Need mom advice!
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My 2 yr 4 month boy also just went through this. It was so hard to watch him be so scared all of a sudden. I’ve read that this is the time where this tends to happen because developmentally they now have the imagination to imagine things that could be in the dark. Mine seemed to be all of a sudden very afraid of the little blinky lights on the smoke detector and my printer, and as soon as the room lights went off would bury his head facedown in the bed and stay like that until he fell asleep. If I tried to turn him over, he would cry and say he didn’t like the dark or the smoke detector light. We’ve done a few things that have seemed to help. For a while I would leave our nightlight really low on the red light setting while he was falling asleep (I read that red light is less disturbing to your sleep). Before going to sleep we would say goodnight to all the things in the room like in the book Goodnight Moon, including the smoke detector and printer lights. My goal with this was for
…Him to realize that all the stuff in the room is the same once the lights go off as it is when they’re on. Also, when I can tell he’s getting scared, I say stuff like “the dark is good. It helps our bodies relax and fall asleep. We’re safe in the dark.” And it has really made a difference. He’ll even repeat these things to himself now when he’s feeling scared. Then we have a smoke detector song we made up about how the smoke detector is good and protects us lol. He frequently requests this song while falling asleep. During the day, if he won’t go in a room that doesn’t have a light on, I’ll still support him and go with him while telling him that we’re safe in the dark. I do this rather than turn the light on since I figure it helps him to face his fears a bit. At night if the light is off, I’ve taught him to use one of his kitchen toys to turn the light on himself cuz honestly, who wants to be stumbling around in the dark lol.
I also have realized that I need to be really cognizant of what he is seeing on tv or in books etc. My husband and I had started trying to watch kid movies with him sometimes- ones like Ice Age or other PG kinds of movies that are funny for adults as well. But I realized that some of the action/danger depicted on these were actually too much for him. He was so distraught by the squirrel in the beginning of the movie that is always chasing the acorn and getting beat up in the process! He also has some books like the Three Bears that he says he doesn’t like because they are scary. So we’re trying to limit him to like the most mellow of shows for now.
My two year old has been saying she’s scared of the dark as well. It’s decreasing as is her crying about it at night and asking to be held so I’ll tell you what I did and maybe it’s helpful for you too. I kept it simple and would first validate her and then reassure her. “You’re scared of the dark. You’re safe here. Mom and dad are home. We know where you are and you know where we are. You’re safe.”