Why would my toddler all of the sudden be scared of something?

So I have a question for the toddler moms out there. Has your child spontaneously developed a fear? Let me give you a bit of back story: my girls and I take the same route three days out of the week to their daycare and never had an issue…until today. One of the twins was suddenly spooked. I was really confused because nothing out of the ordinary was around, and we were pretty far into our route by this point. I kinda brushed it off and thought she’d be over it when I picked her up. Nope, the same grass she was fine walking on that morning now made her scream and cry in fear. She was afraid to be on the grass! She hadn’t hit her head and acted completely normal otherwise! I’m honestly just lost

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Toddlers are weird like that sometimes

Maybe she got bit by something in the grass

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Something could’ve bit her, or it was tickling her.

Maybe she saw something there that scared her. A snake or maybe a bug that she’s not familiar of. Didn’t she tell you anything why she suddenly developed that fear? Or maybe she saw a movie about scary stuff on the grass?

Ask her why she’s afraid of the grass

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When my daughter hit 2 to 3 yrs old she acted like that randomly about all kinds of stuff

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Yes, my toddler was fine one minute the next he’s terrified of curtains. :woman_facepalming:t2:

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Maybe she just stepped on something in the grass like thissels (I think that’s what they are called) or those little pricker ball things. Or perhaps heard something like buzzing from the bees that are waking up. Kids are weird tbh she could just be wanting extra attention too. :rainbow::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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She may have had a bad dream. Sounds silly but I remember having a dream when I was about 5 about a stranger throwing me down by a swingset and refused to go near one after that for awhile.

She probably thought she saw something that’s she’s never seen. Maybe saw a snake slither.

My dad is petrified of snakes because when he was 3 a snake went near his shoes. A large worm will make my dad throw me down to sacrifice me to the snake and run the other direction (has happened a few times now)

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Toddlers are weird sometimes, but keep an eye on her. Something/someone at the daycare may have caused harm. I don’t trust day cares.

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If she’s able to, ask her to describe what she’s afraid of. Talk to her about her fears.

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Toddlers soak in everything they see and hear. She could’ve gotten spooked about something from tv , or A conversation anyone could’ve had around them. It could’ve also been a normal conversation or a normal commercial on tv and she probably had a nightmare about it. It should go away eventually just make sure to ask why is she afraid and what about the grass is spooky.

Also it could be the daycare workers. Back when I was little my kindergarten teacher would try to terrorize me and tell me fictional stories and I would have lots of nightmares.

I also 2nd not trusting daycares. People are very malicious and my sister pulled my niece out of daycare and I babysat her due to similar issues and her health deteriorating

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Honestly it could be a number of things. Maybe she saw something that she thought was something else? (I’ve been scared a few times by sticks I thought were snakes :sweat_smile:).
Maybe there’s someone/something at daycare that freaks her out? My niece was randomly scared of daycare after having been there a year and we found out a new kid started coming and would hit her so she didn’t want to go anymore
I’d try to see if she’s willing/able to communicate what happened that way you can at least try and fix it if it is daycare related

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My son who was always fine around dogs suddenly became super afraid of them. I stay home with him and with covid we haven’t really gone anywhere for so long so I know he didn’t have an incident with a dog. Unless it’s something he dreamt or saw in a book it was completely random :woman_shrugging: I just assume it’s a toddler thing but I agree with the above comments make sure nothing happened at daycare, etc!

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My 20 month old has all of a sudden become scared of a certain area in her bedroom. When shes had a bath and im getting her dressed and stuff she will stare at this corner of the room at the roof, and then just cry and then tell me its ok over and over which is her way of comforting herself. It really freaks me out. Iv moved everything iv taken her to that area and she just stares at the ceiling and goes quite then once were away from that area shes her loud self again. If shes playing in her room she will not let you leave her and at bed time i have to cradle her till shes asleep otherwise she will just stand at the baby gate screaming. This only started about 3wks ago and i dont have a clue why. Shes well advanced for her age and luckily enough shares her room with her older sister but the thought of her being so terrified of something i cant see or do anything about is heartbreaking.

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I read that it has to do with perception. You have to give her time to let you work herself through the fear.

