My 3 year old dd just started 2 nights ago crying about spiders and bugs in her bed at night time. she was terrified of her bed thinking there were bugs in it. dh and i showed her there were no bugs and offered to keep bedroom light on. that didn't work because she wanted to play. last night i slept on her floor to help calm her nerves only to wake up to a pinched nerve in my neck. tonight we gave her a flashlight, told her to sing a song (bugs, bugs go away, don't come back another day) and put her stuffed animal in charge of keeping bugs out. i even went up there and yelled at the "bugs" to get out of her room and don't ever come back thinking that would show her i was in control. nothing has worked! bedtime has been a 2 hour process this week.

any suggestions on what to do to help cure fears in small kids?

thanks :)

Hi -

Several months ago my 3 year old daughter started being afraid of something (I still don't know exactly what) when the lights went out, and didn't want me to leave the room. She was hanging on to me, and wouldn't let me go etc. She had to cry herself to sleep a few nights etc.

Finally we hit upon this. We told her that she had to be a good Mommy for her dolly. If dolly woke up and got scared, our daughter had to be brave so that dolly wouldn't get even more scared. She had to take care of dolly, and be a brave, good Momma. I think you see where this is going. This worked like a charm. For several weeks she still said she was scared, but when we told her that baby needed her help, she would cuddle baby, and put her arms around baby, and comfort baby - and totally forget her troubles.

Lord knows what works for one kid doesn't necessarily work for another - but why don't you try making your daughter's teddy the baby instead of the guard?? You never know...

My girls all had what we use to call night terrors, when they were about 3 or 4. Don't know why it happens at that age. The idea of protecting the doll sounds like agood one. Puts her back in control.

thanks for the replies! we will try the baby doll thing!