Raise your hand if your child has experienced fears at bedtime that a monster might be lurking somewhere in their room, perhaps under the bed or hidden in a nearby wardrobe.

It turns out there’s a specific name for that fear: teraphobia (fear of monsters). And it’s one of many common phobias that impact kids. Others include fear of dogs, fear of vomiting and fear of the dark, to name a few.

As parents, we do our best to help children navigate these types of challenges, but it can also sometimes be perplexing trying to figure out how to help most effectively.

“Parents can get overwhelmed when they try everything in their arsenal of commonly used support strategies, only to produce very little result in alleviating these fears,” licensed therapist Sarah Kipnes told HuffPost.

If this sounds familiar, read on for a look at some of the most common phobias your child may experience, what may be behind the phobia and how to help.

Your kid's phobias might be triggered by genetics or environmental exposures.

Common phobias in kids

Before diving into specific phobias, it’s important to understand that the causes of fears and anxieties in children are often outside our control and can range from genetic to environmental, explained Megan Jeffreys, a paediatric psychologist at Phoenix Children’s.

“Several factors contribute to the development of specific phobias overall,” Jefferys said. “First, some children have a biological vulnerability to the development of anxiety disorders. Having a parent with an anxiety disorder makes a child more likely to develop a phobia.”

In addition, learning history, (in other words, a child’s lived experience), can play a role in whether a child develops a phobia and the shape that it takes, Jeffreys added.

Here are some of the phobias that genetics or environmental exposures can trigger.

Emetophobia: Fear of vomiting

One of the most common phobias that paediatric and adult neuropsychologist Kimberly Williams sees in her patients is emetophobia – the intense fear of vomiting.

This fear is typically caused by a child having an especially bad vomiting incident themselves, or they may have witnessed someone else vomiting and have been horrified by what they saw. Emetophobia may also develop spontaneously.

“This phobia can take over a child’s life and disrupt daily life, everything from school attendance, to social outings or even simple family dinners,” Williams said.

“From that initial experience, the brain pairs nausea with danger and the fear........

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