Any Moms with Two Year Olds Afraid of Bugs??

You have described my niece! The slightest fuzz in the water would send her into hysteria! Just walking out the door would freak her out, lord forbid she heard a sound she didn't recognize! My poor sister, she tried the be tough, strong, don't let her win, and my sister lost every time.

What worked was me, exposure to bugs is what I did. As long as it isn't a bee or wasp I do find with bugs. Her first exposure was a book about lady bugs...I got lucky and found one right after. She sat in my sisters lap while I played with this 'amazing, super, wonderful, beautiful bug'. Ever so slowly she creeped forward, didn't touch, but watched my reaction. Slowly over time we worked our way up to spiders (easier to find), fly's, even a cockroach (just nasty and took everything I had not to freak out). My sister read books about bugs, stories that had bugs, and it worked. She is 16 now, and has no fear of any bug.

Welcome to my world. When my youngest was a year old, her grandpa (her favorite person on earth) swatted a fly in front of her. It terrified her, and she was scared of bugs after that. Honestly, she was 7 years old before she finally overcame it.

What you can do for the nighttime fears is to tell her, "Don't worry. Daddy and I will protect you. We won't let any bugs get into the house while you're sleeping." At that age, it works.

Empower her. I would go to the library and get every book and Discovery Kids video there is about bugs and read the books and watch the videos with her. Move up to catching bugs in the garden for her to look at and hold. The more we know about something the less we have to fear. She probably thought daddy was hurt when he reacted to the bug landing on him. It won't be a quick fix to the problem, but it will help her not to have a lifelong irrational fear of something harmless. I wouldn't do bug spray or any of that because you are validating her fear.

Whenever one of mine is afraid, I reassure like crazy, without a lot of emotional fanfare, and then switch subjects. Here are some statements I have said over the years, "Don't worry mommy and daddy will keep you safe. I won't let anything hurt you. You are safe. Or I take a spiritual angle...." God is with us. He has angel armies that protect us.". I am not sure what your spirituality is but I have found that my daughters take a lot of comfort in the notion of God protecting them. I hear my youngest reassure herself with those same statements. Also, maybe talk a lot about how beebugs are cool. Maybe get a library book on some or visit a museum. Blessings!

A two year old doesn't really understand what an insect is, what they do or don't do, etc...she's responding to the way someone ELSE is reacting, absolutely. My two year old would eat bugs if I'd let her.

Oh my goodness, my son went through this. He used to wake up at night crying about the bugs. It developed into a fear to sleep with the lights off. He is also afraid of fuzzies in the water, and would claim they were spiders.

The first thing we did was inform him that bugs live outside. They don't live inside. Look around. There aren't any bugs. Do you see any bugs? I wouldn't make a bug spray, because then it's like saying that there COULD be bugs in her bath, and you're just feeding the fear.

We kept a cup by the side of the tub and when he would see a fuzzy, we would scoop it out and put it in the toilet. We did not make a big deal about it. We offered to show it to him to confirm it wasn't a spider, just a fuzzy, although as often as not, he didn't want to see it.

When he would wake up afraid of bugs, we would turn the lights on and let him look around. For a little while, he thought he saw bugs as soon as the light went off, so he slept with the lights on for a couple of weeks before he got over it.

I believe this was a true fear for my son, not attention-seeking, and two years later, I didn't even really remember it until I read your post.

Good luck!