Is Your Toddler Afraid of the Dark?

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Are you a mother of a toddler or older children? Have you experienced your toddler being afraid of the dark or the shadows in the dark?

Few months ago, my daughter, Katie (almost 3), has discovered what shadows are. She was touching the shadow of her big Minnie Mouse and wondering what it was. I told Katie it was a shadow. So for few weeks all she talked about was Minnie Mouse’s shadow.

As time went on, Katie noticed a lot more shadows such as things in our house and things outside (ex: tree branches). She would even ask my husband and I if we were afraid. We of course told her we weren’t.

Things didn’t become worse until this past week or two. We had night lights in my girls’ room for awhile, but that light didn’t seem like enough. So when I put Katie to bed, I would put a lamp on to get some extra light in her room. Lately though, that extra light doesn’t seem to help. Katie would get out of her bed turn on her light, open up the door, and get back into bed. She would fall asleep with the light on.

The last couple days has been tough for Katie (and me). She wants to cuddle with me to help her fall asleep. Katie is afraid of being alone in her room with the lights off. We have had couple late nights.

The other night, we were cuddling on the couch and Katie was looking all around her. I could see in her eyes that she was scared. I kept on telling Katie that she didn’t need to be scared and that everything was okay. When I turned the lights off, she kept on repeating, “Turn the lights on!” She put the blanket over her head and held onto me and eventually fell asleep. I slept most of the night on the couch with her until I had to go upstairs to take care of her sister, Sophia, during the middle of the night.

Last night wasn’t even better. Katie didn’t want to go to bed since she was scared of the shadows. I tried helping her relax on the couch, but that didn’t work really well. It was already closed to 2 am, so I just put Katie in her bed, kept the lights on, and left her door open. I went and laid in my own bed. After talking for a little bit, Katie finally fell asleep.

I was searching on Google for some ideas to help Katie not feel so scared. I found this article on Popsugar on bright ideas for easing nighttime fears. Some of these tips are definitely going to help me with my daughter and her fear of shadows.

What do you do to help your toddler to be less afraid of the dark/shadows? I would love to get some tips from you to help my own daughter feel less afraid.