Help with 5 Year Old Scared of Monsters.

I haven't read through all of the responses yet, but when my niece was young and scared of monsters, we would do the "monster-b-gone" trick. All it really is, is an empty spray bottle with water and a little bit of extract in there -- lemon, vanilla, whatever you have on hand. When Raven started crying about the monsters, she took the bottle and sprayed it in the area to shoo them away. It really was wonderful!

My niece was having the same problem a few months ago. I suggested getting a can of air freshener and making a label that says "Monster Spray" or something like that and let her spray the can to "kill the monsters" before she goes to bed. It worked for my niece. It's worth a shot. Good luck.

A.,
Boy do I understand your dilema. I too had a sweet and very loving and rule abiding five year old daughter. She to had some issues sleeping and other things around this age. One of the things that we did for her was to create a worry jar and a ata girl chart. The worry jar was for her to write or draw on slips of paper the things that were on her mind and made her worry. You can help her write if she needs you to. We drew/wrote the worries and slipped them into the jar, once they were placed into the jar, they could not get back out again unless her father or I let them out.(When we let them out, We would hand her the worry and say, what shall we do with this, we would discuss them and then she would make the choice of which way to get rid of it) we would destroy her worries, by shredding them, throwing them into the fire place or letting Jesus have them. Be creative! The ata girl chart came into play for bedtime, we established a routine for bed time, bath, favorite story, ocean music or soothing music on the cd player,night lights on, I would give her 3 dreams to dream and I would let her choose the type of dream, silly, daring, vacation ect. If she could stay in her room for 15 minutes with out coming out, I would give her a sticker on her chart, increasing the time each night. If she got x number of stickers then she would be allowed to pick an activity for the two of us to do. Make cookies, do art, play on the playground, a game ect. We did this for many years and it was a wonderful way for our daughter to share with us. I hope this helps. Good luck
M.

Get a squirt bottle and decorate it. Then ptu in some smell good anything (linen or body spray). When she goes to bed spray , with the magical spray ALL over. Also put on soft music ( I use classical) that plays throughout the night. Tell her monsters only like monster music not magical fairy or princes music. You can decorate the radio as wellThe music helps mask the bumps and knocks during the night which may be waking her up. My son also has a fathead on his wall and I tell him that his hugs hockey player would hit a monster with his stick if he sees one. You can get some Hello Kitty fairy wall decals at target, you just have to search a little for their wall borders section.

Hope this helps, J.

The same thing happened to my niece at that age. Her doctor recommended we get monster spray (a small spray bottle with colored water) and every night before you go to bed spray it all around her room. After a time the monsters stop coming (you can tell when its time to stop spraying because your child will forget to ask for it - for my niece it took a little over a month and for my daughter it was a little over a week). I did the same thing with my daughter and it worked wonderfully.

Their imaginations start running away with them and it's pretty common for kids to be afraid of the monsters in their room. What I did might seem kind of silly with my two boys (I have a 6 and 3 year old boys...along with a 16 month old daughter). When they wake up I ask them where are the monsters coming from, they told me the closet. So I went in there with my hands on my hip and in my sternest "mommy" voice I told the monsters (while I was in the dark closet lol) that under no circumstances were they allowed in my house and if they did it again I would come with my switch and tear their butts up (no I don't whip my children, btw).

For some strange reason that worked after me having to come and whip the monsters (3rd time I had to get up)....I put a night light in each of their rooms just in case.

We had the same problem with our nephew.
Teach your child the song Jesus loves me. This will work everytime. and when the monsters come she can start singing the song and they will be gone and she will feel empowered that she handled this and they were scared of her. if they keep coming back she can just keep singing the song.

Come up with a ritual to do at bedtime to scare the monsters away. Wave a magic wand or something. Check the closets and under the bed. We made up a pooem to say with our kids: "Bad dreams go away. Good dreams come and stay." Sometimes my dgt. will turn her pillow to the "good dreams" side (something she saw on Caillou). The bright lights might actually make it harder to sleep. We replaced the kids' ceiling fans with new ones that could be put on a dimmer and operated with a remote control. We dim the light so they can still see but the lights are not too bright. Good luck.

