Children are the most innocent. I would not be surprised if that was what your daughter saw, so don't rule that out. Hopefully the "scary" can become a thing of the past! Good Luck!

J., I am sorry you are going through this, with your little one, but i can tell you this, I dont normally respond to stuff like this, but this one i am. I have a strong feeling, and i do have a sixth sense, and i feel what your daughter is seeing your husband is right about. Kids can see more than us, believe it or not, there not subjected to the world like we are. I honestly believe she is rigtht, dont second guess her, do it for her. It only takes a hour, but i can tell you from personal experience, i have had it happen, had my grandfather who is a minister bless the house, and sure enough i was right. please do it. For nothing but for your little one. She is trying to tell you something. and there so young they dont know how too. I believe her.

I haven't had this experience with a child but my own experience might be similar. I've awakened at night from a bad dream and being only partly awake seen something that scared me a little. When I turned on the light I could see it was just my robe draped over a chair or similar things. Because I'm an adult I know it's not real and the fear doesn't stay with me.

I don't know if that's what has happened with your daughter. And this is an untried suggestion. Have her help you rearrange her room and talk about how the scary doesn't want to be in this room anymore with this new arrangement. While doing this look for anything that might create shadows or look scary in the dark and eliminate them.

My son went through this (but his "thing" was monsters), and I think you're right about it being the product of her imagination. We helped our little guy get over his fear by "spraying" for monsters by using Febreeze. He quickly caught on to how much fun this was and was soon spraying Febreeze under his bed and in his closet every night before bed. This seemed to really help (and it made his bedroom smell nice and fresh). He liked the fact that he had some control over the monsters.

I have to say I agree with your husband. Children are more open to this kind of stuff, they are not old enough yet to know not to believe in it yet. I personally have never had my children tell me anything, however when I was living with my sister we would hear my nephew talking to someone or something at night and we would go in there and there was no one there, when asked he said he was talking to his nanna. A couple of weeks later we were all looking through a photo album looking for a picture of something else, when he saw a picture of his great grandma, who had been gone since long before he was born, and said thats nanna. It sent chills to our bones, but to this day he still says he sees her. I have been a nanny for a lot of years and I have never seen a childs imagination scare them to that point. My only thought would be to maybe spend a night in her room with her and maybe she will show you what she is so scared of. She might have more courage to talk, and explain things with a parent there.

J.-

You look like you have gotten a lot of good advice, but I will through my 2 cents in as well. I have an almost 2 and a half year old son who has gone through the same thing. He refused to go in his room without either me or Daddy, in the morning he would wake up screaming because he wanted to get out of his crib ASAP and would always say there were monsters in there. Now I admit that we have it much easier because he actually would tell us what was scaring him, Monsters, dragons, and even scary cars! At first Daddy would have to go through the room pretending to spray for monsters...in the closet, behind the chair, behind the door, under the bed, etc. He would just make a fake spraying sound and poof they would be gone. I felt terrible though because only Daddy could spray for monsters/whatever correctly it seemed, Mommy's spray didn't work and this was hard because with his job Daddy wasn't always home at bed time. However, this is what I do that seems to work well with our son. One evening he asked what the cross hanging on the wall above his crib meant, so I explained. Now every night when I rock him before bed we add a little extra on to our nightly prayer.....I just ask the Lord to watch over little Dakota and to send his angels to keep him safe from (in your case) "scary things" to help him sleep well and to help him not feel scared. Amen" Now this is a prayer we pray every night allowed while we rock and it has worked wonderfully, I even asked my husband if he even "sprays" for monsters anymore and he said no, so now it is just down to our little prayer.
On the other hand I do agree with Cheryl C. that children are much more open to seeing spirits (as your husband thinks it might be) I agree with what Cheryl said about talking to the spirit and just letting it know that it is deceased and that it is time to cross over, sometimes it can be a deceased relative just wanting to check in, but also explain that whoever it was it is scaring your daughter and please cross over. Definitely do something like this when she is not around as it may frighten her more, but do the nightly prayer thing together.
I think the most important thing is to continue to talk to your daughter and see if you can find out what it is that is frightening her. I think you're doing great and I hope this helps you as much as it has helped my son.

God Bless,
B.

Hi J.. If you dont believe its spiritual try this. Get an empty can of air freshner spray. Tell your child it only works when its EMPTY.
Tell her its monster spray and each time she sees one to spray them and they go away. You may have to pretend theres one in front of you and spray it with the empty can for a demonstration. It took my 4 kids 10 times before she had a good nights sleep but it worked. She screamed I said oh no wheres the monster spray at. Ok there gone. Lets go nini now so mommy can cook us breakfast in the morning. I love you baby nini.

