Help

Hi moms, I need some help. In the past month, my little one and I had experienced some thing traumatic. He tends to freak out whenever he hears any kind of noise now. And immediately gets out of bed. He’s always never been a great sleeper, but bedtime has become nothing short of difficult. He’ll get out of bed 6 to 10 times for every single noise. I feel terrible because obviously I wanna comfort him, I’ve tried many different tactics to get him to stay in bed. Giving him a sticker, shutting the door, coming to check on him. And it’s baffling to me how a day like today when we were outside a good portion of the day and he’s been up eight hours. He still has the energy to get out of bed six or seven times. Bedtime takes literally 45 minutes to an hour sometimes more. I’m so frustrated, obviously worry about him losing sleep. Though he does make up for napping during the day I think. I just I don’t know what to do to get him to not be afraid of every noise. I’ve even encouraged him to hug a friend when he hears a noise so he doesn’t get out of bed constantly. It’s a struggle. fearful fearful, could really use some help. I don’t know if anyone else has any fearful like I do.

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i m sorry for what y’all been through. I used to give liquid melatonin half milligram, worked very well, i also played the song Come to me from Kari jobe

Co-sleep for a while so he feels safe. He'll go back to his own bed eventually

can you co sleep? and have you also looked into if he is actually tired enough for bedtime? they may need longet awake now. x

If my son had been through something traumatic, i would rather him feel comfort for a while...i agree with others - i would cosleep to ensure he felt safe and got well rested. It might suck for you a bit (i personality am too light of a sleeper to really rest when my son sleeps with me), but if it helps his mental health, id say it is worth it.

@Mom Anna I debated the melatonin

@Linda he comes into my bed at a certain point. I like to at least get him to start off in his own bed so he’s comfortable.

@Kim I’ve been keeping track of the time he wakes from his nap and try to get him to bed at least six hours after that. In terms of cosleeping, he does get in my bed after a certain point of night anyway.

we do the same always starts in his bed and then comes into ours after he first wakes. how long does he nap for? maybe time to get rid altogether? we ditched the nap a month after he turned 3 as bedtime was getting later between 9/10pm. we just weny cold turkey and surprisingly he did good. wakes around 7:30/8am and goes to bed around 8pm some afternoons are hard with tiredness and others are fine. x

@Kim yeah myLO could go to bed 🛌 late and still be up before 6. I thought of ditching the nap. Some days we do

yeah they only need so much sleep in 24hrs hours so finding what they need and work off that. x

@Kim he’s an early riser AND a night owl 🦉

Bring him into bed with you. The comfort it will give him will far outweigh whatever concerns you have about it. If he’s traumatized he needs you more than ever right now and you don’t wanna regret not offering it in the future. He just needs to feel safe probably ♥️

This exact thing happened to us! We had a tornado siren (for hail, not even for a tornado) and went to quickly to park the cars in the garage. My kid was tormented for months! He wouldn’t pee on his own. He wouldn’t stay in bed. Anytime he saw a fire alarm on the ceiling or heard any sound at all, he’d freak out completely. I wanted to comfort him, but it wasn’t working. I felt like it was making it worse, even! I let my boyfriend take over (he has three kids and this felt like a man thing). He believes if you comfort him when his fear is not necessary, it will show him that he was right to be fearful. But if you act like normal and continue to make him go to the potty on his own and stay in his bed, then he’ll realize that there must not be anything scary and will adjust. We simply remind him that sirens let us know to pay attention and take action. It’s not scary because we know what to do. It’s only necessary to comfort them when something actually scary happens.

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