Afraid of Monsters - Bloomington,IN

I told my daughter that monsters were afraid of mommy and daddy and they couldn't get her as long as mommy and daddy were home with her. It worked--I hope it keeps working too! Good luck.

What worked with daughter was monster spray. I took a can of air freshener and used a hello my name is lable and wrote monster away and let her spray everywhere she needed to to keep the monsters away. It worked like a charm. Be prepared to have a couple of extra cans on hand.

Hi Michellle,

BUY and watch (with the kids)the video "Monsters Inc." or I have heard a friend use "monster spray" (febreeze or whatever). Make sure no one is suggesting that the "monster" is going to 'get her' if this or that is not done, etc....

That really is a scary idea.

Good luck and God Bless!

A.

Just a few additional questions from me. Do you have a nightlight in her room? Do you check under her bed and in her closet before you leave the room while she is still awake. Do you leave her bedroom door open and put on some soft music for her? If not you might try those things. Make sure she does not watch any movies with witches or monsters in them and read her a happy bedtime story. My mom took me to see the Wizard of Oz when it first came out and I had nightmares for weeks about the Wicked Witch. And this was after being read Oz books from the time I was very little (we have all but 7 of the 50 books). Even though I saw the movie during the day it stuck with me!!!

My daughter is two and a half and going through the same thing. I bought her an angel ornament around Christmas and we called it her guardian angel and she kisses it and leaves it on her bed post to watch over her every night. That made a huge difference. Also, she sleeps with a flashlight on nights when she is afraid as well.

When we were kids my mom bought the scariest looking ornament mask she could find for my brother and hung it on his wall. He was sure that the mask scared away monsters. I am surprised that he wasn't terrified by the mask but he wasnt.

Good luck.

L.
single mom of 2 1/2 year old daughter.

M.,
I work in an area elementary school, and just last week one of the teachers showed me her idea....a can of room freshener with a computer generated label that said "Monster Destroyer" with a picture of a monster running away screaming. I thought it was a great idea!

My oldest went through this phase. One thing we did was to make a big sign to put on the bedroom door, decorated by them, that said in big letters "NO MONSTERS ALLOWED". That worked really well. I have also heard of getting a small spray bottle, filling it with water and calling it something like "anti-monster spray" or something. The child can go around the room before bed and spray water to guard against things that go bump in the night! Good luck!

Hi,

Does your son like Sesame Street? If he does, perhaps you could explain that Elmo & Grover are monsters and they are nice and friendly. There's a dvd called Happy Healthy Monsters starring Elmo and Grover...maybe that would help.

Best of luck!
L.

When my son was 3 he used to wake up too and was scared. I gave him an empty water bottle and when you squeezed it it make an air noise. I told him to use this and squirt all of the monters away. It seemed to work and the phase lasted for about 3 months off and on.

M., I read somewhere about making a "special" rattle with your child that will "scare" the monsters away. So you decorate it and then every night you shake the rattle in all the scary places and the monsters run away!
With my daughters, we got a princess nightlight/clock radio that has these very dim stars that are projected on the ceiling. I tell them that the starts attract fairies and angels so they are very well protected :) (kind of Batman's sky call)

Hi M.
Not sure if you have already telling her that monsters don't exist, that is where I would start and if convincing her doesn't work try this, my peditrian suggested. Get a squirt bottle that she can use and fill it with water and tell her it when she sprays it, it will get rid of the monsters. Have her spray it right before bed anywhere and everywhere she wants that will make her secure. Thankfully, my three year old hasn't done this one yet but again that is what her doctor suggested if it does happen. Good luck!

M.: I had the same problem when mine were little. I took a can of spray air freshner and when I put them in bed, and with them watching, I would spray a little under the bed, in the closet, wherever - I would say this is the "Monster Away" spray. I assured them the monsters didn't like the smell of whatever I was using and I never had another problem with "monsters." I went so far as making a fake label for whatever can I was using and they were convinced it was a special spray to get rid of monsters. I hope this helps; it did with me!! Good Luck!!

In addition to the "monster spray" ideas, you may want to give him/her a small flashlight. And, what worked with my daughter is my husband "captured" the monster. It was supposedly in her closet. So, he took a shoe box and had a tennis ball in it. He acted like he was grabbing it, put the lid on and shook the box to simulate that something was in it. Then, he told her he was taking it back to his family - the monster just missed his mommy. Good luck!

My son had monster issues too. Because he is a very nose sensitive kid I used Mom's Monster Spray. It's just some fragrance I had left from Bed Bath and Beyond, Citrus Melon I think. I would spritz a couple of times in the closet, bedroom, under bed and gone monsters! Good luck.

My son developed the same thing. I asked him if he's seen the monster, what it looks like, when the monster is seen and where. My son told me that he thinks the monster comes out in the dark, but he hasn't seen him. He's afraid the monster is hiding in the closet or is out in the hall way. I talked to him about it and we came up with leaving the light on in the bathroom and closing the closet doors and bedroom door. He is still scared something will get him, but he isn't afraid to sleep by himself. I sit with him until he falls asleep every night. After he's asleep, he isn't scared anymore.

