Night Terrors - Amarillo,TX

My daughter had night terrors and when I asked my pediatrician if there was anything I could do she said to put her to bed and then about 15 mins. after she falls asleep wake her up but only enough that she acknowledges you. It was 100% effective. This pediatrician had an effective solution for EVERYTHING I asked of her. She was incredibly knowledgeable.

I know how horrible it is to watch your kid in such terror and not being able to do anything about it so I hope this works for you as well as it did for us.

I agree with Veronica. That has worked sometimes for us when trying to break a cycle of night terrors. For us though, it only works temporarily. The night terrors come back, but we can't predict when. Sometimes they come back a month later, sometimes it's a year later. I thought my youngest son outgrew night terrors when he was about 3.5, but he started having them again this summer (age 5). My oldest has terrible nightmares (age 11), but not night terrors. My neice has night terrors also. My cousin had them, and my mom says I had them, but they didn't know what to call them back then. I guess they run in families. I hope your son stops having them soon. One thing I find comfort in is that the doctor told me that the children don't remember them at all, so they are much harder on the parents. I've found that to be true. As horrible as the terrors can be, my son never remembers them. The nightmares are much harder on my oldest son. I hope you and your son get some peaceful sleep soon.

My son (27 months) had night terrors this summer for about a week. I've always heard to leave him alone. The first time I tried picking him up (not realizing yet what was going on) and he wanted nothing to do with me. He wouldn't let me touch him. So after that I started to just stay right by his bed and say "shhhh". After about 5-10 minutes he would calm down, and either wake up and let me hold him, or go back to sleep. Fortunately, it didn't last more than a week.

Waking him up seems to make sense to break up the sleep cycle. But I would also hate to wake him every night and making that a habit, especially if the night terrors go away on their like my son's did. It might be worth a shot, though, if they persist and don't go away. It is so hard to feel helpless when your baby is so upset!

I've been there!! I'm am so sorry, it is a miserable thing for both mommy and child. I was given the advice by my pedi to just let the terror "run it's course". My little boy would wake up and be uncosolable for what seemed to be an eternity but if I looked at the clock, it was always less than 5 minutes and he'd fall right back to sleep on his own. I'd say "shhhh" in his ear and stroke his head but wouldn't pick him up. I think he finally grew out of it all w/in a few weeks with an occasional rare episode here and there for about a year after that. It'll resolve itself like so many things do, it's just difficult in the midst of it all.