Need Help with Night Terrors

You can try changing her room around. It may be something that she is looking at that is scarying her into having the dreams. I went through it but I was probably about 4 when they started and mine was more from tramatic events.

We went through this for about a month. It was horrible. The only thing I read that worked for us is to wake her up about an hour before it usually happens and take her to the bathroom. Maybe not take her to the bathroom if she's too young, but wake her up and maybe change her diaper or something. It supposedly will reset her sleep cycle.

I remember when I was a child I would have some pretty horrible dreams. My sister is 4 and a half years older then me and did something for me that I swear by, even though it seems silly! She took one of my stuffed animals, Russ the Racoon, and told me she was going to help me get rid of my bad dreams! She took "Russ" and held him tight and said the "magic words" . She told me from that night on, "Russ" would scare away all the bad dreams and keep my dreams happy.
So try to do that with one of your daughters stuffed animals. I know it sounds dumb, but sometimes when we consciously are aware of something, it can help override our subconscious. Hope this helps...if not...will give her a special friend :-)

My daughter went through them and the best thing to do is turn on the lights so there are no shadows and just keep repeating that your there and you love her and she is okay DO NOT TRY TO WAKE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That only makes it worse, you cant stop it once it has begun!!! Only make sure she is safe so she can't hurt her self( if I didn't hold mine she would throw herself on the floor)and coo your okay mommy is here I love you your safe with mommy etc.... Once you stop trying to wake her you will notice they get shorter!! Now my daughter is almost four and she hasn't had one since she was 18 months!!!KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!! I know they are horrible to witness and you feel so helpless as a mother but they grow out of it!! We also looked on line and found that certain foods can be the cause we just made sure no sugar after 5 o'clock!!!!! No juice or anything that has sugar naturally either and absolutly nothing to eat 2 hours before bed time! whether that helped or she just started to grow out of them I can't say. I know ped's are split on the matter our ped told us food has nothing to do with it but her nurse gave us some info that told us of a bunch of food that can lead to more frequent or longer night-terrors. We did a bit of all of it and like i said their gone!! Good Luck! p.s. I'll look to see if i still have the paper work that nurse gave us it had some websites listed on it if i find it ill post them here for you !!
here are a few sites to help!!

www.healthscout.com/ency/68/341/main.html
www.emedicinehealth.com/night_terrors/article_em.htm
www.familydoctor.org/566.xml
www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/nightmare2.shtml
www.umm.edu/ency/article/000809.htm
www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=47489
www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1608.htm
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000809.htm
www.soberrecovery.com/forums/insomnia-nightmares/95404-ni...
www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/childrenshealth/203838.html - 52k

although i do not have a cure, i noticed that it is much worse when my daughter was overtired. usually she did not even remember her episodes. i would just hold her and comfort her and if she would "wake-up" we would pray and when calm she would go back to sleep. she started these aroud 4 and the older she became the less frequently they happened. she is now 11 and she hasn't had one for a long time. i think by about 9, she mostly had outgrown these. make sure you warn anyone she may sleep over with. i forgot to mention it to my aunt when my daughter spent the night and my aunt was traumatized! she thought something horrible was happening to her! good luck

Hello J.,

One of the previous responses is so important. Please have an eval by a neuro doc. When that is clear, this is what I know about night terrors. I am 36 and have had them all my life. I still to this day (that even my exhusband, family and daughter can attest to) that I can even have a conversation when they immediately try to awaken me and they can see "the blank" eyes and I have no idea what I am saying. My daughter had night terrors and walks/talks in her sleep like I do. DO NOT PUT HER FEET IN COLD WATER TO WAKE HER UP...SHE WOULD BE TERRIFIED..as I and my daughter would be. Just keep chatting away with her and make soothing sounds..remember, she has no idea this is happening..she is in her mind sleeping away. This scares you, but from exp. she is not aware and generally will not remember that dream. My neuro told me that my brain and my daughter's brain just has to process things in the dream state differently and for some reason our body goes along with it. This generally hereditary. If it continues, try not to fret, my daughter and I tease each other all the time about the things we have done while asleep. We just accept and warn people when spending the night that this may happen.

Hope I helped
K.

Hi, I just wanted to add if you keep having problems you might want to consider having her evaulted my a neuro just to make sure they are not seizures another mother found out after year of them that they really were seizures. Every thing sounded like a night terror but after testing found out there were seizures. If you live in the dayton area do not go to dayton childrens neuro's go to cincy.

Jo

I went through this for years with my son. I was at a loss like you are. I would just confort him while it was going on and after he fell back asleep, I would lay with him and hold him. Hoping that would make him feel safe and secure. I wish I could help more. Good luck!

well my daughter is five now but she had nite terrors too. all i know is that she would wake up and scream and carry on, even walking around . and i don;t believe she was even awake . i would try to calm her down but it seemed to only make it worse and if i touched her it would throw her into a fit. i would suggest just trying to to help her thru it ,talk calmly to the child, because if you aren't calm they can't be either .and if shes awake of course hold them and tel them its ok. but i wouldn't wake them because it could make matters worse!and shocking them by putting them in water, oh i really don't suggest that. hope it works out.

Ok here is what I can tell you. I am in my late 20's now and I had and have night tremors all my life. I have been to sleep clinics and all of that and the best thing that you can do is watch. I keep a notebook now but, when I was younger my mom kept one for me. There are certain stimuli that cause terrors or tremors. You need to keep you daughter claim before she goes to bed with modest stimulation. Doctors have concluded that children that experience terrors tend to be extremely intelligent and imaginative. What does it for me is temperature and surroundings. It is the most undescribable feeling but I am telling you, as a parent you can help my watching. She may grow out of them and she may not. I do not get them as much but, ask my husband, I still have them!! And by the way.....the dipping the feet in cold water thing.....when I get the feeling before I go to bed, because as you get older you learn to detect that, I run my feet under the coldest water possible, and I have never even heard that it was an old wive's tale, so it may help just do it before she goes to bed and puts her PJ's on. Good Luck and really if you have any questions I did my masters thesis in this area and I live it every night.

Although I don't remember it, my Mom said I went through those as a toddler...the doctor explained to her that it is not falling into a deep enough sleep that causes them and it causes normal images seen throughout the day to become distorted (like the innocent image of tweety bird but distorted through a funhouse mirror)...I was given an extremely mild children's sedative for a while, until I was able to get enough sleep to get past them, then was able to sleep better on my own because I was well rested (sometimes being overtired can cause you not to be able to sleep - sounds crazy, right? It's true).

Hi,
My son went thru that when he was about 3. It seemed so traumatic, but the good thing was that he didn't remember it at all and it never hurt him in any way. He's now a happy, well adjusted, intelligent 18 year old. So, although I don't have much advice, I can reassure you that your daughter will come thru this unscathed...don't worry. Oh, but do be sure to keep an ear open for her all night - she may get up during them and go outside or something. God Bless!