I have a wonderful 2 yr old girl who has started the typical nightmares around once or twice a month. It has now progressed into a nightly event in the last week and a half. Needless to say - I am now sleep deprived! I have an eleven year old girl as well, and she went thru the same thing, but it never became consistent like this one has. When I ask her what the dream is about, I get a 2 year old answer which varies.. and appears not to be a nightmare at all - so thinking it has nothing to do with what she is actually dreaming about. Ha! When she has these - typically around 2-3:30am - she appears to still be sleeping and is screaming and crying very loudly. I enter the room and quiet her down but then it takes her anywhere from an hour to 3 hours to fall back into a deep sleep - all the while, not wanting me to leave her room. Sometimes I have had to sleep on the floor due to being so tired. She is a good sleeper normally and goes to bed and falls asleep by herself. If I stayed at home, and could take cat naps during the day, this would be tolerable until she got thru it, but I work alot of hours, while she is in daycare and my oldest in school. Then it is on when I get home, taking care of everything from the house, yard, home work, cooking dinner, baths, bedtime -- and I come last as usual. HELP! Tired and brain dead....
Put an amethyst gemstone under her pillow at night. Tell her it's her crystal angel.
We slept with our kids until they were three and never had problems with night terrors. It's a great way for someone who works all day to reconnect with their children's energy. Meet their needs and all will be rewarded with a confident child.
You can look up night terrors on webmd or other websites. My daughter is also 2 and started that a couple of months ago.
What seems to have worked for her (at least for now) was
1) talking to her about happy things and telling her that if she had a bad dream, all she had to do was think about happy things (her tricycle, making bubbles, etc.) and that would chase the bad dreams away and
2) she got a new stuffed puppy so I told her that "new puppy" would protect her from the bad dreams and growl and chase them away. She also sleeps with her favorite blanket and lovey.
It took a lot of repetition, especially the first part, which I'd repeat every single night before I left her in bed and if she woke up during the night with another dream, but it seems to have worked now. I still hear her call out in a bad dream from time to time, but she can soothe herself back to sleep now. Good Luck to you.
Hi K.,
i would guess (as others stated) your daughter is having Night Terrors. I have a son who went through it around 2-2 1/2 he is now 9. From my experience I can tell you that there is absolutley nothing you can do about it and one of the worst things you can do is to try to wake her up. This is caused by a sleeping disorder that will work itself out over time. My son gradually got over them; he still has them, but only 2 to 4 times a year. I really wish I could tell you there is a quick or easy fix for this, but the only thing you can do is wait until she stops having them. My son had them everynight for about a year. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, i will be more than happy to share the experiences our family had with this matter. Good Luck and God Bless. I will keep your family in my prayers.
My daughters did the same thing when the were around 2. Doctor told me they are called night terrors and are a result of them adjusting to sleeping through the night completly. There was nothing I could do to help. It did seem to help if i just rubbed their backs but that was it.
Hopefully it won't last too long.
L.
Hi K.,
I was taking psychology about a year ago, I had to leave because we moved back down here, but when I saw your post it made me think of what I had learned. Night terrors, it usually affects children between the ages of 5-7, but like any other disorder, it can vary sometimes in the ages. I went through my book just to be sure, and it says that the child will have no recolection the next morning about the incident, and the night terrors will usually disappear by adolecence. I know that's a long time to wait, and I'm not one for any type of medication, but maybe her pediatrician can recommend something, or you could see a pediatric psychiatrist or psychologist, and they would be able to help. But all in all, it sounds like night terrors, because if it were just your basic nightmare she would have at least partial memory about it the next morning. I hope this helps, let me know what happens, take care.
Candi ;O)
