Nightlight Suggestions

Hi E.,

I was just at my SIL's house and she had these very neat LED nightlights that changed colors. It would fade into red, then blue, then green, etc. They don't let off a lot of light and when they dim, it's quite dark. But, what I was thinking is that you could get 1 or 2 of them and introduce them to your daughter as "protective lights" or something similar (Maybe each color protects her from something she is afraid of). I think that they are so new and neat that she may just buy into it. I plan on getting some for my daughter's room (10 month old) so that she can enjoy the different colors as she goes to bed.

Good luck!

We bought our 2 1/2 year old the Mobi night light from Babies R Us and she loves it. It is a rechargeable night light that your child can literally sleep with. It does not get hot and the light is soft enough so that they can still get sleepy yet it brightens up the room so that they don't feel like they are in the dark.

Once fully charged it will light up for 10 hours or you can set the timer for 15 minutes (it gradually dims before shutting off).

I think we paid around $16.00, but it was and is well worth it. It's part of our bedtime routine - after reading a book she gets it off the charger and shuts off her big light and sleeps with night light.

Try this link to see it.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2914995

Vessel makes these great little lights shaped like little people that turn off automatically and recharge in their base. You get two for each base so if you happen to forget to charge one, you'll have a backup...or one for each of your children. My son loves his "bluey and greeny" and my daughter was excited to get her own "orangey and pinky."

You can see photos of them and read more about them here:

http://uggamugga.blogspot.com/2008/02/vessel-lights.html

How much wattage is in her lamp now? When our son was afraid of the dark we used a low wattage but also a dark bulb color (like green or blue--can't remember now LOL!) and that made it seem dimmer than the white bulbs. We also had a "candlestick" light that took the 4 watt bulbs (with a small base) and were very dim--just the right amount of light to fall asleep but still reassure...good luck!

Hi E.,
This is what I did with my kids when they were afraid: we put a regular ol' night light in her room then when we were tucking them in, with only the nightlight on, we'd talk about what we could see in the room. We'd notice together how when we first shut the light off, we couldn't see much, but then could see more and more (as eyes adjusted). We'd see the teddy bear on the chair and the lines of the closet door. We'd notice shadows from the night light and shadows of tree branches and how they moved. I then told her that she should look at other things that she could see when I left and tell me about them in the morning. By staying in the room for just a bit (and NOT making a habit of it), it helped her to adjust her eyes to the dark.

Also, be careful not to "fix" this problem by creating a new one to be dealt with down the road. I've heard of others that give their kids a spray bottle as a "monster repellent" for example. Those parents have just acknowledged to their child that there are monsters to be repelling and will have to deal with that problem in the future.