I have been hestitant to post this for a while, but dh and I are really at a loss, so please be gentle. 
My oldest dd will be 5 in a week. For about 3-4 months now, she has been extremely afraid of the dark. She has always been a sensitive, spirited child, who tends towards the dramatic side of life, but I have never experienced anything like this before. She is so afraid that she has to sleep with a lamp on- we've tried two night lights and she screams that she's afraid. We have to keep the lamp on all night, because if we turn it off she wakes up and freaks out. She also cries in the car when we're driving at night- dh and I can be in the car with her, but because its dark outside, she's terrified. We try and explain to her that nothing will happen to her with Mommy and Daddy in the car with her, but nothing helps except turning a light on inside the car, which makes it hard to drive.
Since she was a newborn, we have never left her to cio, and although we've been encouraging her to sleep in her own bed at night (she is a really restless sleeper,) we have never forced her out of our bed, or told her she wasn't welcome. 5 out of 7 night or so, either dh or I lays down with her until she falls asleep.
The problem is, she is waking nearly every night, sometimes multiple times a night crying that she is afraid. We have talked to her about it when she wakes up at night, but she is too upset to tell us what is going on. When we talk about it during the day, all she ever says is that she's afraid to go to bed by herself, and that she doesn't want to sleep by herself.
We limit her exposure to tv, and what she does watch is strictly age appropriate. We rarely leave her with babysitters, and when we do leave her with someone, it's usually a neighbor or a friend who we know well. She doesn't act fearful during the day either- she goes to preschool, church, friends' houses, etc without so much as batting an eye. She has a sister 20 months younger who has no issues with being afraid, and they are virtually always together, so it seems like this is unique to my oldest dd.
So is it normal to have this kind of fear of the dark? Is there something we should do about it or just let it pass? We've tried reading books about being afraid, we've tried being calm and soothing, we've tried being silly, but nothing seems to work, and each night it seems to be getting progressively worse. Dh is starting to wonder if she has some psychological issues... Any ideas? Help!
My oldest dd will be 5 in a week. For about 3-4 months now, she has been extremely afraid of the dark. She has always been a sensitive, spirited child, who tends towards the dramatic side of life, but I have never experienced anything like this before. She is so afraid that she has to sleep with a lamp on- we've tried two night lights and she screams that she's afraid. We have to keep the lamp on all night, because if we turn it off she wakes up and freaks out. She also cries in the car when we're driving at night- dh and I can be in the car with her, but because its dark outside, she's terrified. We try and explain to her that nothing will happen to her with Mommy and Daddy in the car with her, but nothing helps except turning a light on inside the car, which makes it hard to drive.
Since she was a newborn, we have never left her to cio, and although we've been encouraging her to sleep in her own bed at night (she is a really restless sleeper,) we have never forced her out of our bed, or told her she wasn't welcome. 5 out of 7 night or so, either dh or I lays down with her until she falls asleep.
The problem is, she is waking nearly every night, sometimes multiple times a night crying that she is afraid. We have talked to her about it when she wakes up at night, but she is too upset to tell us what is going on. When we talk about it during the day, all she ever says is that she's afraid to go to bed by herself, and that she doesn't want to sleep by herself.
We limit her exposure to tv, and what she does watch is strictly age appropriate. We rarely leave her with babysitters, and when we do leave her with someone, it's usually a neighbor or a friend who we know well. She doesn't act fearful during the day either- she goes to preschool, church, friends' houses, etc without so much as batting an eye. She has a sister 20 months younger who has no issues with being afraid, and they are virtually always together, so it seems like this is unique to my oldest dd.
So is it normal to have this kind of fear of the dark? Is there something we should do about it or just let it pass? We've tried reading books about being afraid, we've tried being calm and soothing, we've tried being silly, but nothing seems to work, and each night it seems to be getting progressively worse. Dh is starting to wonder if she has some psychological issues... Any ideas? Help!
