How do you ask a toddler if they are having nightmares?
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Question: How do you ask a toddler if they are having nightmares?
My two year old really hates bedtime. Naptime, whatever, if she has to lay down in her bed and try to sleep she gets really upset. Her room is done in pink princess stuff, there are pictures of her family everywhere, and there’s a canopy over her bed. I can’t think of anything right off the top that would be scaring her. She fusses before she sleeps and I have gotten used to that but the past few days she has been waking up pale and sweating. She screams and screams and won’t stop until she lays with me or her Dad. It really seems to me like she is having bad dreams. What would cause bad dreams in a toddler? She is really terrified when she wakes up and it takes 15-20 minutes just to stop the tears. It’s heart breaking. I ask her if she is having bad dreams or nightmares and she doesn’t answer-I don’t think she understands. Lately she has been talking about ‘dreams’ and I think it’s this Goodnight Moon video I got her, but there’s just a few minutes of kids talking about flying dreams and stuff like that. No nightmares. Please help.. I feel so bad for her.
I think putting a ‘guardian’ in her room is an excellent idea. I asked her why she was crying/upset, and she wouldn’t talk to me… very unlike her.
Q&A:
Answer by Libraryanna
You never know what will upset a child. My son was having dreams about tigers eating him. It never occurred to me that it was his curtains, which had cute baby tigers on it. But I replaced them with sesame street and he was fine.
You might try asking if something scared her. She may not understand dreams, but scared she might understand. Or just get her talking. Why are you crying. Why are you screaming. Don’t make her feel bad about it. Also, sit with her in her room till she goes back to sleep. Try to avoid having her come to your bed.
Have things changed in her life, starting preschool or something? Or have you gone back to work or something. She could be fearing something related to that.
If she doesn’t have a nightlight, get her one. Kids are also big believers in magic. For one kid, I found a kind of stuffed doll totem. I hung it on a door and said that it keeps scary things away. For another, it was a basket of worry dolls. I also did monster dances at bedtime, guaranteed to keep anything scary away. It also made them laugh.
Answer by ladedamom
My son was upset and scared recently as well at bedtime and he just wouldn’t calm down or stop crying and hugging me. He kept telling me “no mommy, no bed” over and over. It was heart breaking because he normally goes to bed without any issues.
What I did was rock him and calm him down in his room and asked him flat out “did something scare you” and he nodded. When I asked what he kept saying “no darfs” (he’s trying to say dog and can’t get it out right just yet even though he says other stuff just fine). So I asked him a few times “did you think of something scary about a dog?” and he kept nodding.
I let my labrador sleep in the room with him that night on his rug and since then he’s been fine. Since my dog is a nervous sort and doesn’t really like being in his room we had to find him a stuffed dog that he picked out to sleep with. Now he has Bubba bear and Albie the dog to sleep with in his bed and it’s not been an issue since.
Answer by Cavs_Fan23
A lot of times if you put a night light in their room, and turn on some music before they go to bed it will help put them at ease. If they are put to bed in dead silence in the dark it may get their thoughts on unpleasant things.
However I wouldn’t really worry about a toddler and nightmares. She could wake up crying because she is trying to let you know that she is awake. Or maybe by the time you go to her she has been awake for several minutes. She could be laying around in a dirty diaper and is uncomfortable.
A toddler doesn’t really have very extensive dreams. In Psychology I studied that children don’t have significant dreams until 8 years old. Before that it is just stuff like, “I threw a ball.” or “I flew in the sky.”
Dreams that have a plot and story don’t usually come until the teen years.
Answer by Sweetgrass
get her a dream catcher hang it near her window
it catches all the bad dreams and in the morning the sunlight melts them away
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