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| |    Fears at Bedtime by Dr. Benjamin Spock reviewed and revised by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. If your two-year-old child has become terrified about going to bed, the safest advice, but the hardest to carry out, is to sit by her crib in a relaxed way until she goes to sleep. Don't be in a hurry to sneak away before she is asleep. That will alarm her again and makes her more wakeful. This campaign may take weeks, but it should work in the end. If your child was frightened because one of you left town, try to avoid going away again for many weeks. If you have taken a job for the first time since the child was born, say goodbye each day affectionately, but cheerfully and confidently. If you have an anguished, unsure-whether-you're-doing-the-right-thing expression, it adds to the child's uneasiness. Making the child more tired by keeping her up later or omitting her nap may help a little, but usually won't do the whole job. A panicky child can keep herself awake for hours even though she's exhausted. You have to take away her worry, too. The situation with younger children, from 9 to 18 months or so, is usually different. If they have developed a habit of falling asleep while being rocked in their parent's arms, they may wake up several times a night, crying until they are rocked back to sleep. This can be exhausting for any parent.
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