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Help! 2 year old nightmares


Jori

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As you can see by my time stamp, I'm up (since quarter to 1) with a 2 year old who is having nightmares about the Easter Bunny. We pray everynight and we talk about Easter being over but it seems like this is getting worse. On the night of Easter, she asked how the bunny gets in the house. We told her daddy stays up & lets him in & when he's done leaving the baskets and eating his carrots, daddy lets him out & locks up.

 

Any suggestions

 

 

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There are a couple of things you can do:

 

With my niece (who was scared of Lions), I got a large teddy bear which stood up, dressed him all in white, and called him Guard Ian Bear. This bear then sat on her pillow at night and kept her safe through out the night. The nightmares virtually stopped overnight with him. Any bear will do, but I looked for a stern powerful looking face.

 

If its a real bunny, then introduce her to a real one, especially the small ones.

 

You could let her wear something that if she touched it, would bring her personal angels down to protect her from the Bunny.

 

On the other side of it, remove any electrical items from her bedroom or unplug them. There has been research to show that any electrical activity within the bedroom causes nightmares/terrors in some.

 

Have a battery night light so she isnt in the dark. If the probelm is in the wardrobe, then tie the doors shut; if under the bed, jam loads of boxes under there so nothing can get under there. If shes worried its coming through the door, hang some windchimes on its opening arch, so they tinkle when the door is open (Iv used this for years and Im 43, just dont get much privacy here).

 

Hope that helps.

 

Loads of thoughts and hugs your way.

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(((Jori)))

 

I hope you and your little one were able to finally get some rest.

 

Here's the first thought that comes to mind. I think that you may want to consider carefully introducing any more 'fictional' characters to your daughter. If she is feeling insecure about the Easter Bunny being able to come and go in her home (actually that's a pretty smart little one!) then she may not appreciate the Tooth Fairy and Santa, etc... being able to do the same.

 

I have to say, in this instance I'm thinking that trying to animate a stuffed animal, or give it a job it can't do, might further complicate things. I think I'd take a more straightforward approach with this very straightforward little thinker. :)

 

Did she see a person dressed up in a Bunny Suit?? Or is it just the idea that they can come and go as they please?

 

 

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It's a little bit of everything. We were blessed with a beautiful, loving, little girl, who just happens to be stubborn, strong-willed, and to smart for her (& her parents) own good. She wanted a banana in the middle of the night a month ago. I told her we were out and she looked at me and said go to the store and get some, please.

 

I had this "wonderful" idea to have Easter photos done when I had our 10 months olds monthly photos done. (It was with live bunnies - 4-H kids - gotta love em!). She would touch it if I held her but they both had complete meltdowns (no naps). She talked about the bunny for a few days. Then we took them to have breakfast with the Easter Bunny (tradition since she was born - so 3rd year). She had breakfast and waited in line to do photos. Meltdown so we removed her and she was petting the grief dog that was there. She was still excited about Easter and the prospects of the bunny leaving her a basket of goodies.

 

She sleeps with a stuffed elephant and I'm going to see if I can find the battery operated nightlight that Purdy Bear mentioned when I'm out grocery shopping today and see if that will help. I have 2 plug in night lights in her room now but need something new as the almost 11 month old has somehow figured out how to pull them out. I'm doomed when they hit their teenage years.

 

I think part of it, is she is overly tired because she hasn't been napping during the day lately. And part of it is, she isn't use to a lot of animals as we are in the city & they just aren't readily available (I guess that's the proper way to word that). She called squirrels cats at the sitters when she was going and she wasn't 14 months.

 

Thanks for the help! Jori

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This would be a good time to train her to take control of her dreams. Talk to her about what happens in the dream. Then ask her what she wanted to happen. Perhaps she will say the bunny grabbed her. So help her to understand that in her dream, she can tell the bunny to put her down and go away and he will. You may have to "debrief" her on dreams for a while until she gets the hang of controlling them.

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Trish said what I would have said. She has to be the boss of her dreams. "Put me down! Go back to your hole and stay out of my room!"

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Well...Most monsters are afraid of light, so when my neice was having nightmares at about that age, her doting uncle (DH) bought her a cheap little flash light to sleep with. If she woke up from a bad dream, she had her super power beam to zap the baddies away. It worked wonders. Unlike a night light, the flashlight put the power in her hands.