Hope this helps Good Luck

Hello, I'm having the same exact thing going on with my two year old. I feel guilty b/c sometimes i get mad she is so scared, i tell her just stop nobody is there, but who am i to know who or what does she see. My dad recently passed, if anyone were to haunt our home i would only want him. What if it's not a friendly ghost? She doesn't talk but i can see the fear in her eyes and it's always at the window. She sleeps in the corner under all her blankets. I would imagine i would do the same. If you figure out what to do, please help. Good luck..

My 4-year-old son goes through phases of irrational fears (right now it's butterflies), but it's never been anything as intense as what you've described. If that was happening to my child I'd be pretty freaked out.

I am not suggesting that your daughter needs "help", by any means - but have you considered taking her to see a child psychologist? It's not really something your pediatrician would necessarily know how to deal with, but perhaps a psychologist might have other ways of getting her to open up.

Just a thought. Good luck!

I would just keep trying to get her to show you. We went through this with our 2 1/2 year old son. FINALLY, we figured out it was the smoke detector he was afraid of. Really weird. Apparently, it had started chirping (or he heard one of the other ones doing it) because the battery in it was going bad and it freaked him out. For WEEKS, he was scared of every single detector in the house (and our house has them in every room, PLUS some) Anyway...keep trying, and hopefully, eventually, she'll tell you what she's afraid of.

They make monster spray for kids...
http://www.monstergoaway.com/

Hi J. I actually am sorry to say I don't have any advice for you. But I have been wondering what has been going on with your situation now? Has it gotten worse or better? Let us know what happened and what you did.

Children are very spiritually perceptive, mainly because they haven't had it trained out of them yet. It's very important to pray and ask God and her guardian angel to protect her every night. I find the pictures we have of Christ and Mother Mary really help my daughter who was suffering from night terrors. The visual really helps. You can download some pictures of your choice at http://www.goarch.org/en/resources/clipart/. I myself have had the experience of waking up to a very evil presence in my room (about 3 times in my life) including when I was young. I've always been spiritually very sensitive. My ex used to attract a lot of weird stuff which I won't get into, and I have no doubt that an evil presence was in your daughter's room. I remember MY night terrors when I was young. In Haven's case I believe this is a very real experience and should not be discounted. Some kids just get scare of the dark. However, this happened in the day time and is very unusual. Kids don't make up things this scary. Something really scared her.

In our society we look at things so materially and scientifically that we forget that there is a real spiritual world that touches our world, but most of us get trained out of seeing, sensing or experiencing that.

I will pray for Haven that God would chase the evil away, that his mercy be upon her, that His love drive away all fear and evil. God bless all of you.

J.,

I had an experience with my daughter when she was about your daughters age. I used to lay my daughter down for a nap in my bed in the afternoons. One day, I came in to check on her and she was laying on the bed stiff and she had this terrified look on her face. I asked her what was wrong, and all she said was "scary Monkey". For awhile I couldn't figure out why she was doing that...until finally she pointed to a little buddha statue I had sitting by my fish tank on my dresser. She was scared of my little buddha guy. Now, it makes us both laugh(she is nine). But the simplest things can scare your child. Maybe, you should put her near her room and try to see if she is looking towards anything.

I don't rule out the spiritual stuff either, did you recently have a family member pass away? I would just try to encourage her to not be scared. Try a nightlight if you don't have one already. you may want to lie down with her in her room a few nights.

This is the time for her imagination to be working...my daughter started having horrible "night terrors" and imagined something in her closet. I would suggest taking the "scary" seriously, at least in front of her. Take a spray/squirt bottle with water in it and "spray to keep scary away"...if your daughter catches on, she can spray the room any time she wants to, to keep the monster away.

It is possible it's something else, as your husband suspects, but that depends on a lot of factors (and only 1 in 4 believe in ghosts). I've written a book on ghost stories, and most witnesses tell me you can tell the ghost to go away. Just explain that its presence makes your daughter frightened, and it should stay out of her room, the rest of the house, etc. You'll probably feel silly doing it, but feel free to let your husband do the talking, since he's the one who suspects something supernatural.

The important thing is to take your daughter seriously. While this is the time for her imagination to blossom, it's also a time when she will have difficulty telling imaginative things from real ones...and the better her imagination, the worse the problem will be. If you at least act like you take her fears seriously, she will trust you to deal with them and help her. If you don't, she will know you don't believe, and might not think you capable of dealing with the "scary".

If your husband feels more comfortable, you can ask a clergyman to "bless" the house. I've known several families who did this.

And, just think about it, someday this will be a great story to tell your daughter! Good luck!