Halloween Is here.....nightmares for 2 Year Old

Have you tried Monster Spray? I know it sounds silly but I got a can of air freshner and relabeled it Monster Spray. I spray a little under her bed, in closets, etc to rid the room of monsters, trolls, etc. I also gave her a flashlight just in case. After about 3 days of Monster Spray she was OK. :)

K.,
I know how you feel -- I've been through this too. I took my son to the library and found books with "monsters" in them -- ie: "Where the Wild Things Are", "Monster Can't Sleep" or any of the Monster stories by Virginia Mueller, any of Maurice Sendak's 7 Little Monster stories, or "There's a Nightmare Under My Bed." If you can show him books about silly monsters it might help to diffuse his anxiety. Also, you could try watching the "Monsters, Inc." video. While he's too young to get all the plotline and humor, seeing those monsters being nice, and talking with him about what makes different things seems scary, might be helpful.

Also -- you could let him "scare" you or your husband (or brothers-in-law!). Let him try making "scary" faces in the mirror, or put on a mask, and sneak up to "scare" you. Remind him, though, that he shouldn't scare his sister, because scaring should be fun -- not mean. Maybe you could make a "scary mask" to use just for this fun game to play with the grownups.

Good luck. Hope you find something that helps.
S.

I have a three y/o dd who has been having these problems too! She will sometimes have a scary dream and I will take a can of air freshener into the room and spray all over, even under the bed and in the closet. I tell her it's monster spray and it keeps them out of her room. She thinks it kills the monsters, so it makes her feel safe that they can't come in her room. I also gave her a guardian angle picture and told her that she has a guardian angel and that if she ever feels scared she can pray to God and ask him to protect her. We went through this a few months ago and we got past it but last night she had problems again with some shadows in her room. But I just took her to bed and reminded her of all of the things we did to get rid of the monsters and she went right back to sleep. HTH!

My son went through this and here is my remedy...I bought him 3 scary looking masks to play dress up with. Nothing too gross, but I think it was a Frankenstein and some others. I got him a cape and plastic fangs too. He wouldn't touch them the first day, but came out of his room the next with the mask on asking to have his cape tied. It made it known to him that there were normal people underneath, just like him, and the fears subsided. You also need to make sure your family and friends do not add to this fear, let him touch and play with the mask your BIL had, and do not let them jump at him or otherwise frighten him.
The bug and spiders thing is an imagination thing that all kids go through at some point, maybe a book on bugs and how they help the earth or an ant farm (yuck) may help.

My 4-yr-old and I just got done watching Disney's "Halloweentown" movie, and my dh was concerned that he would think all of it was real. Not a chance! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I've made sure that my boys have never been scared by anything they've seen. We've watched "Monsters Inc" and other friendly monster movies, and we read Halloween books year-round. My son's favorite blanket is a quilt I made using Halloween fabrics. I've just been careful to stress the fun and not the fright. We wear fun costumes, like animals and toys. Soon enough they'll want the gruesome scary ones, but they've been thouroughly grounded in the fun aspects of it since their first Halloweens. Just sit down with your son, watch and read some fun Halloween things, and let him know that none of it is real, just real fun, and he'll be over his fright soon, knock on wood! :P Good luck!
J.

There are ways you can prevent him from seeing the really bad masks even if it means avoiding places that have them and find a church or similar group that has a safe halloween party that is open to the public. At those events they usually have jumping castles, grilled hot dogs, pop corn, tons of candy and games all age appropriate for him. Another thing too, I have 2 boys and a girl. My oldest has never been afraid of anything, my middle guy is mildly afraid of some things. We have gone thru and searched for monsters to see that there aren't any, but mostly we just stay consistant and tell them there is no such thing. We are all about being true 100% of the time to our children so we have a foundation of trust to build off of.

My boys had never seen star wars, but my oldest had a friend at preschool that saw it and his friend got a Darth Vadar figurine for Christmas last year. He brought it to school for show and tell and it made my son interested wanting to understand more about him. My hubby found a clip online of Darth Vadar just walking and breathing. My boys let their imaginations run wild and my younger son was scared. This was when we had to search for Darth Vadar and other monsters as well as tell him that Darth Vader was nothing more than a man in a mask making a movie. The next day we went to Toys R Us and they happened to have Darth Vadar masks. So we got the mask off the shelf and showed it to him and again talked about how it is just a man in a mask. He now saw the mask in person and so I asked him if he wanted to try it on and pretend to be darth vadar. He was hesitant at first, but then warmed up to the idea and LOVED it. After he acted it out, he became thrilled with "Darth Invader" and was not scared anymore because now he was Darth Invader.

