19-month old full of fears - normal?

[pregnabrain]

Over the past couple of months my little girl has gradually developed more and more fears. Loud noises, then aeroplanes, then flies and now spiders. She's really seriously arachnophobic. If there's a spider in the room, no matter how small, she's almost paralysed with fear and won't take her eyes of it for a second. She just keeps repeating "don't like it. Mummy take it away" over and over.
I'm getting really concerned now, as none of the other toddlers I know are scared in this way - I want my baby to be happy and confident, not scared of everything.
Does anyone else have experience of this? Does it go away or does this mean she'll be scared of spiders forever?

[Littlefish]

My dd (now 23 months) went through a stage this summer of being terrified of spiders, bees, flies - basically any small flying, crawling or moving creatures!

It only lasted a month or so, and now she's fine again. We kept showing her pictures in books of spiders etc, taught her "incy wincy spider" and "ladybird, ladybird fly away home" and she just seemed to get over it.

[Elibean]

My dd went through fears about trains, bells, owls, bees, small boys (slightly more logical - having been whacked by one!), and dogs: each one lasted a couple of weeks and it was very much in between 20 and 28 months or so.
I wouldn't worry - she may or may not dislike spiders later, but intense fears and dislikes are very much part of her age!

[pregnabrain]

Oh phew. Glad to hear it's not just my little one.

Littlefish - have been desperately running a pro-spider PR campaign since the terror surfaced but it's not doing any good. I think she thinks I'm crazy coz I go into a frenzy of spider compliments every time i see one now! She just says 'mummy take it away' in a really small voice.
Elibean - my dd is also really scared of boys her age, also because she's had her fair share of shoves and hair pulls recently - this seems like a much more reasonable fear!