My son is seeing things! Please HELP!

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I have a 2 year old son with PDD-NOS, a “mild” form of autism. About a month or two ago he started to become afraid of his room, specifically the area behind the door, just our room in general. It’s basically the whole upstairs that he can’t be around We didn’t think anything of it. A few days ago it started happening again and it has been going on for a few days now. He is extremely terrified, he will look at the corner of the room like he sees something there. He will take my hand and make me cover his eyes, if I try to take my arm away he freaks out. Something is in that room with him. He breaks out in a cold sweat and starts to shake, he then will cover his eyes. He points to the corner and starts talking to me, like he is trying to tell me something about the room. He sleeps with blankets over his head, soon as we put him in his crib he grabs his blankets and puts them over his head. It’s very troubling because he can’t express himself to us, he can’t tell me what is wrong. All I know is that he won’t get off our bed, he is afraid of the upstairs now. When where downstairs he will walk past the steps and look up the steps from the corner of his eye, again like he sees something. We don’t know what to do, we are very upset about. something worse if we don’t have too. I would greatly appreciate your help in this matter, it’s very urgent. If you can’t help us, could you please point me in the right direction to someone who can? I can’t see my son like this anymore. I did contact to his case workers, the people who help with his autism and they have never heard of a child scared of something that is not there, point to something and being this frightened.


Does anyone ever hear anything like this, this is getting extremely scary of everyone here. Tonight he was taking his bath, which he usually loves, he always has a blast. Out of nowhere he started getting scared and looking up at the corner of the bathroom. He started crying and wanted to get out of the bath tub. We decided to move his crib into a smaller room away from his room, we had grandma stay with him tonight. He was fine at first then out of no where he took my mothers arm and put it over his face to cover his eyes. He then got under the blankets. About 5 minutes later he started to wimper and cry a little bit. So now it seems to be any room upstairs, not just his room anymore. I can't explain whats going on, his autism therapist don't seem to understand whats going on.

I don't know what to mention what I believe it is.... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Brett

i'd talk to a child psychiatrist.

I believe that a psychiatrist is in order with your son's situation. Do not be surprised if the psychiatrist wants to have some tests done on your child, there are many things that can cause hallucinations in children at that age.

(P.S. I don't believe that Schizophrenia can manifest itself at that young of an age, much less as strongly as his problem seems to be - just incase that's what you didn't want to mention.)

Is your son maybe on any medication that might have triggered this?
When I was small my mom gave me over the counter "calmets" because I was very anxious.
This medication made me saw little people, funny looking men coming out of my cupboard and running down the wall and ceiling...it was a bit freeky!
If he is on any meds, I would contact the dr and discuss this.
If he is not on any meds, I would contact his pdoc as soon as possible....
I'm not an expert but wouldn't firstly think Scisophrenia or something that big.....
Hugs with this situation, it must be very scary!

Controversial, I know but would you consider a psychic? I know several people who are able (or claim to be able) to see spirits.

Its very common for people who have ASD's and PDD-NOS is an ASD to have what are called irrational fears. A sudden fear of something for no obvious reason. Sometimes these can turn into full blown phobia. Sometimes no one can pin point the reason or trigger for it but obviously your son is afraid of the upstairs. I would try stringing LED Christmas lights in his room and other places he finds scary. Also there are things that project pictures and lights on the ceiling to distract him from his fears. Sometimes noise machines can work, sounds of ocean waves, white noise, things of this nature.
We have a lot of experience with phobias in our house. I have used all of the above and they worked for my son but my daughter who used to have very violent night terrors still has issues sleeping in her bed. She is only 6 and has classic autism so I dont mind her coming into our bed at night if she is scared. I dont mind getting up and taking her to the toilet. Someday they will grow up and the fears and phobias will lessen if treated correctly. If you just try to force your child to "get over it" as my parents did you could have an adult who is still afraid of the dark, like me.

Do the fears come at all hours of the day, or only at night? If it's only (or primarily) at night, he could be reacting to shadows, (like from car headlights) which can be quite scary for children who don't understand what these shapes are, or where they come from. Actually, even if his fears are during the day, they could be from shadows, if there are trees or other things outside casting shadows in the house. He may not be processing visual information the way that you would, and therefore be frightened by things he is actually seeing, but not understanding.

I hope i'm not wrong when I say that your private fears appear to be based on something supernatural. I recently posted the same problem, but with my dog getting distressed with something at the top corner of the room. I researched it the best I could and kept getting information back on the concept of a 3rd eye. When I was reading about, it often came up that very young children also had ease of access to such a thing. I know it sounds a little crazy, but a lot of people believe in this. If it were true, then it would be a passing thing, though no less scary.

