Hi! My daughter is almost four. She has been potty trained for nearly 2 years. Initially, she would come into my room to let me know when she had to go during the night. But more recently, she will wake up crying in the middle of the night. I initially did not know why - but through trial and error, realized that she needed to urinate. She is unconsolable until a few minutes after she goes potty. This doesn't happen often, as she usually goes potty before bed, but when it does, it is quite unsettling. I asked the pediatrician about this at her 3 y/o check up. They did a urinalysis to make sure she didn't have an infection - I could have told them that as she NEVER cries during the day when she urinates!
Does this sound like night terrors? And does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you!
Wow! What an awesome group of moms we have out there! I feel very fortunate to have this wealth of knowledge and experience - literally at my fingertips! A great big thank you for everyone who has commented and shared their stories. It is comforting knowing - as you all know - that I'm not alone. Thank you again for your support!
My 4 year old daughter does THE EXACT same thing. We just assume she is too "out of it", we take her to the bathroom and put her back in bed. She rarely remembers these episodes the next day.
When my 5 yr old is overly tired or running a fever she experiences what's called Confusional Arousals. She starts off crying, sits up, crawls around on her bed very disoriented and confused. It took me a while to realize she was completely asleep during these episodes that can last from 2 minutes to 20 minutes. It's a parasomnia disorder - related to sleepwalking - kids usually outgrow it. My husband was a sleepwalker as a kid and would usually do it when he had to urinate. His body was trying to wake up to go to the bathroom but the brain gets "stuck" and can't fully wake up. He used to walk around the house and urinate wherever. Once his parents caught on, they would guide him to the bathroom when he would sleepwalk and then walk him back to bed. They usually tried not to wake him up because when they did he would get very confused as to what was going on and then it took longer to fall back asleep.
I haven't had such an experience, but my youngest will laugh in her sleep, to the point that I don't know if she is laughing or crying and have to check on her. She must be having some hysterical dreams!
My advice is to search Dr Sears Web site, as he has never failed us! I would think there would be some helpful insights to your situation.
Good luck!
Here's what the American Academy of Pediatrics new parenting website says about night terrors (has a chart that distinguishes them from nightmares).
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/presch...
It sounds pretty consistent with what they write and what we've experienced with both of our kids. It's the crying in the middle of the night that's inconsolable, but they're really still in a sleep.
Good luck. It didn't last long with our kids.
Hi, I had my nieces overnight and they slept in our big bed, anyway my great niece woke up crying. I kept saying Samantha are you okay, she looked at me but didn't respond. I took her to go potty and she was fine after that and fell right to sleep. She was 5 at the time. It was like she was asleep the whole time but with her eyes open. I am sure your child will grow out of it Sam did. Good luck
Maybe getting out of her bed during the night is what is scaring her. maybe have nightlights set up on her path to the bathroom and push on lights near her bed will help her out.
My oldest daughter (five now) has done that ever since the age of three or so. She doesn't do it often any more and it's much less scary for us since we know what's happening. It isn't a night terror, but it's similar. Basically, her body knows she needs to pee, but can't quite get her mind completely out of sleep mode. So she's almost in a sleepwalking state. I've found that I have to literally carry her to the toilet, and sit her there (sometimes against her will). But once she's peed, she's almost immediately calmed and falls right back asleep.
Hi V.,
My daughter did something similar at about the same age. I didn't think it was dramatic enough to be night terrors but felt she was just so disoriented and frustrated to have her sleep disrupted by the need to go potty. Her body knew to wake up (yah!) but the rest of her was mad and tired and not entirely awake so she'd cry. She was too tired and mad to be reasoned with so I'd just pick her up and talk soothingly, "I know it's so hard to have to get up but what a good job you're doing!" etc..., carry her to the potty, hug her and pat her back while she went (so she didn't fall), carry her back to bed and kiss her goodnight and it'd all be over. She'd fall right back asleep. It happened for awhile and then was over, so whatever it is, hang in there and she'll grow out of it.
We dealt with night terrors with my son, and we also dealt with him waking up crying and needing the potty. In our experience they were definitely very different. When he had to go potty, he was able to calm down and go back to sleep after it was done. With the night terrors, even though his eyes were open, he was not awake, and we were at our wits end getting him to settle. It wasn't just crying, but screaming. Really, not just screaming, but SCREAMING! (I'm so glad we are past that! I'd much rather have it just be a need for the potty.)
With the potty thing, though, it seems to come in phases at our house. It will happen regularly (with our daughter too) for a few weeks, and then go away. I'm not sure what sets it off, but we just handle them calmly and lovingly help them take care of it and get back to bed.