Perhaps you can talk to your child about why they are scared, what scares them, what they think or feel about the monster and ways to keep the monster away. Some children pass off real fears as monsters, so I believe it's important to evaluate what exactly the child is scared of and why.

Although this is probably not the case, there are many child predators and abusive people to children in society. Children may pass off those uncomfortable feelings and experiences as being scared of monsters because it's the only way they know how to verbalize it.

When my god daughter was little she went through the monsters phase. We watched the Monsters INC movie with her to put them in a better light, then sprayed air freshener around her room everynight at bedtime and called it monster repellent. She would point out the areas that needed sprayed and we told her that the spray made an invisible sheild that the monsters would bounce off of if they tried to get in. She was the easy one. My 5 year old daughter claims to be having nightmares that a whale is trying to eat her. This is about 15 minutes after I put her to bed when I know she hasn't been to sleep yet. With her I read Pinnochio and pointed out how the whale was actually just giving them a ride when it swallowed them, so there's no reason to be scared.

When my daughter was little she was afraid of monsters - we bought a little travel size spray bottle - we filled the bottle with monster spray (water with a little vanilla flavoring mixed into it). Every night she sprayed the closet and under the bed with monster spray. She seldom woke up. When she did we could give the monster another spray and she was secure to go back to sleep knowing the monsters would not come back.

There are already many responses, and while I didn't read them all, I did a quick skim of them and did not see what worked for our daughter. She was so convinced there was a monster under her bed. My husband went in there one night at bedtime, reached under her bed and "grabbed" the monster by the collar and seat of his pants, had her open the front door, and evicted the monster from the house, and gave it a stern "don't come back" in his gruff voice. She shut and locked the door, and that was the end of the monster.

Best of Luck in your monster eviction,

I was just reading about this in a magazine yesterday. In short, the article explained children this age have very active imaginations and don't yet fully understand what is real and isn't. It said your child isn't necessarily trying to put off going to bed, but something may be bothering him/her and he/she doesn't know how to explain it. It suggested teaching children how they can help themselves with this and one idea is to have the child pick out a stuffed animal to sit and watch over them all night. It ended up being a timely article for me because my almost-four-year-old talked about monsters at bed last night. She also thought she'd have a bad dream and seemed to feel better when I suggested she pick a toy to cuddle so they could keep the bad dreams away together.

I didn't read all the responses, but one I saw was banishing the monster(s) from the house and that has seemed to help us as well. When my daughter was a little younger, she was worried about monsters in her room. We had Daddy (Mommy can do it, too) come in and clear the room and take the monsters outside. He told them to "go home" to their own house, so now when she's worried about monsters we remind her they went home and aren't allowed back. She feels better after that.

Good luck! I hope you find what works for your little one soon!

My 3 year old son is going through this too and we have now had one full week of him back in his own bed & sleeping most of the night (except for potty breaks). What we did...

1) talked about the "monster", "ghosts" and shadows.
2) cleared his room down to no clutter or loose toys, which makes for far less shadows.
3) started leaving a small light on his room and also the hall light closest to his door
4) moved one of our dogs in for security

Now, which one worked - I don't know, probably the combination. I think all of that including some reassuring support from Mom & Dad did the trick.

Good luck to you!

Hi M.,
sorry I don't have time to read the other responses but I did a couple of things. 1) Took a spray bottle of water into the room "where the monsters are" and asked where we need the monster spray. I made sure to spray every area I was told so that no monsters would get through! That was when we were staying in the basement of friends on a visit. 2) Read funny books about monsters. "There's a monster in my House" from Usborne Books is great at showing that it is usually something innocent that looks different in the shadows. Monsters Inc. the movie shows how they are just like you & me. I have seen other monster books too that try to demonstrate the same things.
This too shall pass! Good luck! C.

I put an end to the monster thing very very early. The first time my kids said anything about monsters I said "now that's silly, why would you be afraid of something that isn't real?" After a while, it became a disciplinary issue. I explained to them that it was unacceptable they make up things in order to get out of bed or to put off bedtime. I did not want to feed their imagination by playing any of the games I hear about parents playing like "monster spray, searching for the monster, giving toys to keep the monster away" I mean, kids have enough of an imagination that makes them terrified of things without us letting them think such scary things as monsters are real. My kids never had an issue with it because I didn't let them have an issue with it. Every once in a while one of them would say "Are you sure monsters aren't real?" I would just say "yes" and it would be over.

Hi M.,
My great-grand-daughter was afraid of monsters when she first came to be with us, she is with me every other week 24/7.
When we go to bed we say our prayers and talk to JESUS and ask him to keep all the monsters away, and even during the day when she is playing and gets afraid she talks to JESUS, and tells the monsters to go away and leave her alone, that JESUS is in the room with her. It works!!! Try it.
God Bless

There are a couple of children's books about this. I think one of them is called THERE IS A MONSTER IN THE CLOSET OR THERE IS A MONSTER UNDER MY BED. I used to work in a children's bookstore and we had mom's SPECIFICALLY come in with this issue. WORTH FINDING. They said it helped!

BTW......stay away from movies that have monsters, etc. in them. Cartoons, too! Focus on input that is positive and character building.

Keep on a night light or whatever you have to do so that they can SEE that there aren't any monsters.