2.8 yo suddenly scared of imaginary spiders

[Tangle]

My gut feel is that this is probably a normal phase as her imagination really kicks in and that needs supporting but not worrying about unduly, but it'd be good to have confirmation of that and any sugestions on how to handle it.

DD's never been great at bed/night time, although she's been much better the last few months. She will now fall asleep by herself (huge step forward, believe me!), although the last week or so we have had a little voice coming down saying "I'm lonely. I need you mummy/daddy", but she's usually been OK with a quick reply and then us making some noise.

However, this evening she's been convinced that a spider is going to come and get her. I thought we had it sorted when I got her favourite soft toy to promise he'd stay awake all night and chase any spiders away, but she's just had me upstairs again as she was sobbing her heart out because she thought there was a spider right by her bed . I turned the light on, had a good look and talked to another of her soft toys who's now primed to keep the floor clear - now there's spider defence on the bed and on the floor she seems to have gone quiet so hopefully that's reasured her.

So (after all that) what do you reckon? Is this normal? If so, is that a good way to handle it? Any other suggestions?

DH not here tonight and its all taken me a bit by suprise - plus he's been doing more bed times as I'm 7+ months pregnant and by the evening I'm getting low on tolerance . I did start out thinking she was just trying to get me to stay upstairs again so probably took longer than I should have to start trying to reasure her .

Get some spider spray

Empty spray gun, print a SPIDER SPRAY label, squirt around room before sleep time

We had the same problem with DD but with bees (I think something in the house was buzzing very quietly). DS is onto spiders but in the day (it doesn't help that he thinks that they roar and eat him up).

It will probably pass - remember (as well as the spider spray) that spiders are actually your friends... They are lovely cute creatures and you can say 'hello' to them (and so on, in light-hearted way). You can even try telling them to go away at night time and come back tomorrow for tea...

My ds did this at about that age but with birds.he used to call us in and say Birdy come!and point at the ceiling we never got to teh bottom of it I used to put it in an imaginary cage (cat basket)which helped x

Thanks for the replies, have tried all sorts but its weird - it only seems to apply at bed time (should be grateful its not a 2am if she wakes up...) and is now starting to feel more like attention seeking than genuine fear. Or if it is fear then its not fear of spiders.

The first couple of nights she did seem utterly distraught - tear drops, red eyes, blotchy face, etc - because she thought there was a spider. Now its more that she wants DH or I to come upstairs and go spider hunting, or take her to the bathroom, or just stay, but she's not beside herself anymore. She might cry briefly, but much more for effect than for real. (Either that or the sight of me having a serious conversation with Eyeor and then peering under all the furniture with him at 7.5 months pregnant is the highlight of her day and something she wants to see more than once...)

We're just feeling a bit bemused. We're gradually falling back to bed time taking all evening again (we were through with stories about 8 tonight but she didn't settle till about 9 - and we've had worse) and really don't want to go back there with DD right now.

I'd definitely want to see a pregnant woman talking seriously to Eeyore about spiders more than once a day. Will you come round to my house?