Becca - Isabella recently had a scare (an electric sander that next door neighbour was using). She was scared of her room & her cot so some of the things I did that helped:
* I spent a lot of time in her room (more than 1/2 of the day actually) & as soon as she would ask me about the sander I would validate her feelings & not make her think that her fears are silly, etc...
* Dh & I brought a sander into the house & dh used it to sand a piece of wood in front of her. She was not forced to watch (dh was in the garage) but she kept going in & out as she pleased. Not sure how you can apply this... can't really bring a tellytubby home
* I gave her control over the things she could & wanted to hear. I got her ear plugs but she didn't like to wear them so I told her she could cover her ears with her hands if she didn't like any particular sound. She still does this when something is very loud & she doesn't like hearing it... she will cover her ears & say "Bella don't like that noise" (this one was suggested to me by Kate & its been doing wonders). Again not sure how you could apply this as our fear was noise related... but then again who knows how she incorporated that noise into her dream since she had never seen a sander before
*I actually did spend the 1st 3 days sitting with her until she fell asleep because her fear was VERY real & she was totally petrified of her cot. I believe if I had been doing wi/wo from day 1, I would have caused more damage. You could tell she was very scared because she wouldn't even go into her room to start with & she was frightened of the smallest things & jump up & cry when I would put the tap on. What is your dd like during the day? Does she still watch the show & does she show anxiety-type behaviour when the blue t/t appears???
*I got her a little night light (one you can plug into socket) but she kept on insisting for me to leave the "big" light on & wanted the night light off. So I bought this amazing product from ebay (let me know if you are interested & I'll post the link). It only cost me $6.50 (incl postage - in Australia). You plug it into where the light bulb goes & then put the light bulb in & with the on-off switch the lights will either dim over 24mins or will go to straight dim (or you can have it all off or on to fullest brightness). So now there are no battles over the lights being on or off. I leave the lights on for her to fall asleep with (its very dim) & she has the control over it being the "big" light. I switch it off once she is asleep as she has woken up a few times at night & asked me to switch the lights off (weird how she wants them on to fall asleep with but off for the rest of the night).
*I also gave her a cross (its a children's cross with painting of farm, trees, animals rather than the crucifix). She also sleeps with her teddies & lovey & I talk about how much they all protect her at night when mummy is not around. & I put a picture of mummy & daddy on the chair where the cross is... for more security
* I got my dh to draw shapes of things on the cot & we spent a day painting her cot. This was LOTS of fun & this is on the same line of Wendy's suggestion - could you maybe paint the wall or put a poster of her fav cartoon character there instead (mine is obsessed with Dora so DH drew the monkey, Dora, the lot...)
*Finally (& this I was also told about on this site) you could get a spray & infront of her spray the room & tell her its special dust that keeps the telletubies away. I did this & also said "NO SANDERS ALLOWED IN THIS HOUSE" in a really serious voice when she would mention one.
Just some things that really did wonders for us. Mine has as a result of all this stopped napping but I think thats more stuborn than fear related. She is totally fine to go down at night & unlike at the start she no longer wakes at night fearfull & asking us to stay with her. So the way to get her napping now is to sleep with her in my bed
(well I leave after 10mins or so).
I have no doubt the sander scared Isabella - like I said she would start crying when the tap was on & she would shake as soon as I mentioned sleep... Sometimes what can happen is that they get scared of something & then that fear spirals out of control & they CONVINCE themselves they are not safe without mummy/daddy. 3weeks later & she is not talking about the sander at all anymore... not napping consistently.... but sleeping ok at night
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hth
Layla