My two year old is afraid of his closet

Question

My son was great at going to sleep then all of a sudden hes acting scared to be in his room alone. Hes 2 1/2 and not quite speaking great yet so we dont know what the problem is. We ask him and he goes to his closet and points to his clothes hanging up and pulls them down. We thought he was just being a stubborn kid who didn't want to go to sleep but hes acting terrified. He wont go to sleep unless i stay in his room with him and read to him until he falls asleep. Then if he wakes up at night I either have to do the same thing or let him fall asleep in our bed with us. I'm getting very frustrated. I'm 8months pregnant and cant be dealing with this with a newborn too. If anyone has any experience with this or suggestions please help!!

Answer 1

If he is genuinely scared then there's a few ideas:

1) Before you put him to bed 'search' the closet with him.

2) HAve a nightlight near him and check for any scary shadows that any light (moon, streetlights, night light) may cast as shadows can look freaky!

3) If too bad remove the closet and put in a different room if possible...I know this is drastic but you need your rest too at the moment!

4) Maybe a new closet-you can get fabric ones that look less intimidating and may seem enough not like a closet to comfort him.

5) Make sure he's properly tired-go for walks and exercise a lot to ensure that his overactive mind is tired enough to sleep....but not too much telly, overload of stories, playing too close to close to sleep time as this can just excite the mind further.

Answer 2

make him sleep with u ....

Answer 3

Maybe you should stop hanging his clothes up in there and buy a dresser. How much of a 2 yr old's clothing has to be hung up anyway? Instead of clothes, fill the closet with your son's toys and games. That way when he looks in there he knows exactly what everything is. You might also want to invest in a night-light for the closet, and leave the door wide open when he's going to sleep.

Answer 4

It's very common for a child to be scared of something in his closet.   The best thing to do would be to leave the closet door open buy him a night light, sometimes a child feels more comfortable and less at risk when there is some light in the room.   Simply getting your child relaxed and comfortable by reading a bedtime story,not a scary one though.   Will help your child feel more comfortable around bedtime.

Answer 5

I would put the closet doors back on since you say that you can't be dealing with this.  At least he can control what is coming out of the closet.

Answer 6

Take everything out of his closet and clean it with something like fantastic, talking all the time about giving it all a good clean out. Then let him choose what goes back in the closet, once everything has been washed or vacuumed.

Consider acquiring a large bear as a doorkeeper. Give it a sash or cap and place it by the closet door as a reminder that your son is safe.

And check what he is watching on TV.

Answer 7

My son is almost 2.5 as well. Right around easter this year he started getting scared and saying there was a 'scary guy' in our apartment. It made me a little curious but I didn't think much of it. He says the 'scary guy' is behind his bed and at times will freak out. They say kids can see and sense things that we cannot, whether you beleive that or not I don't know. But what has helped my son is I just talk to him about it. If he says something about the 'scary guy' I say, next time you see the 'scary guy' tell him mommy says hello! I make it really positive and I don't feed into the fact tha the is scared. But I also do not tell him there is nothing there because he is obviously afraid of something, whatever it is. So just talk about it with him, help him with his words and ask him questions if he can't speak too well. This will make him feel like you are listening and aren't just brushing it off. Ask him if he sees a monster or something, then give that thing a name, from there just start talking about it. Say goodnight to <name> before he goes to bed and walk over to his closet, you say goodinght too and just close the closet door. If you dont have a door, get a tension rod and a curtain panel and hang it there for him. Maybe get some glow in the dark fabric paint and let him decorate it himself, just to make it fun.

Making it seem calm and normal will help him feel at ease. It may take a little while for him to get used to the dark but it will happen. Try getting a night light or something. I got my son a fish tank and 2 goldfish. The tank has a light in it and it sits on his dresser. I tell him he has to watch the fishys to make sure they eat all their dinner. That has really really helped, I think it takes his mind off being scared.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

Answer 8

Don't you know the boogeyman lives in there.    Just try leaving the closet light on for him

Answer 9

He's at the age where he is beginning to have dreams, and he may not be able to distinguish reality from his dreams/nightmares. Maybe in a dream there was something that scared him (a monster?)  that he thought lives in his closet, so now he is scared of it.

My parents did this with me when I was his age and it helped me. I was mortified of monsters (I didn't know they weren't real), so they got a spray bottle of Febreze and took of the label and wrote "No More Monsters" on it, and it was my "anti-monster spray bottle". Before I would go to bed, I would spray it anywhere I thought a monster could be, and it would "keep them away". It was just Febreze so it made my room smell a bit different, but I thought that it was good and I slept much better.

Answer 10

Is his closet door open or closed at night?

Answer 11

My son is 4 and I went through the same thing about a year ago. I ended up taking the doors off his closet and taking everything out of it. I then put a small stand and a chair in there with a lamp, it was like his own little cubby. I hung up a poster and put a few pictures of family members in there and even wrote up a sign that said go away monsters. It worked for us, after a couple months he even tore the sign down. Maybe all you have to do is take the clothes down and maybe decorate the closet for him? When he wakes up at night his clothes hanging in there probably look scary to him with the shadows ect. Good luck!  

Answer 12

try finding a book about monsters in the closet.  there's lots of them about, and they mostly have reassuring endings.  you can read it at bedtime, and then talk to your child about how his closet doesn't have any monsters in it.

you could also try watching monsters inc. with him... the child in that is also pre-verbal and she's scared of her closet monster until she makes friends with him...

other than that, try putting the door back on the closet so he can close out the things that are bothering him - making this a part of the bedtime ritual can make him feel more in control of his fears.  if you don't want to put the door over, try putting a curtain over the front which can be pushed open in the daytime.

you could also try playing games like hide-and-seek in there during the day so that he becomes accustomed to finding his room comfortable and entertaining.

if you stay in his room at night to calm him, don't speak, read or interact with him.  if you carry on giving him attention in the night, he will persist with being difficult at bedtime and during the night even when his fears have passed.  if he's just crying, let him cry himself to sleep... reassure him when you put him to bed that you'll be there in the morning, but don't go back in unless he's truly hysterical.

if he gets to utter terror, go in and ask him to be quiet, in a very calm voice, which will let him know you are there.  then don't talk again.  don't have him going into your bed, as this is a very VERY difficult habit to break later on, and will be disruptive for everyone when you have a new baby in your room as well.  the baby will disturb your son's sleep anyway, but he will find it much harder to calm himself if you're all in the one room at night.

Answer 13

Does he have a light in his closet that you could leave on in addition to the leaving the closet door open? Maybe he's scared of something hiding in there?

If no light, try one of those tap light kinda things that you could mount inside his closet.