Bad Dreams???

my grandson would wake up in the night whenever he realized his pacifier had fallen out and putting it back in would put him right to sleep. He is no longer on the pacifier and hasn't been for almost a year but he also has night terrors and has had them for years and he is only 3. Maybe after trying all the suggestions if nothing helps then looking up night terrors on the web might give you some answers. My son had them until he was like 7. It was very tiring. Hope you get some relief.

This may sound crazy but have his ears checked. We went through this with ours at 11 mos and he had an ear infection . . . No other symptoms other than waking up at night screaming. Hope this helps.

Our daughter did the same thing while she was teething. Instead of just giving her the pacifier I would put some oral gel on the nipple and then give it to her. If it was her teeth that fixed the problem for the rest of the night. After a while I switched to just rubing her back instead of the pacifier. You might also try moving him back to the center of the bed. Our daughter would get fussy once she could not roll over any more and was trapped in a corner of the crib.

Night Terrors are completely different from normal crying. The baby or toddler wakes you with a blood curdling scream that makes you panic and bolt straight out of bed. The first time my daughter did it I thought she had fallen out of the crib or caught her leg. Normal crying and fussyness did not phase my husband at all. He would sleep through her crying three and four times a night. With night terrors he shot from the bed like the house was on fire and ran to the nursery.

I'm sure he will grow out of this as he gets older. Hang Tight!

J.

I am not sure this could be the reason at this young of an age....but, my 5 year old has had issues with night terrors since he was about 3. He will wake up....not really awake though screaming. It usually happens when he is really overly tired. But, I am not sure they can have issues with that as young as your son is. Just a thought. C.

My daughter has night terror from about the age of six months. She would start screaming usually about the same time everynight. We would go in there and she would still be asleep sometimes with her eyes open. Once we would get her to actually wake up she would go back to sleep just find.

I read Hollie's response and I had a very similar situation. It was very tiring and became an "inconvienence" for us. My daughter would also wake up every night (a couple of times - sometimes) but if I would go in, pick her up, and just have her lay her head on my shoulder, she would settle down and go right back to sleep. For about 5 months, she seemed to wake up (like clock work) - one hour after we put her to bed. Most of the time we let her cry it out and finally at 15 months old, she started sleeping through the night. Sounds like he has already established his own pattern and it may just take a little time to break him of it. Just hang in there. It will get better.

K.,

It might just be teething or the 6 month old being uncomfortable. It might also be that he can't find binky and he thinks that someone has taken it from him. At the moment that is his comforter when mommy and daddy can't be there. Let me know if I can be of anymore help. E-mail me anytime at ____@____.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

It definitely could be teething or ear infection. My son cried out like that but usually he went back to sleep on his own. It also could be that he is getting to used to the paci and maybe he can't sleep without it. You might should call your pediatrician. Can you tell what kind of a cry it is? Pain, hungry, mad, etc... Good luck!

L. M

I have a 10 month old son and have gone through the same thing. I understand why babies are referred to as little puzzles because sometimes it feels like I am just guessing at what the problem is. When my son, Braden first started crying in the middle of the night after sleeping through the night since 3 months, he would go right back to sleep when I put the pacifier back in his mouth. It frustrated me because I didn't know why this was happening all of a sudden. Other moms suggested it was probably teething but I didn't feel any bumps, see any redness or notice any more drooling or chewing than normal during the day. Well, sure enough, within a week his bottom 2 teeth started to emerge. This was around 4 months old. After they erupted he went back to sleeping through the night. Around 6 months it happened again. A couple nights in a row of it. Again, a week later his top 4 started to emerge. One after the other. Occasionally, he will still wake up crying (but still pretty much asleep) and I don't know if he is having a bad dream or if he is just addicted to his pacifier. He doesn't care for it during the day anymore but falls asllep with it. I can put it back in his mouth and he is instantly asleep again. No new teeth have poked through so I don't think it is teething related anymore like it was before. Wish I had a concrete answer for you but I hope this helps anyway!

K.