There was another time when a relative thought it was a good idea to start showing my kids Jurassic Park the movie about dinosaurs who eat people...okay that is just the scary part of what happens. So my oldest was concerned that dinosaurs still existed and my younger son was terrified that he would be eaten by one. We just proceeded to tell them that dinos don't exist anymore and the only dinos are the ones at the Science Center. They are robots with gears and wires inside and they move back and forth. That very day we made a trip out of our way to go show them. Of course then we got lucky because several weeks later they wanted to go see them again and when we went they got reassured that we were telling the truth as always. The dinos were being reconstructed and so the face was off of one of them and you could see the wires and such. Showing them first hand really helped.

On a side note I saw a mention of praying, which I think is also a fabulous idea. My idea though is that the prayer be about helping your child feel calm and understand that there are no monsters rather than praying that God place you in a bubble. For example pray with your child and tell God in front of your child that you hope your child feels safe and understands there are no monsters and you will be there for him. I am really not trying to sound rude, but I have 1st hand experience with a family member that has lost faith because they were promised protection from God and guardian angels. It raises too many disappointments later in life when bad things happen and you cannot answer why you were not protected when you thought you had made a deal by keeping your end of the bargain. I am not saying it always works out that way, but many people live very disappointed because they really believe that they are invincible. Then again others live realizing the flaw in that yet unable to come up with an answer because they were taught to believe they were invincible as long as they pray and believe.

Good luck, God Bless and I hope your little guy can get over his fears safely soon.

B. :)

You've had several great responses already, two of which I recommend also... if you are a christian household you might try praying for your son privately, but also praying outloud with him before nap times and bed time that God's angels would keep him safe.

Also, I was going to recommend exposing them to "monster" friendly things, like Monsters Inc, Where The Wild Things Are, or even Winnie the Pooh's Halloween are all good examples of times when we are scared for no particular reason.

One thing you could do is find him a comfort item that will be his safe keeper when he's sleeping. A stuffed animal or the like that will "guard" him when he's napping and keep the monsters away.

Also, honestly, I would confront the brothers in laws and explain to them what's happened and have them talk to you son and apologize for scaring him and tell him it was just them behind the scary mask and that it's just pretend... anytime you can prove the scary thing for just being nothing at all it helps.

Good luck and Happy Halloween!

IF IT WON'T FIT DON'T FORCE IT. AVOID SCARY THINGS FOR HIM

Personally speeking I think it was very wrong for the brother-in-laws to do that to such a small child on purpose for that exact reason. I can't remember exactly what happened but my son (now 3) was "scared" in a similar situation accidently. When we realized it truely freaked my son out we stressed the fact that it was only daddy under the mask by repeating "it's only daddy" "it's just daddy, look he's being silly" then he'd take the mask off & make a funny face, tickle my son etc. We repeated it SEVERAL SEVERALtimes & encouraged him to touch the mask when it was taken off. It seemed to work... no noticable nightmares. Maybe you could get the brother-in-laws or someone to do the same kind of thing with the same masks. It might help. Or take him to a Halloween store & show him some of the "scary" stuff (within reason) touch it play with it, maybe if he sees it's not hurting mommy then it won't hurt him. Hope he gets over it soon, good luck.

Maybe you could take him to the costume isle and just show him all the masks, explain that it is just a mask and let him try a few out and see you try a few on too if he is not too scared.
Try to make him think they are cool and fun.

I think there are a ton of books about halloween and being scared at the library, and there is the movie MONSTERS that puts a softer spin on the whole monster issue.

My daughter is 2 and i thought we would be going through the same thing. What i noticed is if you take them to like a target or walmart and let them play with the noisey halloween decorations that have all the freaky sounds they actually start liking it. Just the other day we went there and you have to have a good attitude about it like "look at this this is cool...wow! listen to this" giggle when they make the strange noises and act like it is the coolest thing ever. Unless you keep your kid in the house there really is no way of COMPLETELY keeping him sheilded from the halloween things. You can only prepare him....so he knows what to expect....let him touch the masks and see that they are fake....let him try it on himself and act....he will start to realize that the halloween stuff is just a game. My 2 year old little girl loves this stuff now. Hope that helps...some may disagree with me but ive had great success and it only makes sense...my friend did it with her 4 year old little boy and he is much better now.