[cdr25]

My son just turned four last week. For the past two weeks, it seems like overnight he's "scared of everything." Just a second ago he said he was "scared of the couch," for goodness sake.
He suddenly hates to go down the hallway, even if all the lights are on. He suddenly hates to go to the bathroom without being escorted. He suddenly freaks when I leave the room without him. He suddenly hates going to bed without a fuss because he's scared. He's scared of "floating heads" and has quite a good four year old's imagination. He lately starts and leaps and jumps at any noise or sound and goes "eek!" a lot, getting scared at any little thing. He's been waking up more with "bad dreams" altho he hasn't been inconsolable or anything. He's rather easily soothed.

I've just been chalking it up to the fact that he's older and more creative and is scaring himself with creative thoughts. But it happened overnight practically. He hasn't been allowed to watch any new scary shows or had really any change of routine. Gets almost 12 hours of sleep at night.

He's normal, right? Or perhaps a brain tumor? :P

--KatyS

This fearful phase is absolutely normal, I deal with it all the time in my work as a child care professional, and yet I'm not aware of any sure-fire method of overcoming it. Yes, you're probably correct in your opinion that his fears are based on "over-active imagination". Be sure that he's not watching violent images on television (even cartoons can sometimes be too graphic for a four-year-old!). One of my earliest memories is of being about three years old and afraid of EVERYTHING, from curtain-hooks to stuffed animals to the tree in our front yard. It is hard for a child to distinguish between the actual physical world and the world inside his head, where the laws of nature and physics do not apply. Especially at the age of four, when your child's imaginings are becoming increasingly realistic and vivid. It's so hard to explain the reality to a child this age, that the things he imagines have no power to harm him. My own son went through a period of fearfulness at this age (he was afraid of the crypt-keeper from "Tales From The Crypt". He never watched the show of course, but he saw a talking doll of the crypt-keeper in a TOY STORE of all places; talk about inappropriate). I tried reasoning and rationalizing with my son, but I could not find a way to get through to him. Finally, I was reduced to some fairly ritualistic measures: I bought him a dream-catcher to hang over his bed and told him it would "catch" his nightmares. I helped him search his room each night to convince him that nothing was hiding there. I also sprayed Lysol air-freshener in his room, telling him that it was "monster repellent". Bizarrely enough, this technique was quite effective. You might try it. Tell your son it's "floating head repellent, guarranteed to keep floating heads away." They trust you at this age, that's the good thing. Anyway, my son eventually overcame his fears, either because of these methods or in spite of them. I think it's just a normal phase of development that all children go through, and they eventually overcome it on their own when their capacity for reasoning catches up with their imaginations. In the meantime, do whatever helps ease his fears and gets him through the night. Of course, explain to him that there are no such things as floating heads, but if it doesn't seem to register, then put a magic spell on his room to keep them away. Remember, to your child, you are all-powerful. Good luck to you both. Ivy