Night Terrors??

My daughter is 2 and she has these when she is over exhausted. Nothing ever seemed to snap her out of them, except putting on a movie. I know that its not real convienant to do at 3 in the morning but it works for us.

Try to get her to take a nap during the day.

My son kept getting them & i took him to doctor & they said he needs more sleep!!! I got him to take nap during day & put him to bed a lil earlier & they went away.

My 6 year old does this and has for several years. He usually has trouble if he is overly tired. The only suggestion I have is to try to avoid her getting overly tired. Best of luck. C.

Is something bothering her at school or has there been a change in her routine. Stress can cause this. I have a five year old myself and raise two children so i know this can cause you some concern. talk to her and see if there is something concerning her if that is ruled out just keep doing what you are doing now. your on the right track

Hi, J.
Good news, I don't think your daughter is having night terrors. My daughter does have them, and they are awful. She will scream, flail around her bead, sweat, shake and other horrible symptoms. It takes 20-60 minutes to calm her down and then the cycle starts all over again. It sounds like your daughter is either having just plain old bad dreams, or is waking up and it is scaring her that she is awake. Try playing a radio in her room when she goes to bed so she won't wake up scared in the dark and silence. Or if you determine that it is bad dreams or monsters, you can always resort to monster spray. I've written about this before. Take a clean spray bottle, fill it with plain water and let her help you spray it arond the room before bed, tellin gher that the monster spray is magic and will keep all of the bad things out. It works like a charm.

J.

My daughter had night terrors for years (autism spectrum) and one of the things that helped were sensory supports like a very very soft blanket and gently rubging her arm and saying over and over again "Your okay, mom's here, your okay slow your body down, relax your body, go slow" and gently rub the soft blanket against her arms in a slow soft manner. If they were so bad that she had to be held in order not to hurt herself I would use a heavier weighted blanket and rock her back and forth and just use a moderate pat with a methodical beat to it. Sort of like PAT pat pat pat PAT pat pat pat PAT and emphasize the first pat then three exact pats following and the rythm helped her slow her nervous system down and helped her develop self regulatory skills.

I believe that night terrors actually come from the inability to process all the stimulation that goes into a little underdeveloped nervous system during the day and it literally has to go somewhere doesnt it? Out it comes in sporadic burst of screams and sweating etc. If it continues perhaps a warm bath in candlelight while mom tells her a wonderful story about a little one who is getting ready for bed. I found that paying special attention to the wind down process eased the intensity of the terrors quite a bit. It also allowed me the sense of not being so helpless as I assisted her in processing and 'shifting gears' from a very busy day.

Good luck!

My 2.5 year old son has night terrors if he hasn't had an adequate nap during the day. They usually happen 1 to 2 hours after he goes to sleep, and will last anywhere from a few minutes to 45 minutes or so. He will scream and thrash about - it is like he is possessed, kind of a scary sight. His eyes are open but he won't focus on you and doesn't seem to know you are there. Then when it is over, he wakes up and is fine and everything is normal, except for us....it seems to be much more upsetting to us, than to him. I've read that you should not attempt to wake up a child having a night terror, but just calmly talk to them without touching them. We have tried that without much success, and a couple of times, my husband has shaken him awake and then it is over. However, sometimes he will go through that, then wake up, then go back to sleep only to have it happen again in another hour.

My best advice is always make sure your daugher is getting enough sleep, and keeping a regular nap and bedtime schedule. Our son only has this problem when he has not had a nap, or its been shorter than usual, and/or he gets to bed late. Sleep in general seems to be a difficult thing for him, he has never stayed asleep very well and it is difficult to get him to sleep the amount he should be sleeping. I wonder if other kids who have night terrors also have trouble sleeping?

My daughter had night terrors, still does from time to time, but I was not able to calm her down. Any intervention I would try would just make it worse, which I have learned is an indication of night terrors. I just had to let them run their course and make sure she didn't get hurt. That's the best advice I have about it, wish I had something better for you.

sounds like night terrors to me. Night terrors usually happen the first half of the night, while nightmares happen in the second half of the night (early morning). Night terrors are a form of sleep walking. My kid used to do this when she was younger (1.5-3), but luckily hasn't done it in a while (but I think she is starting to sleep walk...lucky me!). This can be genetic. If either you or the father were sleep walkers (or talkers, eaters, ect) she could have got it from that. Night terrors are distiguished as: screaming early in the night (generally 1-3 hrs after going to bed). The child might have their eyes open and be sitting up. They will be inconsolable. Then they will just go back to bed like nothing happened, and not remember the incident in the morning.
Now if this sounds like what is going on (vs a nightmare, where they will talk to you and answer your questions, remember it the next day, and tell you what scared them). You need to make sure that you DON'T wake them!!! This will just cause un-needed anxiety for them. They will not remember what was going on, but see you all upset, so they will get all upset. As upsetting as it is, you just need to let them finish, and try to coax them into bed.

My ped said that we could give our child benadryl before bed. That way she would be in a deeper sleep and be less likely to have them. This helped re-establish her sleep patterns, and give us MUCH needed rest. She would usually have these bouts around the time of a growth spurt. but they could go on for weeks, and we would be sooo tired. Here is some good links about night terrors. (btw..my kid gets it from me....I was a sleep walker, sleep screamer, sleep talker...I used to even have "waking dreams".)

http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/sleep/a/night_terrors.htm
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/par...
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_night-terrors-why-th...

Oh, and here is a really good website about sleep disorders in general.
www.sleepnet.com

My children have never had this. However, I have a friend with a 3 1/2 year old that has them. She says that it takes them a while to get her awake. Then she is scared and cries for a while. I would take her to the Dr. I told her the same. This seems like a bad dream that they can not wake up from. It's a deeper sleep. Good luck and let us know.

I went through those same problems. I finally found that a nice cup of chamomille tea, with honey or sweetner, before bed time is enough to relax and have pleasant dreams.. Just one of the trick I use!
M.

J.,

I had been experiencing this for quite some time (5-6 months) and was lossing my mind and was absolutley and completly exhausted and of course didnt think to ask about it on here, but my daughter has seasonal allergies and the doc had put her on some medication and she had been on the medication for approx. 6 months, well 2 weeks ago, they switched her medication and she no longer has them whether it be the medication giving her that particular side effect, Im not sure, but just a thought that if your child is on anything you may want to consider that.