It's so hard with a 2 year old, they can barely communicate as it is. You have no way of knowing if he's seeing something that is actually there (my son was terrified of houseflies for a while) or a memory of something that upset him, or if he's imagining something. Does he talk at all? Even if he does, he clearly can't express what it is he's worried about. Has there been a change in the household, even a minor one (new curtains, paint, bedspread, furniture?)

Sesame Street has dozens of videos on dealing with fears. Take a look at some of them and see if any might work for your child:http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player/-/pgpv/videoplayer/0/2e5e2f7b-1559-11dd-a62f-919b98326687

I'd also try to make sure it isn't something real: shadows, mice, moths, etc. Sesame Street does a good job explaining shadows, but you might need to find non-scary pictures of the other things to see if he reacts. You can talk to him about how those things won't hurt him.

Don't be alarmed, but a good thing to keep in mind that many people on the spectrum have co-morbid conditions such as OCD and mood or anxiety disorders. I agree that a visit to the psychologist is in order; just like everything else, if you find strategies early on, you'll have a much easier time later.

Hi! I agree with what the others said about ASD or even SPD kids having more sensitivities to various things--things we may not notice ourselves.

My son did something similar from about 6 months to 2 years old. Only, he wasn't really afraid, he'd just point at the wall and laugh or ask 'whats that' when there was nothing we could see. He's 4 1/2 now and has some pretty intense nighttime fears. The smallest shadow on the wall is a scary bird or monster. At one point, when he was sleeping in his own room, he kept telling us he was hearing voices in his room and would come climb in bed w/us because he was scared. We live in an apartment, so it's possible that he has a heightened sense of hearing and heard voices we couldn't. But it was kind of freaky to hear him say he was hearing voices. After that, we let him sleep on a 'yo' on the floor of our room and it seems to help a lot. He still has a list of 'rules' we have to follow so he feels safe--all the doors in the house closed, even our master bath sliding door, a night light, and someone touching him until he falls asleep. It may not be an ideal arrangemetn, but we are working with him as much as we can and hopefully he'll grow out of it. (Note: I've known 2-year olds to pick out the speck of an airplane when I couldn't see it in the sky, so your son just MAY be seeing something real like a speck but having an over-intense fears about it.)

I think it is important to recognize that our kids senses/fears/imaginations are very real to them, whether or not we understand. I read once that we should never tell a very young child a monster isn't there--they simply won't accept it. We've explained shadows and sounds away, but we have been known to also tell the 'monster' he 'isn't allowed to stay in our house b/c monsters aren't allowed here'. Sometimes adding a little humor to the situation helps. It has made our son laugh and relax when I put on my 'gruff' mommy voice and tell the monster he has to leave. Some may not agree with pretending that far but it has worked. (Note: I think it has made my son laugh at himself and his fears and has relaxed him.)

For what it's worth, our NT (as far as I know) 3-year old daughter has had INTENSE night terrors since she was 1 or so. These involved her appearing to wake up (not really awake though), screaming, pointing at the wall or other side of the room as if something was there, and shrieking, screaming, terrified and unable to calm down, occasionally resulting in her vomiting she was so upset. Believe me, quite unsettling for all. We have been unable to figure out exactly why, but cutting out bedtime milk and then having her sleep in our room seemed to help. If we can get to her before the terror gets into full swing and quickly put a gentle hand on her it sometimes helps. It always involves her pointing at 'something'. The other night she was able to talk through it (first time) and she was fully convinced a tiger was in our room. (The nature show she probably shouldn't have watched.)

We also have had our house prayed over, but I do believe we simply have a couple of kids who are very imaginative, creative and have some sensory overdrive. Smart, cute, sweet, loveable, but take a little extra TLC out of mom and dad at night!

See the doctor, love on your little one . . . but realize it may not be anything diagnosable or serious and may just be he is going to need some extra help from you at bedtime. Blessings.

My first reaction reading the initial post was that it is perfectly normal for toddlers to develop new and intense fears, and I also remember feeling like my son saw things I did not. Is such an extreme reaction "normal," well, no, not really but in my experience nearly everything that occurs with an AS child hits the extremes, so why would the fears phase be all that different?

So, in my reading, lilolme's post was the first to really hit the spot, and I like some of the suggestions in the posts that follow it. You deal with the fears the best you can and only start to worry if the fears reach a point there just is no working around or dealing with them.

Most children do eventually outgrow their toddler fears, or chose to tackle them and overcome them. My son (AS) had so many ... And my daughter (NT) had a fair share, too.