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Ahh, two-year-olds!!! :):blink:

 

Is she potty-trained yet, or still in diapers? Any talk or working on potty-training? I ask because the bright kids are often ready early, and potty-training opens up a whole new set of personal issues for little ones. They start to get a sense of control, and it's exciting and frightening at the same time. Makes for some... Ummmm... *INTERESTING* days... :(

 

If she is overly-tired from not having naps, my guess is that an afternoon nap and a quiet-time slowdown at bedtime might help. Do you have a set night-time ritual, like bathtime followed by story followed by sleep? One thing I found absolutely necessary for my kidlets was a bath. From birth, a bath was followed with food and sleep. Then even when they were 2 and fighting me on naps, I could bathe them in the afternoon and they slept! (Mine NEEDED a nap or they were just too wound up by nighttime.)

 

If she's afraid of animals and fears Daddy letting in that "animal" (Easter bunny = that animal), no amount of explanation will cover that until she's no longer afraid. Do you have friends or family who can gradually introduce her to *quiet* and calm animals to overcome her fears? A local zoo, where they're behind glass or bars? Even a stuffed toy rabbit might help.

 

DVDs/videos with live animals to watch are great for city kids. They see them move and run and play, and they look like *fun*. Of course, then they have to be taught that not all animals are like that cute baby raccoon or baby bear, and they can't go pet them. When my kids were small, we had a video called "Meet Your Animal Friends", narrated by Lynn Redgrave. They loved that tape. But I'm sure there are great ones out there now, or at the library!

 

Of course, *every* child is unique and I know what works for one doesn't even sometimes work for a sibling.

 

Just my 2 cents. :)

 

:bighug2:

 

 

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Good morning (and what a beautiful day it is!)

 

Ah, Potty training! We are on that road. She doesn't always tell us but uses the potty and has had a few bm's on it (there's a sweet story with that). She was ready at 18 months, I wasn't as I was nursing a one month old. I hadn't even put that with it. She took a nap yesterday, we ran to Sam's Club, daddy came, so the kids were able to sleep while I ran in. She fought sleep last night but she had some daddy time, running around the apple trees and checking out the dirt in the garden :D (training both of them young) and then going to Menards to help him so I think that helped.

 

She slept with her blanket, Cinderella doll, and her stuffed lion. She didn't wake up until 7 this morning. So, we'll see how tonight goes. I need to focus on the potty training because she can do it, I'm just not disclipined to focus on one thing. But I'm tired of dropping so much money on diapers.

 

We've been working on dogs and cats. She is doing great with my BIL and SIL's German Shorthaired Pointer now, the sitters/neighbors 2 dogs and my sister & BIL's 2 cats. She did pretty well with the animals at the fair last year. We will be hitting the zoos (Michigan City and South Bend are within 60 miles and are pretty small) and the dairy farm in (Remington, I think). I also connected with a girl from high school on FB that owns a business that works with Special needs (austim, etc) and introducing individuals to horses. We are planning on a day down there two. But I love the video idea.

 

Again thanks for the help.

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The reason I mentioned potty-training is because when they start to get into this "control" thing, they begin to understand that there *are* some things THEY can do or not do.

 

And they sometimes think that having Daddy or Mommy "protect" them isn't enough... that their *thinking* or doing something could make it happen. They can't yet separate the real from the pretend. This is especially true of the higher-thinking toddlers.

 

We went through quite a lot with my oldest. The next one learned from *him*, so it wasn't quite so dramatic. (That is, until middle school... :blink::0327::faint3:

 

 

:bighug2:

 

 

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The reason I mentioned potty-training is because when they start to get into this "control" thing, they begin to understand that there *are* some things THEY can do or not do.

 

And they sometimes think that having Daddy or Mommy "protect" them isn't enough... that their *thinking* or doing something could make it happen. They can't yet separate the real from the pretend. This is especially true of the higher-thinking toddlers.

 

We went through quite a lot with my oldest. The next one learned from *him*, so it wasn't quite so dramatic. (That is, until middle school... :blink::0327::faint3:

 

 

:bighug2:

 

 

Ugh! :o Let's not even talk about school, yet. I made the comment last night that we are going to be there at least once a week for something one of them does. The little guy thinks that if he smiles, giggles, and raises his eyebrows, everything's good. He knows he's cute, I don't tell either of them (I was around 2 or 3 when told I was pretty by a stranger, I replied, "I know" :lol: . Mom and dad made sure that didn't happen again) LOL!

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