Sleeping Issues - Salem,OR

Does he have them about the same time each night? I know that when my neice had them, she did and my sister was told to try waking her up before the terrors started. She would have her wake up and use the bathroom, get a drink or something that would really wake her up. The theory is that it interrupts the sleep cycle and helps avoid them. It worked for her and I hope this helps!

Its funny that I read this today because my daughter also 2.5 just had her very worst night terrors she sleeps in our room and I woke to her trying to climb the wall I didnt' realize what was going on til I had already grabbed her and she proceeded to grip on to my arm so tight it scared me. here's what we did I know it sounds silly but she kept screaming no and ow so we asked her if she wanted a bandaid for her owie and she cried o k so we put one on her hand and tried to get her to focus on it everytime the terror started coming back then when she settled enough my husband told me that when he had them as a child he liked to have a hand placed on his belly and chest so I tried that and her breathing finally started calming down (she gasps alot) I hope that you get a little help from this if not Im sorry also if you find anything else better let me know.

Your child has food allergies. Determine what they are, and you won't be worried with Night terrors anymore.

A.

Hi J.,
I just wanted to tell you that I have the same problem with my son, also named Logan..:) Interesting!! He wakes up nightly, same thing it takes a while to get him back to sleep. I don't know if he is experiencing night terrors per say, but he wakes up crying and its hard to get him to go back to sleep. I sympathize as I know this is hard for all of you. I don't have any anwers, sorry, just wanted to let you know you aren't alone!! We have been to a sleep specialist and they recommended 2 weeks of consistent NOT getting him out of bed, and just letting him learn to go back to sleep on his own. That is hard too, but we are doing our best. Hopefully things will start looking up for you, and us. lol
K.

My best friend's daughter suffered from night terrors as well when she was younger, as did my little brother. We were directed by their doctors to just put pillows anywhere they can hurt themselves, and let them work it out, becuase you can cause more damage by trying to calm them down.
My best friend's daughter would even get up and run up and down the hallway screaming.
They have since grown out of it, but it was a very scarey time, and very hard on caretakers. My brother grew out of it much older than normal, but my best friend's daughter grew out of it as a preschooler.
Hope that helps!

My son is alomst 2 1/2 and we have been going through this for about a year now. They were very frequent at first but now usually only when he is overly tired or sick. When he first had one & we figured out what it was, he would have them very frequently, I was amazed to find that most doctors don't know much about them, there doesn't appear to be much research out there. The most helpful thing to me was to read message boards to get tips & help from others.

Here are two websites that helped me.

http://www.nightterrors.org/

http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/sleep/a/night_terrors.htm

Other then that the things that helped limit the night terrors were:
1.) making sure he got his naps & a very consistant bedtime routine. Lavendar bubble bath (Lavendar has been proven to help induce a deeper sleep) but esecially consistant on the time.

2.) be sure he isn't going to get too hot during the night, I read a lot of people posting that when their children were too warm or had a warm vaparizor in thier room they would trigger them & at the time my son started getting them he had a combination of being overly tired & he was getting over a cold so we had a vaparizor in his room.

3.) classical music, we started playing it for him when he went to sleep (it shuts off automatically after a half hour). Then if he wakes with a terror, I play the music for him while I attmept to hold him (he sometimes just wants to run around the room & he's getting too big to control too much).

4.) during the terrors I try to stay pretty quiet, I will ask him simple questions he would definatly know the answer to. I just keep asking him questions every few mins during the NT to see if he has come out of it yet. Once he starts answering me, I know he is waking up so I try to wind him down. Until he answers me I just pretty much hold him & kiss him & tell hm I'm there. After he starts responding then I give him some comfort for about 10 more mins and then I will attempt to put him back to bed.

If you want any further advice or have any questions feel free to contact me. It's a very frusterating thing, you definatly feel helpless a lot. As you can see I could go on & on about this :)

Others can respond better to the night terrors and how to respond to them differently than nightmares. One thing that a mother recently wrote on this site is to not wake them up because that does increase their terror.

Just for a sense of security which he lost when he lost the binky, does he have a stuffed animal or a blanket to which he can cling? Both of my grandchildren, 4 and 6 still rely on taking specific stuffed animals to bed with them. They also take them everywhere they go. The 6 yo doesn't care which one it is but she wants something small and soft.

And if your son had favorites and they've become lost try to find them or replace them. My grandson was angry one evening when I was taking him home to his mother's and he threw his Mr. Quack Quack out the window. When it was time to go to bed he was inconsolable. His sister said he'd thrown the toy out the window. I retraced my travel route and found him in the middle of a lane on a freeway egress. When I returned he was still sobbing heavily but the tears subsided and he went right to sleep. My daughter said that without Mr. Quack Quack he probably wouldn't have gotten to sleep any time soon. She has now introduced him to some other stuffed animals and he's just as attached to them, although Mr. Quack Quack is his favorite, and my daughter is more relaxed when it comes to losing or misplacing one of them.

