OT:What do u do about nightmares?

Allison, our almost 6 yr old, is driving me nuts. For the past 2 afternoons, nights she's been crying at odd times saying she's scared. Last night I like to have never got her to go to sleep. Finally, I let her get in the bed with me. I never do this. We have never let her sleep with us. Its one thing that we've never started and I don't want it started now. She says she's scared of a "fake" skeleton she saw on Halloween. In the neighborhood we went trick or treating in one house was all fixed up. U walked up to the house and they had a few things laying around. She was fine that night. I had to walk up to that house with her but she was fine. She's crying right now wanting me to sit beside her when I not 10 feet from her. She's cried so much in the past 30 mins she's made herself sick. I have told her over and over that the skeleton was a toy, it wasn't real. I'm starting to get worried. She's never had issues going to bed before. She started having bad dreams a couple of weeks ago when our idiot neighbors pit bull jumped on our dog but nothing like this. I don't know what to do for her. Thought I'd send this out to all of u and get your input. Get some ideas of how I should handle this.  Ange

I have a suggestion, and I hope it works for you.  You can find the models of the human body, that has the skeleton and the body parts with it. If you get one of these, and help her build it, it may help her nightmares ease. Not only can you use this as a learning tool for when she is in science class at school, but she will see that skeletons are safe and ok.  Also, if your pcp has a skeleton in his office, you may want to ask him to talk to her about it. That way she will understand more about the fake skeletons, and how they work.......and really put it to where she understands that they are ok.  Hope she calms down.

Thank u! The past 2 nights she's done great. I hope it continues.

At six years of age your daughter might not be emotionally mature enough to rationalize her fears.  My suggestion would be to give her something new to focus her mind on and next October she may be at the right place to understand that all things aren't real when it comes to Halloween.  My daughter is 5 and just this year she started taking notice of the ghost and ghouls side of Halloween.  She's was interested in all the life size mummys and grim reapers at Wal*Mart but only from 10 paces away and behind my legs!   As far as trick or treating she wouldn't go up to the houses that were decorated.  When it came to TV we basically stuck to the Disney and Casper movies. Consider pulling out the Christmas tree and starting off the Christmas season early!  Decorating the tree, Santa, Baby Jesus and that good ole Christmas list should crowd out the skeleton quickly!  Then you can try rationalizing the skeleton to her next year when she's a little older and wiser!! Good Luck! Becka

That sounds like Allison. She likes looking at the stuff at Walmart but she never gets close to them. Next Halloween I'm skipping that places that go all out decorating. It helps that we just got 2 new babies added to our family. She's been busy spoiling them with the rest of us!