A....my first question is this...is your daughter in school, if so..you may want to find out if the children at school have been " schooling" her on " monsters under the bed" and nonsense like that. Many times our children are introduced to so many unfavorable things at school.

She needs a magical object that will protect her from the monsters. You have to work with her imagination. Do you have some little trinket that you can give her. You will need to come up with a really good story, and give her losts of imaginary reasons to belive this will protect her from monster always and forever. She is ready to belive. Muster up your best story telling skills and lay it on thick and deep. Have fun.

Hi! I have a 6 month old daughter, so I have not encountered this yet, but I saw a product from Target called the Tyke light. It looks like a little person type figure and you can get it in lots of cool colors. Maybe your daughter would like to have this and she can turn it on when she gets scared. I also have the Twilight Turtle (goes with Sleep Sheep & Friends-just search for it online). When it lights up it puts the constellations on the ceiling. Perhaps she would like that as well.

One more idea, I saw this in a magazine. Make a "monster lock" and put it on her door knob at night. It can be anything you choose to make. I think you can also buy them, but I thought it would be fun to make with your daughter and she can express her creativity.

Good luck!

My son had insomina at a young age when we got that fixed he started being scared of monsters. We had the dream fairy. We would wirte his fears on a sheet of paper and tuck it under his pillow and every night she would come and replace them with good dreams. Which were stickers or silly pictures cut out of a magazine and replace the bad dream with the good ones. This worked very well. Hope it helps.........when she wakes up at 2 she can check and see if the dream fairy has visited her.

Have you read "Junie B. Jones Has A Monster Under Her Bed"? I think reading this with your daughter will help her see she's not alone AND it will help her laugh (plus there are some good monster getting rid of ideas included) I have to agree with some of the other moms that the TV is probably not good to have at her disposal.

If she truly has insomnia, you might want to ask your pediatrician. Sometimes even a drop in blood sugar can trigger your body to wake up. We always assume it's in their mind and sometimes it's actually their little bodies.

I hope you get some sleep!

The monsters were driving me insane when I was a kid.My mom taught me visual imagery. She said that Tinkle Bell (who I loved)was stronger than the scary thought and that every time I saw a scary man I needed to imagine Tinkle Bell swooping down with a smile, tapping him with her wand, and exploding him into a big mound of puppies and kittens!
I had to work on the imagery over and over, but within the week it really worked! I'm so grateful to her and her wisdom-I don't know what I would have done. I still think of it today, the power of positive thought.

What we did at that stage with my son was to get a small spray bottle & fill it with water and that was "Monster Repellent". Make a pretty label to put on it. We would spray it around the room before he went to bed then leave it with him to spray if he woke up and encountered anything scary. It worked for us!

We had to "kill" the monsters in my house before bedtime for awhile when my son was younger. I covered a can of air freshener spray with a "Monsters Be Gone" label that I printed up and before bed my son would spray under the bed, in the closet, wherever he felt the monster was hiding that night. He slept with the "Monster Spray" on his night table. This worked for him and the added bonus was the house always smelled nice.

Good luck !

Leyahn

It sounds like you are acknowledging her feelings because they are real to her. I'm not sure if a television is in the room but I wonder if that's good. Maybe, a new huggable blanket or cuddly bear would help. You could make up stories when she goes to bed about the bear saving little animals from a bully. Of course, the best things to help her feel at peace if to read children's Bible stories. They bring peace to children.

Hi A.,

Although I haven't dealt with this issue my self, my boss is having the same problem with his 8 year old son. What they have tried seems to work somewhat. They do a monster check every night (closets, under the bed,etc.) and also spray "Monster Spray" (Nothing more than water in a spray bottle). I don't know what else to recommend, maybe this will help. Good luck.

M.

Diddo on the Monster Spray, though I would use water with a few drops of lavender essential oil to reduce the chance of having an allergic reaction to the spray. Lavender essential oil is used in aromatherapy to relax and soothe. It can also aid in relieving headaches.

