Not sure of the long-term consequences but when my 2.5 yo said he was scared of monsters, I told him that monsters were no big deal. They can't hurt us and that our little girl(friend) neighbor could eat monsters in one bite.

Basically I try to minimalize the idea of monsters but also confirm his feelings of being afraid. I also used this as a teaching moment about our family's faith in Jesus. I told my son that sometimes when Mom or Dad are scared we ask God to help us. And God can send monsters to time-out forever!

When I was a child my Mom was keeping all the scary monsters back where they belong by giving me a small raccoon, staffed animal from the fairy tail by Lillian Moore "The Thing in the Pool". The raccoon was small, but very courageous, and I was feeling the same. Now I understand, that it was really a security object. Whatever: it worked!