My 7 almost 8 year old developed a fear that random fast tornadoes would happen after he experienced high wind gusts at his baseball game last week. :persevere: He has always been very anxious but the past year he has developed some irrational fears. (To be expected after this past year of fun…:sweat:

Oh and I have a strange fear of those cement stairs that apartments usually have with the gaps I hate going up or down those things I honestly have no idea y at all but I’m scared that imma hurt myself on them really bad

If it makes u feel any better when my brother was 10 he randomly got scared of raggedy Ann and Andy :woman_shrugging::woman_shrugging::woman_shrugging: and also his still randomly scared the ever living shit of tornados his about to b 21 soon werid part is he never actually seen one in real life we never had tornados where we lived :woman_shrugging::woman_shrugging::woman_shrugging:

Was she afraid of the grass at the daycare but not at home?if so something happened to her at day care

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Sometimes I think kids see/feel things we as adults don’t…

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I raised my twin nieces a lot of the time from when they were just 3 and now they’re in their 20s.This was VERY common over the years with multiple random objects daily.From stuffed animals and clothing tags to a vacuum or fly.After a while I had to think outside the box for solutions and get creative.It usually worked.
Bring a plastic pirate sword with you for “protection”.When that time comes you be the brave hero there to protect and start swinging.Throw some silly in the mix.Ask for directions on location.Give everyone a turn if they want.Be the hero.Defeat the imaginary grass threat and save the day.Then explain that the reason to be scared won’t be back after that gigantic display of heroism and that they are super brave.
If that doesn’t work I’m stumped.Avoid the grassy area whenever possible or find distractions like I spy.Or putting on special grass shoes and skip through together.Even loud phone karaoke duets with favorite music might distract long enough.It will eventually pass.Lots of luck and enjoy these years.

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My son use to said he sees ghost in my house pointing directions when I ask him where till now I don’t know if it’s true or not

Maybe she had a bad dream.

Maybe she recognized the route and that’s what had her afraid,something to pat attention to.

Maybe a bug in the grass? Does she have any tiny bite Mark’s anywhere?

My 2yr. Old son has been doing this

Someone telling her something that make her scared?

I think they have nightmares and get scared too , my son was all of a sudden scared of singing or talking stuffed animals and still is and I asked why he told me I had a dream about it

My daughter was scared of her own poop :poop: lol :joy: at one point

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Maybe she seen a scary movie, or a tv Commercial with a sarcy movie or maybe it was a dream she had

Maybe a bite, or if someone put down chemicals on the grass and it wasn’t known, some will burn a bit but not leave a rash.
Toddlers are also just weird sometimes. My daughter went through a phase of hating the way grass felt when she was almost 2

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Maybe she can foresee something you can’t. Children are very intuitive. Personally, I’d take a different route if my kid felt that strongly about something that terrified her.

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my 2 yr old son is suddenly terrified of black flies. One buzzed by his ear and he thought it flew in lol… Could be bugs or something silly like that…

One of my daughters went running out of her Aunts house when we were leaving for a visit she hit the porch which had accumulated a film of ice and took a spill. She was about 2 and a half. It was months before she would put her feet down anywhere in her out of doors at her aunt’s house. She terrified. I believe something in the grass may have bitten her or scared her.

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Yes it is normal… my daughter was afraid of the wizard on Dora the explorer… kids perception is different than ours… something about the grass spooked her… get on her level and try to see what might have spooked her… but it is normal

This happened to my friends daughter who is two the other day when I was watching her. The fuzz came off one of her toy eggs and had her Flippin out, screaming bloody murder saying bug bug bug. I had to figure out what was scaring her but once I did I was able to get her to calm down and realize it wasn’t a bug at all but her silly toy.

I swear %99 of babies are scared of grass lol my 1 year just does not like it.

My daughter is afraid of automatic flushing toilets in public restrooms. She’s completely fine with regular flushing toilets. Have no idea why she’s afraid of the automatic ones. She can’t tell me a reason either. Not sure but she covers her ears and closes her eyes when she uses public restrooms.

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Ghosts might be haunting her

My daughter is currently scared of alexa and the blinking light on phones when they have a message :upside_down_face::ok_woman::woman_shrugging:

I am 40 years old. When I was about four, my cousins, siblings and I were rolling in the grass. We played the whole day. That afternoon my body was covered in a terrible rash. From head to toe. From that day on, I have a phobia of grass. I do walk on grass barefoot. I dont even walk on grass with sandals on as I cannot bear the thought of grass touching me. I even had to see a therapist :see_no_evil:

my son suddenly developed a fear of the vacuum and the dark. My mom says it’s normal for them to cycle through fears.

