My 6-year-old son has always been a great sleeper with a good bedtime routine - never had any problems with getting to sleep or staying asleep. He's a very happy, confident boy. However he saw a road safety advert on TV a few weeks ago and since then has been really anxious.
He doesn't like being upstairs or downstairs on his own even during the day but at nighttime he is having huge problems with sleep. He won't go to bed without one of us staying upstairs (or in his room) until he falls asleep and is waking numerous times in the night, extremely upset and worried about being alone. The first few nights we allowed him into our bed thinking it was just a short phase (we have never co-slept in the past). Now I am going into his bed to soothe him each time and reassure him but I don't want to make a habit of it. It's really hard to know what to do because if I try 'tough love' he gets more and more het up and anxious. He keeps talking about the advert (no longer watching TV) but I feel it's maybe running deeper than that now.
I've thought about putting a CD player in his room with stories to help him sleep, but again don't want to start bad habits when he's always slept so well. We've started leaving the landing light on, and leaving our bedroom door open so he knows we're close by but it's not making any difference. I'd like my happy-go-lucky worry-free little boy back!! What shall I do?