My Son's Deathly Affraid of the Dark

Hi A., you mentioned you left a light on in the house, instead of doing that, put a night light onh in his room, better yet a fish aquarium, my kids all had one in their rooms, Stuffed animals in the dark take on a whole new look, dolls as well, my on;y thing with him being afraid of the dark, is him running in your room, which I'm going to asume is dark, I doubt that this is the only reason he is doing that, he's leaving a dark room and going to a dark room, try the night light and or the aquarium, and then see how he does, cause like you said you don't want your 18 month old doing the same thing. J. L.

When my nephew was 4 he suddenly became very fearful of the dark. My sister bought air freshner and then covered the label with a homemade picture of anti-monster spray. He could keep it with him and if he thought he saw a monster he could spray it on his own. Some nights the room was very floral. He also had a nightlight.
my 8 year old is afraid of the dark too. He goes to sleep with a nightlight and the hall light practically shining in his eyes. I turn off the hall light when I go to bed. When he tells me he hears noises I go in and look under the bed, and in the closet and tell the monsters that I am the Mommy and there are NO MONSTERS ALLOWED IN MY HOUSE! It has worked for him, he believes me that since I'm not afraid of monsters and I won't allow them!

Wow, poor thing! That's not easy - for you guys too!
Does he have a night light in his room? Or maybe you could try buying him some kind of really cool light up toy, or a glow in the dark toy and then show him how "cool" it is to use that toy in the dark. Try to make the dark "fun" somehow. Then tell him that if he wakes up in the middle of the night he can just turn on the toy (leave it beside his bed).
I don't know if it'll work since I've never been in this situation, but it could be worth a try ;)
Good Luck!
PS- If he likes the moon, try this; http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?r=1&am...
We are thinking of getting one for our daughter for xmas since she loves the moon so much - I've never seen one in person but it looks pretty cool...

Hi A.:
I've read a little about (being scared of the dark) I can remember as a small girl being frightened of the dark myself. They claim,that the fear of the dark is heightened by the IMAGINATION.The bigger your childs imagination,the wilder the nightmares! Its not so much the fear of absence of light,but fear of imagined dangers (CONCEALED by the DARKNESS.when a child lays in the dark,and has had a bad dream,or heard noises,he feels wide open and vulnerable.The important thing,is to accept your childs fear and don't make fun,or light of it.Talk about it with him,and talk about being scared yourself sometimes and how you feel. Explain dreams and nightmares to him. Tell him,that you get them to,but they are not real.Reasure him,that you and daddy,are close by,and would not let anything happen to him. What it gets down to is,It really doesn't matter why a child is afraid of the dark. The important point, is to take his fear seriously and help him over come it and feel more secure and grounded. I wish you and your darling son (sweet dreams) J.

Hi A. -
If you are open to it, there is a wonderful book called "Children's Past Lives" by Carol Bowman. She directly addresses the sort of fear your son is having and what to do about it. It's one of the best books I've read.

Good luck to you, L.

Does he say what about the dark scares him? How long? Where there an event that triggered it? think back to when it started and the cause may help you find a solution.

If he is scared of monsters buy some "monster spray"-febreze or other special air freshener. Some stores even sell sir freshener labeled as monster spray, Albertsons had it at one point. Or you could call it dream or sleeping spray.

Every night we give our kids a dream. We tell a little story about them or focus on an upcoming event, something fun and light for them to dream about at night.

My kids were scared of the dark when we camp so we bought glow sticks. Try those out.

There is also a great book by Mercer Meyer-"There's a Nightmare in My Closet" if you haven't tried that one yet.

Hope you can get him settled soon.