Nightmares / Night Terrors

Hello,
My daughter, now 4 still has episodes of night terrors. I have noticed more if we do not do our normal night schedule. She gets a snack, soothing bath, a book read to her and then many loving kisses and hugs and big smiles before bed. If she goes to bed upset or cranky it seems to trigger an episode. The main thing you don't want to do is get aggravated at her(even though it's 2am) while she is having a terror. The best thing to do is sooth her and help her calm down in a nice, quiet voice. My daughter has no idea that she even has night terrors and look at me like I'm crazy for telling her she does. You can also try putting on some classical music on in her room. This will also help keep her calm while sleeping. I totally feel how you are feeling. I was at a lost in the beginning before I spoke with her Ped and read up on night terrors. I wish you the best of luck and they do go away(the terrors not the child!! LOL) Hope this helped a little:-)

Judging from what you said, the only consistency seems to be daycare. Are you familiar with ALL of the staff at the daycare? Are you comfortable with these people and does she seem comfortable with all of them? Is there any possibility of strange (to her) noises after bedtime (A/C kicking on an off, house settling, traffic, etc.)? Has her routine changed a lot recently? I'm not actually expecting you to answer that, by the way, just ask yourself those things. If none of the above applies, it may simply be a case of overstimulation, especially if it usually coincides with the days she is at preschool. All those sights, sounds, colors, etc., it's a lot to take in all at once. Good luck!

WOW! I totally feel for you b/c I was TOTALLY in the same place with my daughter. Right around the same age as your daughter, she would wake up (screaming) and be up for HOURS! Sometime she would be up at 2am and not go back to sleep until 5 or 6 when I was supposed to be getting up and ready for work. UGH!

Anyway- everynight it happened I thought was surely the last night. (this went on for months!) I thought how could this keep going on?!?!?!? I had her to the doctor's NUMEROUS times to make sure it was not her ears or something else. After coming to the conclusion it was some type of night terror, we tried to break the pattern. And it works!

So here is what you need to try. Keep to a consistent bed time routine. Everynight so she knows what to expect. If the TV is on, take her into another room and read. At 11pm, before any of the "terrors" start, FULLY wake her up. She can saty in bed, but make sure she is awake. Just tell her you love her and forgot to kiss her goodnight. Then let her go back to sleep.

This will help break her sleep patterns and "retrain" her to sleep without these terrors. I was skeptical about this but it DOES WORK! Try it for TWO weeks and hopefully you will all be sleeping much better.

GOOD LUCK!

Hello Dear.Your daughter is very sensative naturally.if the trouble began when she started daycare,I suggest you take that as a warning something is amiss.As for your husband...a compromise must be made until you find out what is troubling your child and it may be best if he confine TV to family shows until after she has gone to bed.Lastly,contact a good pediatrician because it may be part of her personal makeup as her personality is growing and making itself evident.Don't let this go.My bet is daycare issues or seperation anxiety.

My son has nighmares every now and then. They use to be pretty bad. We talked about how these things aren't real and how he can control his dreams. That seem to help some. He's not as afraid of them. We also have him draw what he dremt about so we can better understand why he had this dream. He doesn't go to pre-school because of problems we had with his teacher. In our case it's all about the TV.

At this age the brain can't tell the difference between trama on TV and trama in real life so the part of the brain that controls tramatic events in real life are active druning tramatic events on TV. This goes on until about the age of ten. So yeah, be very careful about what you watch on TV.

However, having said all that, if I were you, I'd spend some time in day care watching what goes on just for a day or two. If not, take her out and see how she reacts. You never know.

Good luck!!

Hey. My 4 year old son has night terrors some nights too. We just try to do what you have been doing. I think his is tv shows. We use to watch NCIS and Ghost Whisper and he liked those shows but after he would watch them he would have dreams so we quit watching those shows and he doesn't have them as often. The doctor said it is normal for a child his age to be having these but they are scary. Good luck. B.

She's sensitive to milk but you still give it to her? Try cutting out all dairy (including traces cooked in other products & "hidden" ingredients). It may well be triggering her terrors.