Never tried this before so here goes. My 7 year old son has started having trouble sleeping. Most nights he can't go to sleep because he thinks he'll have a nightmare (I'm not sure he entirely understands nightmares). When he does go to sleep he then wakes up every night for the past 6 months and is too frightened to sleep in his own bed and gets in with me and my husband and then sleeps soundly all night (usually because he has most of the bed). These sleeping problems are distressing us all particularly my son. We have tried positive praise (although he doesn't stay in bed long enough to do this at the moment) also tried putting him back in bed, staying close by him in his room etc. but nothing works.
Other problems are:
strange obsession with people having writing on their hands at the dinner table - this is extremely distressing for him and he will not sit at the table or eat with anyone who has writing on their hands (my daughter is getting better at washing her hands) He cannot explain why this bothers him although he thinks he will die if he has to eat in these circumstances.
He has lots of friends who like him and he will play with them all but he only has a few friends that he says he actually likes. The rest he doesn't care for. He has very little empathy for anyone and finds it extremely difficult to play with his friends when they come to play. Its almost like he doesn't know how to relate to them.
He can be very nasty to me, my husband and his sister and regular tells me I hate him! We are a 'normal' family, happily married, spend time with our kids doing activities and praise and encourage them regularly.
Other than that he is very well behaved at school and academically does very well although only when he wants to.
Can anyone help? I am scared for his future and that I don't understand my little boy.
Let him sleep in your bed from the beginning of the night to the end. He will get over it. It is normal to go through such fears at his age. All the rest of the stuff is common, but you can get advice. I recommend the author of Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves. Get the book. It is awesome. Will help you a lot. Then get a phone session with the author. She is extremely kind and helpful.
