Dd waking up because of bugs

[DCS]

Dd is 3. The last few months, for a week at a time, every few weeks she wakes up screaming. First it was ladybirds. They were in her bed and flying near her. There wasnt. Last few nights its been spiders. She wakes up crying refusing to go back into her bed. We bring her into ours and a fee minutes later she is screaming again pointing in the air. We end up leaving the light on in our room. And she is awake for hours. She still breastfeeds to sleep and occasionally in the day. So she ends up breastfeeding all through the night, which means im awake most of the time she is. We are both then grumpy and tired the next day.
Any ideas what could be causing this. Im assuming she is halfasleep when in our bed, when she is seeing the bugs flying around.
How can i help her?

 

[Natasha2605]

Maci went through this phase when she was about 4. It was absolutely terrible for weeks on end. High pitched screaming, disturbed nights etc.

We knew it would pass so we just reassured her bugs were fine, I think at the time there was a show on CBeebies that was talking about how some bugs were important to our eco system. We felt it was important to try to understand and be sympathetic to her fears whilst at the same time trying to be logical and help her realise there was nothing to be afraid of.

I think it lasted about two months. Now, although she doesn't like some bugs she doesn't fixate on a fear of them.

 

[Springflower]

My daughter went through this with frogs. Think she was 3.5 at the time. It lasted a good 6 months and it was miserable! I used to bring her into bed with me but she'd be awake for hours. Nothing really helped she just gradually grew out of it.

 

[ClairAye]

My daughter had this with bears, they were in her room, outside or on the roof. We don't even have bears here! I told her about hibernation and said the bear was away in his cave sleeping for a long time, she's stopped talking about it now and this was a few weeks ago.

 

[DCS]

As much as im sad that other los went through this, im glad im not alone. I brought her downstairs last night, because it was it was quite early ( 9.30ish) and i was awake waiting for oh. She woke fully up and then geting her to sleep in my bed was easier. She still refused to go in her bed. I dont want to start something with bringing her downstairs. Im thinking maybe read a book and have a chat, then try to get her to sleep. She still didnt sleep for hours and im exhausted. But she wasnt screaming which was a releif. It freaks me out so much when i just start dozing and she lets out this loud scream. Oh manages to sleep right through it and i have to shake him to wake him up so he can watch her while i pop to the loo. He sleeps in the same bed. No idea how he doesnt hear her. I hope she grows out of this soon. Poor kid is struggeling right now. She ends up exhausted, her stammer gets worse and she gets sad. Thanks all. Will wait patiently with lots of hugs while this passes.

 

[Scout]

Yes, my daughter went through this too, with bugs, spiders and snakes. At the time, she was still sleeping with me and I'd run my hand over the bed and her pillow to show her nothing was there, but that didn't help/matter. If I could get her fully awake, she went back to sleep faster. There were a few nights that I put on cartoons to get her awake and her mind off the bugs (I was desperate!) Thankfully, it did pass and hopefully will do the same for you both soon.

 

[Zephram]

For my DS1 it was a very brief bad dreams about dinosaurs phase. I think the duration of it can really depend on how you talk to them about it when it happens. We were very rational and said firmly that dreams aren't real, dreams can't hurt you, and if you find yourself in a bad dream you just tell it to go away. I also likened bad dreams to imagination and playing pretend to emphasis how they aren't real.

It's really important to stay rational and be logical about it and not overreact to their reaction to it, as you can unintentionally reinforce the fear if you treat it like a really big deal.

So for us it's a firm and logical discussion: dreams aren't real, they can't hurt you, but you do have a very good imagination, if it happens again tell it to go away, now it's time to go back to sleep.

 

[DCS]

Thank you. We did have a chat friday night, and i said it was just a dream and dreams are not real. And it hasnt hapoened again since which is positive. It usually lasts a week and this time only happened twice. Fingeres crossed, it passes soon.