Hope you can get a break from it soon and get some better sleep. :)
We have experienced both. My 5 year old will be up often and open her bedroom door in a haze and sometimes whimpering. She cannot articulate what she needs. I guide her to the toilet and sit her down. 95% of the time she urinates and returns to bed without incident.
My older daughter experienced night terror between ages 3-4. Totally different situation. She would become inconsolable, fully ambulatory, sometimes moving to a different floor of our house (very scary with 15 stairs). We could not wake her and in fact, would become worse when we tried. Much like the other posters said she would scream like we had never heard her scream. I would better describe her behavior as a full-on RAGE. It usually lasted 45 minutes to 1 hour. She would become so exhausted and eventually give in to the fatigue.
Just to be safe, anytime either one of my children wake and get up out of bed at night, I send them right to the bathroom. Their body woke them for a reason and it is almost always because they need to urinate.
Good luck!
Hi V......at this age my nephew and my youngest son both went thru this, for my nephew it lasted longer. And what my sister found out worked was letting a lavendar candle burn about an hr or so before he went in there to go to bed. This was along time ago. He is now 14! My son who is now 8 I was able to use a lavendar spray in his room. Or a linean spray. It just helped them both be calm and relax. Good Luck I know they are no fun at all.
Doesn't sound like night terrors at all. Tight terrors are disturbing beyond belief!! My son's night terrors last for hours at a time and there is no absolute way of waking him up out of the terrors. He runs through the house screaming and hiding from what apparently seems like a murderer is following him. It is extremely scary for us all.
I'm no doctor, but it does not sound like night terrors to me. My son had suffered with night terrors from the age 2 to 5 years old. Let me tell you it was a very sad, hard, and trying time for us. If your daughter is only waking up crying once in a while, and typically to pee I dont think you have to much to worry about. My suggestion would be the obvious no drinks after a certain hour, and cutting back on some sugar packed drinks as well. If her crying worsens at night that I would ask your doctor again. But the night terrors you would be able to distinguish very clearly. My son would wake up 5 out of 7 nights a week SCREAMING like he was being killed. If I tryed to console him he would get louder and begin to thrash himself around. This could go on for a few hours. Sometimes he would fall back to sleep and then have another episode an hour later The hardest part of it all is not being able to console him. If you try and interfere with a child in the middle of a terror you will get no where, and usually worsen it. He never remembered any of it the next day either. His behavior was worse on the days after a bad terror due to the lack of sleep. Me and him were so sleep deprived. I'm happy to say for a little over a year we have not had one night terror. After doing plenty of research and checking with our doctor I tryed giving him a very low dose of Melatonin a couple nights a week at bed time, and it truly did wonders. I did this for about a month or 2 and then never needed to use it again. It would keep him knocked out all night, and he got a lot of much needed sleep. His behavior quickly became a lot better. The best option I found for Melatonin was actually through "AVON". They sell dissolvable strips that are chocolate flavored and come in a minimal dose. I'm not one for taking any medicines at all if not truly needed, and I would actually cut the strip in half for him each time i gave it to him. And still just the tiniest amount seemed to be all he needed. If her sleep worsens it might be something to look into. Hopefully you figure out what is going on soon. I'm sure everyone would be happier in the end. Good Luck!
My daughter went through this at about the same age frame. I think your easiest route would be to get your daughter to the bathroom as quickly as possible and right back to bed (you'll lose the least sleep this way too). She cannot wake herself fully up so she is disorientated and probably just overtired. While she used to come to you, now you go to her; even though you find it unsettling, I don't think she should be expected to navigate herself to the bathroom in the middle of the night, esp. since she is asleep. As some others pointed out, it doesn't sound like night terrors, esp. since it stops when she immediately goes to the bathroom. Good luck!!
My son has had night terrors for the last 2 years but it has never involved going to the bathroom. Maybe it is night terrors and going to the bathroom just wakes her up which will end the night terror. I do notice that everytime my son has them, it always ends with a big yawn. Kids do NOT remember anything about a night terror, so try asking her if she remembers it the next day.
Once you can definately say it's a night terror, one way to stop them from happening is to gently wake your daughter about 45 minutes after you put her to bed (after she falls alseep). This will disrupt the REM sleep which will prevent a night terror from happening. BTW - night terrors happen approx 1 hour after the child falls asleep. It will happen at the same time for your child all the time.
Unfortunately, I have experience with night terrors, so if you have anymore questions, let me know and I would be happy to share my experiences with you.
Good luck,
C.
