2 1/2 Year Old Scared of the BIG GREEN Scary Monster in His Bed

I can't believe you have not tried Monster Spray! Use a plant mister or the like and help him "spray" his room before he goes to bed. That night help. You can even leave the spray with him just in case he needs it. It might be fun to yell "all monsters OUT of this room!" as you are spraying.
On a side note, my son actually HAS a monster that lives under his bed. Monster started out as a pile of shoes, boots and gloves...now he is completely contained in an under-the-bed storage box. He's a part of the family. But, apparently, he's not a scary, bad monster.

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First of all, this is a completely normal thing for kids this age. We used monster spray, which was actually lavender linen spray from Bath & Body Works. I asked my son where to spray it, and he usually wanted some on his pillow, around his door, windows, etc. Then we said our bedtime prayer. Most of the time acknowledging the monsters and doing this ritual was enough to calm him so he could go to sleep.

You may want to create your own special ritual at bedtime to get rid of the monsters each night. You could ask your child what he wants to do to get rid of the monsters. You can offer suggestions like reading one of the books about monsters and looking for monsters in various parts of the room and spraying them. If your child gets up in the middle of the night, try more monster spray.

There are people online who sell monster spray that is completely safe for kids and has calming effects if you want to go that route. Good luck!

Luckily I have not had to deal with this with my son yet. But when we were little my brother had a fear of under bed monsters. My dad made him a wooden sword and it was polished and sanded nice. He told my brother if he kept that under his bed it would keep the monsters away because they would be afraid of it. It worked. He then gave it to me when he outgrew it. He was older than me. You can't tell a kid there is no such things as monsters. They won't believe you. Children have magical thinking, that's why they believe in Santa, Easter Bunny, etc. So do something that looks like it could be magic and it will work. I also heard of ppl putting water and glitter in a spray bottle and telling the kids it is monster repellant. Whatever makes your litte guy feel safe.

We've made "nightmare spray" (mix a few drops of lavendar oil in water and put it in a small spray bottle - you can make a nightmare spray label if you like). The lavendar oil is calming and will help your boy to relax and he can spray it himself if he gets worried in the night.
I also tell my son that nightmare are frightened of laughter, so if a nightmare gets by the spray he can say silly nightmare and the nightmare will turn into a clown or a funny something and it can't scare him amymore (that might be a bit complex for someone who's 2)

Here is a true story of my family: my mother, as an adult, was still scared of the boogeyman. So one night, when she got creeped out randomly, my father says "I'm going to take care of that boogeyman once and for all" and goes into the bedroom, closes the door and then BANG! CRASH! THUD! and down the hall to the bathroom, BANG! CRASH! THUD! and FLUSH! He came out into the hall and told my mother he'd wrestled the boogeyman into the bathroom and flushed him down the toilet. She claims never to have been scared again.

Plus, it might be really entertaining to stage. Worth a try...

Been there and done that. My oldest son when he was about the same age went through that. What I did was get an empty squirt bottle and put construction paper around it. At night before he goes to bed get it and squirt it around his room. Tell him something like it's special spray that ...whatever you think that might work for him. Then put it somewhere where he can't find it. This worked for my son. I didn't even fill it up with anything. It was covered up and he didn't know it was empty. Tell him only mommies and daddies can spray it. That was he will never know it is empty. Once or twice I had to spray again the same night. Some nights he didn't even ask for it. Within a week or so there were no monsters in his room. I hope this helps.

When my daughter is crabby, we sing a little song (we learned it on Super Why on PBS) that goes "Dance, dance your grumps away" (repeat over and over). We adapted it for "scares"... you just sing it and do a funny dance and it takes their mind off things. We also just say we're going to "shoo" them away, (like we shoo flys away in the summer) and told her she can shoo them away herself.

You could try it along with the "monster spray."

Also, could you put a gate in his doorway so he can't come to your room? That sounds kind of mean... but I'm thinking if you can just break the habit of him coming to your room that might help move him out of this phase.

Good luck!

Oh...many good wishes for you on this one! We are struggling with the same thing with our 3 1/2 year old, except that he doesn't know what he's afraid of! Very little has been effective, but I did just get him a bottle of "bad dream spray" (Glade/Frebreeze spray) and let him spray it any where in his room a bad dream might live. He sprayed it ALL OVER his room last night!! We let him sleep with the spray bottle and he said he sprayed a few bad dreams away, but he SLEPT IN HIS OWN BED ALL NIGHT! I don't know how long this will be effective, but right now it's working and we're all sleeping better. One suggestion I wish I had done...dilute the spray with water. I can smell the "bad dream" spray all over the house--good thing I got the Clean Cotton fragrance!

Hi,

My daughter became afraid right around that age too. She is 3 now. She would wake up crying every night and be scared to go to bed. We finally started leaving her bedroom light on, not just the night light, but her actual light and that made a huge difference.

So, you could try that too!

You might want to be careful that he doesn't listen to or watch anything that would have scary things. Also it would be good for him to not look at books that would maybe be causing his fear. Hope he soon gets over being afraid at night.

Hello, We are going through the same thing with our 2 1/2 y.o. DD. You could have him choose a stuffed animal or toy that he could sleep with who he feels can protect him. You could also filled a prize box with small toys that he can pick if he sleeps in his bed all night. These things have helped with her. Good luck!

Hi H., All the advice you have so far is great, and funnily (not sure if thats a real word!) enough there is a childrens book that is very age appropriate called Go Away Big Green Monster--by Ed Emberley. I had a class of 3 year olds and they LOVED it. go on amazon.com, and look through it. hope this helps. B.

I recommend anti-monster spray too but not air freshner stuff causes allergies and asthma to act up and its full of bad stuff you don't want your little one inhaling...we use a spray bottle of water and a sound machine with diff. Color nightlights she picks her sound and her color light plus she has a nightlight in her window as well. Hope this helps if you have any additional questions feel free to PM me :)

Depending on your beliefs, you can always pray with your child. You can pray with him and coach him to pray and ask God to help him not be afraid.

My experience is that it is not worth it to try to tell them that there are no monsters - just like when you are told not to worry - you are still going to. We have gone instead with doing things to protect our son from the monsters at night - like we spray the room with "Monster spray" (pretend mist from a water bottle) to keep the monsters tucked away at night.

This could this be a result from something scary he saw on tv, a book, something he heard someone say. At 2 I don't know that he is able to pinpoint what the problem may be. Has anything big changed in his life? If it's none of these things 2 year olds have an active imagination. I would recommend putting his mattress on the floor see if that helps.

I had a similar problem with my daughter. She is now 5 and out of our bed. We got her anti-monster spray. It was air freshener spray. We also got her a flashlight to keep next to her bed. I would also turn her pillow over to the good dream side. We also talked about the Monsters on Seseame Street and if they are scary and why is the other monster scary. The stage eventually ended and she no longer needs the spray and the flashlihgt. She still has her night light.

Your post sounded like I could have written it!

We got a really cute childrens' book from the library called "The Monster that Ate the Darkness". Love the book, but ever since then, our son has been sacred of the dark and monsters.

We told him (3.5 years) that we build our house and had it monster proofed. We also have a cat and a dog (both very large) that we have told him won't allow monsters into his room.

It doesn't help. He still climbs in bed each night, but I think it's more because he LOVES body heat vs. being scared of monsters.