My son has a fear of ants! He was fine he’s 4 just one day he started screaming because one was on his leg he lost his mind he screamed like someone was hurting him then that whole day he kept crying saying he felt something on him he didn’t even wanna be home because he thought ants were going to come inside & get him so he went to my moms for the day because he thinks there isn’t ants there. Now he won’t go outside & play.

I’ve always heard nightmares start around age 2, and if it’s a familiar place to her her dreams and nightmares may very likely have that place in them

Maybe she got bitten or scratched bee sting?

My youngest is scared of stickers for no reason at all

Most importantly to me. I wouldn’t give up trying to find out what it is she’s afraid of and why. Sometimes it takes a while for them to open up. Best case maybe she doesn’t even know and it just goes away but if that happens please take her to see someone.

She may have seen another kid freak out over grass (or something in it but she thought it was the grass) and it made her scared of it. My son is now afraid id spiders after seeing my brother freak over them.

My toddler stepped on 1 pokey patch of grass and now I have to prove that each new grassy place isn’t pokey by walking on it myself first. :sweat_smile: It really could be anything. Just talk to her to about it. My toddler also suddenly developed a fear of driving under bridges this week??? No idea where that came from.

If she’s a bit hysterical, I have a system for my 2.5 year old that works wonders. When he wants to talk but is crying or whiney(the whine is the worst) then I say “We need to use our calm down steps before we can talk about it.” Then I help them through the steps which are:

  1. Take 3 deep breaths
  2. Shake it off/out and we shake our hands or bodies
  3. Show me your listening ears and we touch our ears and say “I can hear you.”
    Then I just ask, “Awesome! Now what did you want to talk about?”
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Maybe she heard something in the grass like a bug or something or saw the grass move and it scared her? Or got bit by something? It sounds to me like something happened to her the last time you walked in the grass and she remembers it…

I’m 17 years older than my aunt’s son, and my mom used to babysit him and his older sister. Well he used to be afraid of any inanimate object with a face. Don’t let the Mrs. Butterworth bottle near him. He would FREAK and the only thing that would calm him was a smiley face I drew on my big toe with a pen. “It’s ok, you don’t need to be afriad of Mrs. Butterworth” and he would calm. Kids are weird🤷

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Not trying to scare anyone!!Double check your surroundings kids can sense stuff and maybe she senses something bad may happen.

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If she gets upset on the way to daycare and she knows she is going to daycare that’s the first place I would start looking Maybe something happen to her at daycare and she remembers it

Kids act like this for a reason. Take it as a sign. Seriously.

It could also be that she just had a bad dream about whatever is scaring her and cant seperate her dream from reality yet.

If she speaks this is where your question and listening becomes very important. Don’t try to guess or fill in the words. Kids think differently. You have to sit and find out. It could be something that happened at day care so ask. Look at her real good. Make sure she has no marks or bruises on her. Talk to the day care let them know she was acting funny and you want to know if something happened or if there is anyone new around her. Listen to you child.

Toddlers are a mystery. Definitely talk calmly to her and see if she gives you any insights. There is an point between I’d say two and 4 where they learn to be afraid of things. Example, the dark. At 2 my daughter had no concept of the dark being scary but by 3 all of a sudden it was terrifying. Just try your best to reassure her and do listen. It could be something happened that she’s relating to grass and even if it’s something totally minor, to her it’s big scary deal right now.

Yes, that’s normal, unfortunately. My daughter suddenly developed a fear of stairs when she was small. Even a 1/2-inch high curb would make her cry. It took a couple of months of patience to show her that it was fine.

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It’s not uncommon. But 7/10 something triggered it. You said she goes to daycare. It’s a possibility something happened at day care that is making her scared. Could be something as simple as she saw a bug in the grass, got bit by a bug, or something more severe happened. I would give her a little bit of time, and don’t force her to go in the grass. Instead try and make a game out of it or something along that line. When they are little, the simplest things can trigger them.

Maybe have a picnic in the grass, or just casually chill in the grass. (Saying like it’s okay baby)Usually where momma goes… toddler will follow. :heart:

Very common for kids to develop “irrational” fears at this age! Just remember it’s real to her, so definitely don’t just dismiss it - be empathetic and encouraging, assuring her that she’s safe

It could be as simple as at school they read a book with a worm in the grass or something, and she just thinks of it in that spot.