4 year old dreaming

[Quiver0f10]

My 4 yo has been mentioning she has been dreaming. Most of the time they are about fun stuff, like about a book we read or what not. Today she refused to go into the kids bathroom. I finally got it out of her that she dreamed there was a balloon in the toilet and it popped when she sat down? I took her into the kids bathroom and showed her the toilet, but she wanted to leave the room real quick.

The whole thing is bizare. What do you think? I do think part of it is she doesn't understand dreaming and that it's normal. She called it pictures in her head LOL.

[lynn]

between dream and reality and would insist she was playing with something and would wake up wanting it back. I believe it was rough going for a while but she did outgrow it. I guess you can just keep explaining that dreams are in our head but can make us feel happy, sad, scared etc. It's a stage and will pass but I'll be curious what others say.

[Carol in Cal.]

Most of them were bad, and she wouldn't talk about them very much because she felt that it made them come back and they scared her so much.

She did outgrow this. It took about a year and a half. During that time, she ended up in bed with me most nights. There really wasn't much I could do about it.

I did try to prevent her from seeing any scary images at all during that time. I remember that once she saw a pretty benign nature show with her dad, and a deer of some sort got pulled under the water and eaten by a croc or alligator. I don't think it was gory, but the guy describing it may have built up the horrible suspense. That night she came in as white as a sheet. She asked me whether there are crocodiles in our neighborhood, and when she heard that they were only in the zoo she was not consoled.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

I remember having really intense and vivid dreams as a child. I still have very active, convoluted, odd dreams almost every night. One of my children has started mentioning his dreams. Dh thought it wasn't for real since he was so little. But when I told him I was the same way, it made sense to him. He just rarely dreams like that.

I don't have any great stories of how to deal with it or how to help her except to say that dreams are often just random thoughts that come out while we sleep and mix up to make silly stories that don't make sense. (at least that's how I kind of think about them).

[Quiver0f10]

Thanks for the replies. I feel bad that she is scared and hope things settle down withher soon. I know some of my other kids went through phases, but not like this.

[Scarlett]

Tell her she is special because not every one has the gift of such realistic vivid dreaming. I dream this way and so does my son. Oh and it won't take her long to realize that a dream is a dream.

[Quiver0f10]

You know , one thing I just thought of. She told me it was a yellow balloon in the toilet. Just thought that was weird too.

[Amy loves Bud]

I just go this government health warning from my SIL:

DO NOT SWALLOW CHEWING GUM:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v728/Likeaweed/gum.jpg

I'm sorry, Quiver. I know this is not helpful at all, but your post reminded me of this and I had to share it!

[Quiver0f10]

I just go this government health warning from my SIL:

DO NOT SWALLOW CHEWING GUM:

!

That's hilarous. I don't think I should show it to her? :D