Help!! My Daughter Is Hallucenating!!!

Take her to the doctor, perhaps an eye doctor as well. There are things called floaters that can be clear or dark. It might be a vision thing.

Hi K., considering you posted this question back in June 2011, I think it's time to get to the bottom of it. If discussing it with your ped hasn't helped, ask at your ped's office for a referral to a ped behavioral specialist. Take the next step. It's been a year of this, right?

:)

call her doctor in the morning

Definitely get her to a doctor. Does she only wake up with the fear or does she say this during the day as well?

My brother would think he saw bugs crawling on the walls when he had high fever, but if this is happening at night, no fever, and the "bug spray" isn't working I would call your doctor and go from there. He or she can refer you to a therapist if nothing medical is causing this.

Meanwhile, try talking to her about what's happening during the day when she isn't afraid...my guy is turning 3 soon and told me he was scared a few nights in a row...we talked one day and he told me his 10 year old cousin told him some things that made him afraid. I explained that what he'd heard wasn't going to happen and he was fine at night after that, no more "scawy" monsters.

I would also consult a doctor, especially since it seems to be a recent thing.

However I think you can also relax a bit. At that age imagination comes on like a lightbulb: right around three my DD had an imaginary friend she was playing with and talking to, she started being afraid of "monsters" and so on. All of that was completely normal according to my ped and has since subsided.
It is quite possible that she has caught a glimpse of a TV show or overheard an inappropriate story that stoked her fears, even if you or she are not aware of any particular incident...I for example like to watch the local news, nothing gory right... except for every now and then there will be a commercial for CSI or one of those shows and even the 30 sec ad, at 5 PM: NOT appropriate for little eyes. Heck, sometimes even discovery channels makes the ad's for their shows "scary" to make them seem more exciting.

So definitely get checked, but also realize that it may just be an active imagination paired with something she should not have seen or heard.
Good luck!

Actually it kind of sounds like night terrors (very scary but rather normal). Does it only happen after she has been asleep? Does she remember it in the morning? With night terrors you will think they are awake but actually they are not. They also don't tend to remember in the morning. Do a google search on night terrors and see if it doesn't resemble what is going on with your daughter. Night terrors are very scary for the parent but, if I remember correctly, majority of the time the child has no memory of it. My daughter had them when she was about 3 or 4. Good luck.

I'm a child psychologist and if she is having hallucinations while she is completely awake than you should take her to your pediatrician immediately. If these hallucinations are when she is sleeping or when she is in her room napping, it can be very common for children to not be able to differentiate dreams from waking. Or in the beginning stages of falling asleep become very confused and disoriented. However, if she is clearly awake and sleep is not involved than something is probably wrong. You should start at your medical doctor first to rule out any medical problems that might be creating or causing this. If there is not a medical reason, then you need to see a child psychologist. Feel free to message me.

"The child psychologist who thought she had all the answers to parenting until she became one herself." www.themommypsychologist.com

I'd check with the doctor first. It's hard to tell if she is imagining it or actually has some kind of physical sensation (like a reaction to something). Can she tell you if she "sees" something or feels it? It is hard with kids that young since they have imagination but not a lot of life experience. Also, I sometimes get suddenly itchy all over with no visible irritation on my skin. It usually happens when I am tired and stressed. The dermatologist said it was something he had heard before and said to take Allegra (benedryl also works for me). I wonder if it might be an allergy symptom because of the area and season. When I was in Bloomington, IN in school a lot of people with allergies said they were much worse in Bloomington than other places they had lived and if I recall correctly Martinsville is not too far from there. I have worked in the mental health field and haven't come across a child that young hallucinating except from a high fever.

I would take her to the ER or something. It would just flat out freak me out.....I can't imagine what your family is going through. It is possible she is having waking dreams....is that what they're called? When someone is sort of awake but caught in their nightmare? No, it's called night terrors I think.

Wait, is she having them while she's awake during the day? Or just at night time?

I don't know what they could do except give her something like Benadryl to help her sleep. You know, something milk without the chance of addiction.

When my little girl was hallucinating, it was NOT a psychological problem!! She would hallucinate from various medications. When she was hallucinating without us knowing a cause, the doctors labelled it with various "mental" illness diagnoses. It still was not "emotional" or "psychological" and could not be fixed by psychological or emotional therapies. Here is a description of just one of her hallucinations: http://itsnotmental.blogspot.com/2012/03/audio-excerpt-of... but she also had bug ones. She would see them, and sometimes feel maggots in her skin.

She is OK now, but it was some journey to get her well. Her older sister later got "bipolar disorder" but that turned out to be a subset of NON-psychological problems her little sister also had.

If she's doing it through her waking hours and not just getting up from sleep like a nightmare, I'd speak to her doctor, asap.

#1 I would talk to the Dr. ASAP.

#2 When did this start? Suddenly or periodically?

#3 Is she taking Mucinex by chance? It is known to cause people to do this. It works great for some people but makes others freak out. My daughter nor I can take Mucinex because it is like we are high on something. It scared the bejeebers out of us and I threw it out... we'll never take that again.

Best wishes to you.

Did she have a bad experience with bugs? A couple weeks ago I found ants nesting in my running shoes which I kept under the dresser. Even though I destroyed the nest I was convinced that night that I could feel them crawling on me. Of course when I turned on the light there was nothing there. But it could be something like that.