Dream Bag
Right now we are being woken nightly by a little person who cries out after having a nightmare. On our next available day I am off to find a night light for her room which may or may not help. Another thing that might help is to build into our evening ritual the idea of slipping a good Dream Bag under her pillow.
A small fabric bag can be made or bought from a craft shop (a bag which would usually hold a bar of soap or some other small gift) and inside place a “magical” object. This could be a brand new shiny coin, a small polished rock or a beautiful shell. Each evening we can examine this magical object, slip it into the bag and place it under her pillow.
Another idea is to find some Guatemalan Worry Dolls which often come in their own soft bag… or make your own.
Related links:
Nightmares and Children
Beautiful night lights from Happy Owl Glassworks
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Kiddley uses and recommends 
we recently hung christmas lights down the hallway running from the kids bedroom to the bathroom, to light the way – it stopped bedwetting and gives a nice glow to the room without being too bright at night.
kathreen May 15th, 2006 21:07
We’ve had good luck with Dreamcatchers for my son. Of course, now we have to have one positioned correctly by every possible bed.
Fran May 17th, 2006 11:16
when my second was born just a few mos. ago we bought our 2 year old daughter the candeloo lights from reusablebags.com (they had the lowest price) they say they are for younger kiddos but, we use them only at bedtime and read our stories and say goodnite to them,…check em out there the coolest reusable lights and they even make adult ones (ofcourse we spend all of our spare money on our girls!)
tina cmarko May 17th, 2006 11:37
Hi -I saw your post this morning and made a dream bag for my daughter today. She is 4, and suddenly out of the blue started having nightmares and bunking in with M&D.
We put a few “magical” things into the bag. Let’s see how tonight goes.
Thanks for a great idea.
candy
Candy May 18th, 2006 11:26
we also use “monster” spray (or whatever the current offender might be) – we take a generic spray bottle, and fill it with water and maybe a couple of drops of scented oil (we like lavender). we spritz a couple of times around her room as we’re tucking her in for the night, and the spray keeps all of the monsters or bad dreams away for the night.
kelly May 20th, 2006 01:35
Hi,
I was very interested at this Dream Bag and couldn´t help but asking – aren´t you afraid that inventing an object for keeping the nightmares away would make your child grow addicted to it and prevent him/her from fighting with their own fears on a later stage, just leaving them relying on something outside to keep them safe?
My daughter was afraid of the dark. In fact, she was terrified by it. Instead of putting lamps on I stood with her in the dark, talking and explaining everything we saw or thought we saw, thus vanishing away her fears and turning all the mosnters into plain objects over which she had total control.
Why making our kids dependable?
soni May 27th, 2006 20:30