Afraid of Her Shadow

Posted: Jul 10, 2007

Boy this one came right out of the blue. Reese is a pretty laid back little girl. We take her a lot of places so she's used to being exposed to different things. We can take her to a strange place to spend the night, put her in her pack 'n play and she'll go right to bed with no complaints. So, when she started crying in her own room on her changing table we were baffled.

She is afraid of her shadow. Her changing table is of course right against the wall so when we take off her clothes to give her a bath there are shadows right beside her head. She gets terrified, screams and tries to climb up your neck. It was so bad last week that she kept crying all through her bath because she saw shadows on the bathroom wall. She loves her bath so this is highly unusual behavior. Neither my husband nor I have made any scary references to shadows so she's just making this up in her head.

I wasn't sure what to do about it at first. Now we just change her clothes and her diaper in the evening with the lights off in her room. So far that is working. She isn't scared of being in the dark. Has anybody else experienced anything like this?

I can tell she's really starting to use her imagination. Yesterday for the first time she was carrying around her Elmo and lying it on the couch and telling it "night night". Then she wanted to change his diaper (he wasn't wearing one). It was the first time I'd seen her doing imaginative play. She's getting older so fast!

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This is a very exciting age and here, it's only getting more exciting....Conor started being afraid of weird things around Reese's age as well. He'd freak out if he was around talking toys--he's shriek at the toy section in Target when he saw this thing called Charlie Coal the talking Charcoal Grill. Freaked him out and to this day, we don't get talking toys. Thank goodness because they give me a headache. You'll notice as time goes on, the things that freak here out will get less and less but will be more irrational. Good luck. I can tell you that (almost) 3 is turning into the new 2 around here......yikes!

hollingoodwin
July 14, 2007 8:00 p.m.

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That is a real common thing at her age to finally see her shawdow and wonder what it is. My daughter experienced it as well at her age and I would use my hand and even a puppet to show her the shawdow and explain that concept to her. Sounds like Reese is growing up and learning more about herself. Would love to see a recent picture of her on your next Pos, I bet she has changed since her last picture many months ago.

Angel32
July 11, 2007 10:04 a.m.

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Bless her little heart! My granddaughter was afraid of her shadow around that age(she's 4 now). And she spied it one day while walking in a parking lot. Needless to say, it was "HOLD ME NOW!time! But once we showed her that we have a shadow and that you can make it do what you do, she was better with it. Those books with the shadows are real good for little ones. Or take her in the dark with a flashlight and make up good stories to tell about the shadows you see. Won't be long till she can watch Peter Pan and find out about Peter's wayward shadow! Then it will be fun!

fishnett5977
July 10, 2007 4:54 p.m.

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My son also went through this at about age 3. He has a pedistal fan in his room & the way it was positioned along with other things in the room made it look like there was a man standing in his room. We did not realize this because he could only see it at night when the door was partially closed. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming & saying there was a man in his room. We finally went in to see for ourselves after about the 3rd night of this & saw the "man" ourselves. To this day, & he is now 5 1/2, he is still scared of shadows to a certain degree.

hersheyspots
July 10, 2007 2:30 p.m.

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My boys who are 17 and 19 now went through similar things. My boys would just decide to be afraid of things that were familiar to them. My oldest decided during his third summer he did not like the ocean. He loved it again by the time his fourth summer came around. My youngest went through the same routine with Santa. I am sure she will figure out the shadow situation in no time.

Arkansas Razorback
GOLO member since July 6, 2007
July 10, 2007 2:13 p.m.

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Elizabeth - my 2 year old son had the same issue...he also noticed it first on the changing table! I found a "shadow" book at Books-A-Million, from the children's section. It comes with a flashlight to make the shadows, and when you hold the book up, different pages cast different shapes on the wall. We sat down with him and played shadows several times, after that, he thought it was fun, and is no longer afraid...now he even makes his own shadows with his hands when we change his diaper. Good luck with your little one!

Jakesmom
July 10, 2007 12:47 p.m.

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My little one never had this problem but this might work: try putting a poster or a design or something on the wall right by the changing table, so she sees that instead of her shadow. Good luck!

JAT
July 10, 2007 12:47 p.m.

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Elizabeth, my daughter (now aged 38) experienced "night terrors" beginning at about Reese's age. Actually, her's were usually "day terrors" as they seemed to occur mainly at naptime. She'd be sound asleep and suddenly wake up screaming madly. She was inconsolable for a few seconds to minutes, but would gradually become aware of her surroundings and calm down. I think it probably has something to do with an increasing maturity in the central nervous system and growing awareness of one's surroundings. May also be associated with sensory stimulation...an overload of sorts. She'll grow out of it shortly, most likely. Just keep going with your "mom" instincts and you'll do fine!

gramma
July 10, 2007 12:30 p.m.

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Age 2--that explains it as best it can be. Quite observant for one her age.

ladybug23
July 10, 2007 12:15 p.m.

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There is a childrens book about shadows that you can read to her. Tell her that image she sees is just a shadow. Sometimes children see things that we do not. I have heard of children seeing ghosts. Create a shadow monster that gets rid of mean shadows and keeps only the nice ones. Hang up a shadow protecter in the room.

pegasis
July 10, 2007 11:41 a.m.

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