He insists on taking one of them to preschool and daycare. He's OK with leaving the animal in his backpack at school but the first thing he does when he gets in the car to go to day care is to take Mr. Quack Quack out. Lovey's are more important for some kids than others. And this may not be a part of the problem for your son.

But be reassured that night terrors are normal and do go away.

One of my children experienced this same situation when he was about 7 years old. The first time it happened was shortly after moving and him starting a new school, he was having difficulties meeting new friends. I think the night terrors were just his subconscious mind getting stressed out. He never remembered having the night terrors the next morning. It did pass as he became more comfortable at school.Maybe once a bit of time has passed and your little guy get's used to life without his binky, they will stop too.(could there be any other things going on that would cause him stress?) Until then, sounds terrible but... we found a little spray in the face with cold water in a spray bottle helped snap him out of it so he could fall back asleep. Good luck!

Sorry to hear that you were up all night trying to comfort your little guy! Night terrors are no fun (but are very common in kids this age!) I have found with both of my boys, that if I come in to comfort them when they've woken up from a bad dream, it only scares them more and it takes longer to get them back to sleep. Most of the time, they're not fully awake...so if I let them cry for a minute and comfort themselves, they'll fall right back to sleep on their own. I don't know if this will work for Logan, but try not going in and see if it makes a difference??? Also, give him some sort of a comfort object. One of my boys is a thumb sucker, and the other one has two binkies in his bed that he just holds (they never go into his mouth...go figure?!) Stuffed animals, special blankets, one of your t-shirts...anything that would make him feel comforted when he wakes up in the middle of the night. If you've successfully weaned him from the binkies, I probably wouldn't re-introduce those. Anyways, good luck and I hope you're able to get some sleep tonight!

My son has occasional issues with this. One website I checked said to be sure the child is well rested before bedtime. Like, if they haven't been napping and they're used to having a nap, expect a possibly difficult night.
I need to find out if my son is getting his 2 year molars, too. I think he's acting like he did when he got his pre-molars, but he kind of has a fit when we open his mouth just to peer in.
I was just wondering if you think that's a possibility with your boy? Last night was okay, he woke up around 11pm, and went back to sleep on his own. The previous evening, however, seemed hellish. He woke up at 1, my husband got up and tried to comfort him, (I have a hearing problem, and don't always hear him right away, lucky me) but I woke up then, too. Then, at one thirty, hubby came back to bed, and Sam cried intermittently for about 2 hours. At 3, it became really bad, and I got up and tried to lay him down, but no dice. I got him up, looked for his teething tablets, which we were out of, and gave him some Tylenol, which didn't prove effective! He was saying "eat" so I got him some milk, which I know better than to do, but I was at the end of my rope. Then, I gave him a binkie, which he hasn't had in over 6 months, and started freaking out, thinking about him biting chunks off of it and choking.(3:30 am, now) So, I got up, laid on the couch in case he sounded like he needed help, and he screamed "mama" after a couple minutes. In a daze, I got up, got him out AGAIN and tried sleeping in our recliner with him. I recently had to do this for a naptime when we had roofers working above us, and it worked then, just not this night.
Long story short, he stayed there about 15 minutes, dozing, then woke ALL the way up and tried to play with our cat, climb into his own chair...I put the little guy in bed again, he was ok, and then he started yelling. I think he yelled until 4 something, but after he quit, I was so wound up I couldn't get back to sleep myself until 5 something.
Sound familiar at all?
I hope this at least helps you feel better, knowing other people are at a loss, too.
Take care, and if you google night terrors, there are a few websites, but none of them really have "cures" Just something some kids go through, and it usually passes quickly.
A.

J.,
My daughter had night terrors and the one thing I learned that help so much was not to do anything. I would stand by the door to make sure she didn't hurt herself or fall out of bed, but if i left her alone it resolved in about 10-15 mins all by herself. It was when I rushed to her side that the drama of it continued for 30 mins or more. I spent a few months not knowing what was going on with her until I read up on night terrors. I hope he grows out of it soon. Good luck!
L.

I don't think my son had night terrors as bad as that but he did have them. Something I found to help was some soothing music (rain drops, yanni) plus having his blankie helped. I think I might have got lucky. I hope this helps.

Sometimes I am amazed at the variety of advice. I hope something works for you. My son has screaming fits in the middle of the night on occation. I dont know if it is "night terrors" or stomach troubles because he got dairy (he's allergic to milk protien and its in everthing). I do know that trying to calm him down with hugs makes it worse, and leaving him alone is scary for me. I sit on the edge of his bed and talk. I ask him things but answer for him until he starts listening. We usually then have a short conversation and read a short story and sing our goodnight song (the last bit of his bedtime routine) this has worked most of the time. The times we have gotten him up he has just thrown a fit when we tried to put him back in bed and everyone ends up awake all night long. I keep telling myself "this to shall pass". Jen