Nutrition Health Chat: Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 5-6 PM Eastern. Learn how vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients affect your health. Free live Q&A. Join us!
Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Child Behavior (Expert Forum)
10yr old fear of being alone
This forum is for questions and support regarding child behavior issues such: Child Discipline (behavior management), Normal Child Development, Parent-Child Communications, Social Development
10yr old fear of being alone
by netnet23, Jun 20, 2009 12:44PM
My 10yr old Nephew has recently had a major problem with being alone during the day and at night. He unfortunately saw a picture of a scene from a horro film on a friends computer, by accident and the problems have occured since then.
This has been going on for weeks and is badly affecting his mother ( no father on the scene) who is getting hardly any sleep. He is scared of being alone in the house during the day and will not go into a room on his own but stick to his mum like glue. He will not go to bed and when he eventually does he wakes up several times during the night and goes into his mum. If she tries to put he back into his bed he gets hysterical and cries hysterically. It is getting worse not better. Can anyone help..
This has been going on for weeks and is badly affecting his mother ( no father on the scene) who is getting hardly any sleep. He is scared of being alone in the house during the day and will not go into a room on his own but stick to his mum like glue. He will not go to bed and when he eventually does he wakes up several times during the night and goes into his mum. If she tries to put he back into his bed he gets hysterical and cries hysterically. It is getting worse not better. Can anyone help..
Member Comments (1)
by Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D., Jun 21, 2009 07:51AM
, Jun 21, 2009 07:51AM
Over time this reaction will wane. As you can see, some children can be very adversely influenced by frightening scenes they wotness on movies. His reaction can be viewed as a normal reaction to an upsetting event. In managing it, it is important not to get into habits that will be hard to break. For instance, he should not sleep with his mother. If it helps him feel secure, for now it's OK to place a sleeping bag, for example, just outside his mother's door. So reassurance, patience and support is the right approach, all the while not developing bad habits that will be a challenge to break as time goes on.
