Hi, I have a wonderful 20 month old daughter who never sleeps more than about 1 hour at night. She constantly wakes herself up in these screaming attacks. She kicks, hits, screams and cries for about 15-20 mins and then she goes back to sleep for alittle bit. She continues to do this anywhere from 5-10 times a night. I feel horrible for her and its really effecting other areas of her day due to not getting enough sleep. I dont know if they are night tremors(which i dont know enough about) or something medical. Any suqqestions would be great. Thanks for any advice and for reading.
Thanks everyone for the advice. My daughter already has a dairy allergy so i am keeping an eye on some of your suggestions about the gas and at the next peds visit we will ask about the terrors. I watched her sleep alittle the last few nights and i notice that part of the problem is she has a toddler bed and its against the wall. She moves so much in her sleep that she bangs her head and other body parts on the bed and the wall. So im going to try maybe taking her bed out for awhile and put her mattress on the floor and see what happens. Thanks for all your help i will let you know how it turns out.
M.,
It doesn't sound like night terrors because of how often she wakes up. Does she seem like she is awake or asleep when she is crying? Wiggling with stomach pain? Arching? (Reflux?) No matter, it sounds like a trip to the pediatrician is in order. That minimal amount of sleep isn't good for her or you!
Pray with your daughter before she goes to sleep. Pray over her room and ask her guardian angel and God to keep her safe from the evil one. Children are VERY sensitive spiritually and need to be guarded, especially at young ages. My son had HORRIBLE night and daymares, and my older daughter has had trouble with bad dreams as well. If there is any unconfessed sin in the house, it has to be confessed. Pay attentino to what you see on TV, Radio, and what you allow into your house. Only put godly happy thoughts before yourself and your children. A lot of these nightmares are demonically induced.
A child can see something evil on TV and it can affect them for a long time. I'm an Orthodox Christian,(Orthodox Christianity is 2000 years old and still practices the same as at the time of Christ) and we have lots of icons (pictures that point to God and Christ) - pictures(icons) of Christ, Mother Mary, Guardian Angels. It really helped my daughter to always pray before bed, and also to have godly icons around her bed. These are very comforting to her, and also help her to visually focus on God, Christ and the saints. Now her nightmares are minimal. Just once in a while.
You can find out more about icons on goarch.org.
Hi, I have had similar troubles with my 20 month old son, although not as severe. I am currently reading and implementing advice from a book called "The No-Cry Sleep Solution for toddlers and preschoolers" by Elizabeth Pantley. There are specific sections for night wakings and night terrors. Our sleep as well as my sons has improved greatly since I have followed some of the suggestions from this book, including a well thought out and easily identifiable bedtime routine and a creating a conducive sleep environment.Good luck to you and I hope that you all find a good night's sleep soon!!
You might want to talk to your doctor and find a sleep study for her. They can learn a lot during those as to why kids aren't sleeping well. My son has had night terrors in the past, and we did a sleep study for him and helped him sleep more through different tactics. You might want to talk to your doctor about it.
try having her checked for an ear infection before going threw the trouble of a sleep study. That is how my daughter is when she gets an ear infection. It is only painful to her when she lays down flat sleepin because of the pressure it causes. If I hold her upright while sleeping she is just fine. Let us all know how it goes.
A.
My oldest daughter had night terrors and they are the hardest thing to watch. A good way to determine if they are night terrors is whether or not you can comfort her. When we would try and calm our daughter down it would make it worse and she would kick and kit us. Our pediatrician said that she would probably grow out of it, just to stand by and watch her and make sure she doesn't hurt herself, but otherwise leave her alone. The fact that this is happening serveral times a night and she's obviously not getting enough sleep,I would take her in just to rule out anything medical. I wish you the best of luck and a little sleep. BTW, my daughter did outgrow it and now she sleeps like a log.
This may be a dumb question but is she verbal enough to tell you if she's hurting or scared? A friend of mine's daughter started having nightmares at around 20 months. She said there was a lion and a bear coming to get her. Her mom and she talked about it and mom helped her reframe it so the lion and bear were coming to give her a hug. She would talk about it during the day and role play with her stuffed animals. After about two weeks, the animals in her dreams were giving her hugs instead of trying to eat her.
It sounds like night terrors. My daughter gets them as well, though not nearly as much. She normally only gets them when she is overtired. If she has napped well during the day and our day hasn't been too crazy she almost never gets them. I know its probably more complicated than that, but its just one thing to think about.
My daughter has been getting them since she was 3 months, she is now 18 months and still getting them, first they started at once every other month but as she got older the progressed to 2 or 3 times every other month, like you daughter, she is unresponsive and usually sleeping, I have to wet her feet to wake her up, she screams, shrieks and kick. It is the hardest thing watching, sometimes I want to cry, but all I can do is hold her.I spoke to her ped. and he told me she was too young to be having night terrors, but I have read up where kids as young as 2 months have been having them, he just suggest I hold and calm her as there is nothing more you can do. It is so sad to watch them, you feel so helpless and makes me want to cry. I noticed they frequent if the room is hot and she is uncomfortable or if she has had a pretty exciting day. I try to limit these activities so that they don't affect her in the night.. kids do dream, every now and then my 8 weeks old will make a little crying noise in her sleep..
Hi M., is it possible that your daughter has gas pains? My daughter was like that as well..terrible kicking and screaming until she was 3 due to gas and not knowing how to pass it while she was asleep. It could be a milk allergy? If possible, take her to the Dr and have her tested for a milk allergy or surf the net on night terrors/tremors!
Wish you luck,
J.
My 15-month daughter will get night terrors, but thankfully they are rare (it's probably happened five or six times since she was born). Like the other moms said, there is nothing you can do if it is a night terror -- my girl is completely unresponsive to me when it happens. Does she show any change if she is particularly active during the day (either positive or negative)? Or with her diet? These are two areas I would consider while you wait for your doctor's appointment (be it with your pediatrician or a sleep clinic -- we live on a remote island in Alaska and a sleep clinic would be like traveling to the moon for us! But if it is available to you, I would definitely check it out.)
Good luck!!
I read your letter and my heart went out for your little baby. Not being able to sleep must be one of the most difficult problems to diagnose. I myself do not have children, so my advice might not do any good. What I would try, if you have not already would be to put your baby on an all organic diet, fresh everything. Blend all your food yourself from organic veggies. filtered water. Not sure If a 20 month old baby is off milk yet, but I wish all the best...
Sounds like what I have read about night terrors. If your pediatrician isn't familiar with this condition, ask for a referral to a pediatric sleep specialist for a sleep study (I think there is a really good sleep group through western washington medical group in marina village, everett waterfront). Don't know if they evaluate kids, but they would know who would. Good luck.