Hi K.,
I think your son and my son may have something in common. My son is older than your little guy (almost two) but several months ago he too began waking up screaming hysterically. His little body would tense up when we touched him and he could not be consoled. While his eyes were open, he didn't seem to recognize me or my husband and appeared very confused and disoriented. Obviously, this was very distressing for us to watch (it brought me to tears several times.) I called the doctor (and did a little Internet research) and found that he was probably suffering from night terrors, which are actually very common in babies. (Typically, the onset is around six months.) My doctor gave me two possible solutions: (1) Don't enter the room and let them cry it out and settle back in to sleep on their own, or (2) try to determine the approximate time when the baby wakes up each night, then fully awake the child about thirty minutes before the episode usually starts and keep him awake for fifteen minutes before putting back to bed. Doing so disrupts the sleep cycle such that they usually bypass the night terror episode. (I know, neither solution sounds like fun but they do both work. I've tried both.) If it's any comfort to you, he will outgrow this. My son hasn't had an episode in months. Take heart in knowing that he does not remember waking up or being frightened (he's probably not even really conscious when it happens) and you certainly can't hurt him by letting him cry it out. Hope this helps! Take care, R. Kreisman

I doubt that it's teething or anything else like what he's eating. They all wake up some during the night, it's just that he's now alert enough to get upset when he's asleep and not sucking (if his paci fell out) or not being held. I recommend Dr. Ferber's book. I have the older edition, and he talks about "arousals" or "partial awakenings" during the night, between sleep stages (e.g. from deep sleep to light sleep), and it's very interesting and helpful. He might say these usually happen starting when they're closer to a year, but I don't remember (your son does seem to be pretty mature as far as sleep goes). I know that when older babies/toddlers have these partial awakenings, he says to wait it out, and the child usually just settles down eventually (it can be up to an hour) and gets back to sleep.
Dr. Weisbluth says in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", that at your son's age, babies all wake up some during the night a couple times, and they just need to learn to get back to sleep. Some would say not to give him a paci, but my husband and I did it, and when she was 8 or 9 months old, we'd just put 5 or 6 pacifiers in her crib so she could grag another one for herself. It's a tough call.
I know it's frustrating and tiring, but you'll figure out what works for him and you. Good luck!

If he's drooling, feverish, runny nose, runny diaper, chewing on fingers, It might be teeth. But if not it sounds like he has formed a pattern that is wearing you out.

I would let him cry it out because he is crying because he knows you will come in there. You said you tried, but he gets more upset. That is fine, he will be ok and eventually go to sleep. It might take a few nerve racking nights, but will pay of BIG TIME and get him out of that pattern and get you some sleep. Don't go in there or it blows the whole deal. I have done this twice and my friends were HUGELY grateful when the stuck it out and both baby and parents were sleeping and happy again. Crying and throwing fits DOES NOT HUTRT THEM. My son has a heart defect and I let him cry it out and it worked out great!

If you can't do it I would take the bink away so that you don't have to keep giving it to him. This too will take a few nerve racking nights, but he will get used to not having it. If you cut the end off that seems to work well.

Good Luck

I have had the same issues with my 5 month old daughter. She doesn't have any teeth popped through yet, but on the days that she is teething the most (drooling a lot, fussy) she sometimes wakes up like that. She also sleeps through the night most nights. I find that nursing her back to sleep works like a charm. I haven't read anywhere about babies have nightmares at this age, but I do think that they become frightened if not reassured in the night and put back to sleep. I am more of an attachment parenting type, she slept in our bed for the first 4 months of her life.

since he is 6 months, he may not have any bad dreams yet, but maybe you should start weaning him off the pacifier. he maybe crying because it fell out and that's one of the things that can keep him calm. i took my baby off the pacifier at 4 months and never looked back at it. he might be teething as well and the pacifier soothes his pain, but we just occasionally put orajel on her gums at night and gave her tylenol before bed to help with the pain

My little girl will be 6 mo. on the 22nd, she started doing this same thing about 2 weeks ago, now it is wosre and she is showing every sign of teething, I hear a lot of mom's say as soon as they get a normal sleeping routine down that is when teething starts in and it last untill the teeth come through, my little one does this about evety 1 1/2 - 2 hours and by 3 am she can't go back to sleep... good luck, I got a baby sitter the other day and we just slept, I never knew how worth the $ a worry free nap would be, I felt so much better,