All of a sudden Lexi seems to have become afraid of the dark. She transitioned to her big girl room and bed without any problems a few months ago and had been sleeping with a faint night light. Then all of a sudden she started flipping her light switch on after we left her room. We would go in and turn off the light and tell her to go to sleep and she would immediately turn it back on as soon as the door was closed.
At first we through it was a game she was playing and kept going in every time and turning off the light. Eventually she started telling us it was "too dark." So now we leave one of her smaller lamps on when we say goodnight and she still cries. Sometimes for an hour. And that's with us going in there at intervals to soothe her. I hold her sobbing body until she calms down and tell her to try closing her eyes. I mean, one look at her and you can see how completely exhausted she is. Her answer? "No, too dark, mommy." And she keeps insisting that it's too dark when she closes her eyes or if the lights are off.
I've been doing some light research/reading about this and some sources say to make sure the lights stay off and comfort the child in the dark so they know it's okay. Honestly I don't think she would calm down at all if the lights were off. We've tried a few different night lights and none seem to make a difference. I'm wondering if we should try to find a portable or handheld light for her. Maybe something like that would give off enough light so she wouldn't need the brighter lamp on. Or maybe one of those Pillow Pet Dream Lites or other light up thing that displays light patterns on the ceiling.
Any other suggestions?
No comments:
Post a Comment