I had a similar problem a few months ago with my 4 year old little girl. By your description of your daughter, they sound quite a bit alike. Anywho, Linzi was saying that she was scared of spiders at first then it turned to monsters. We would check her closet every night before bed to make sure there was nothing there. She has a nightlight that she used, she got to pick it out. She also gets to watch a bit of TV before bed as does your little one. What is it that she is watching when she goes to bed? Mine watched Sprout. In the evening it turns to the Goodnight Show, and it's a bunch of educational and child friendly shows. Nothing scary at all. We went to the fair this past Nov. and my husband won her a giant raccoon from the movie Over the Hedge. We hung that in the corner of the room to keep an eye on things and make sure that nothing sneaks in. LOL Sounds kinda dumn I know, but it's working for us. And a few weeks ago I caught a gecko at work and we went and got it an aquarium and all the stuff to keep a lizard and put it in her room. Now she gets looked after all night by the raccoon and Echo the gecko. (She kept calling it an echo, so that's what we named it. LOL) These are just things I've done. May not help you much, but then again it couldn't hurt to try. Good luck.

Hey, Honey. Don't worry.... my daughter is almost 7, and has been feeling this way since she was 4 or 5. "Monster Spray" helped a lot. Just a spray bottle with some water and a little lavender essential oil (to help her relax and so she'll know it's not just water). Spray some in the closet, under the bed or wherever the monsters may hide. Also, we got Isabelle an aquarium for her room. It kills lots of birds with one stone. 1st- It gives off a lot of light at night. 2nd- Watching the fish as she goes to sleep helps to relax her. 3rd- It gives her a sense of responsibility in taking care of them. We also put a big yellow paper lantern (from World Market) in a corner of her room. The light is very soft, but it's enough to make her feel safe.
If you don't have a bedtime routine, start one! Lay in bed with her and read a book. Rock her and sing a song after you turn off the light, etc. Anything to make her feel safe and secure. It may take awhile, but she'll chill out.
The very last thing I do before I give the final (and I mean final) kiss goodnight is walk around the room as she is laying in bed and check for monsters or roaches or geckos or anything else she might think of. ;)
Hope this helps! The most important thing to remember is that it's just a phase. It won't last forever!
L.

Is the TV in her room? If so, my first move would be to remove it from her room. It's not so much the content of TV, as it is the flickering motion of the picture, and this can be disturbing to children, especially close to bedtime. Honestly, I think it is a bit much for a 5 year old to have a TV. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some anti TV freak. My kids watch about an hour to an hour and a half daily. However, I think the TV in the room is not a good idea.

As far as the monsters, I've heard different solutions, but one that seemed cool, was to get a water spray bottle and tell her that you are spraying away the monsters. (Don't fill with water.) There are some really good sleep books, too, that address this, like Healthy Sleep Habits (or something like that.) Good luck! I know how difficult it can be to have a new "problem" crop up after smooth periods:) Hang in there.

Get the TV out of her room. Have you seen some of the stuff that comes through the tube late at night? When my son was only 2, I noticed that he slept poorly (had nightmares and such) if he watched even a little bit of certain movies my husband watched (action movies like Braveheart or The Patriot). You think that kids aren't aware because they can't understand the dialogue, but the truth is they understand too much with the mood music and the tone of voice and the action, and then their little minds fill in the blanks with other negative stuff. There are some commercials on that are disturbing to me--imagine what a kid might take to bed with them! My 3-y-o has gotten a fear of monsters and such, and we don't have a TV and rarely does he see "big people" movies on our DVD player. I've noticed this fear is worse when my husband plays "monster", so he's stopped that for now.

View things through her eyes--things that are normal for adults can be scary for children. Part of this is certainly a phase, but you can take steps to minimize the fears.

My suggestion would be to get the movie Monster's Inc. and watch it with her, she might see the "monster's" in a different way. U could also try this, get a spray bottle and decorate or design it how ever u want, put some water in it (and maybe a scented oil) and tell her u bought this "monster replant" and let her spray a little in her closet, under the bed where ever she thinks they are. Hope this helps.