night terrors

[Heathcliffscathy]

can you tell me every piece of wisdom you know about them?

ds (3) having them every night for the last 10 days.....it is doing our heads in!

we generally sit with him and don't try to wake him up but just are gently reassuring until he does wake up and then go back to sleep?

please, any help gratefully appreciated.

x

[Elibean]

Any sign of worries during the day?

Only ask because dd (3) is having occasional bouts of night upsets/rages (not terrors, so far) during which she isn't really awake, or able to interract normally. There is nothing I can do, bar sit calmly with her until she is ready to go back to sleep, at which point I can soothe her.

But I've had some good chats with her during the day, and sort of made space for her upsets to come out more - and her nights have got calmer.

Not sure night terrors work on the same principle! Poor all of you, hope the phase passes soon.

[nally]

bit different, but dh gets them. sometimes he cowers shivering in the corner of the room, pointing and shouting. i just calm him down, not waking him up, make sure he is back in bed and sit stroking his hair until he goes back to normal sleep.

[MaureenMLove]

My dd used to have them. She would sit up crying and screaming wanting us, but when we tried to confort us she would push us away. We somewho discovered that she needed the toilet so we used to guide her to the toilet and once she'd been, she would lie down and go straight back to sleep. Not saying its the same for everyone, but anythings worth a try.

[colditz]

I have discovered that ds1 has a night terror if he needs a wee but he gets 'stuck' in his dream. So I put him on the loo, and tell him to push a wee out, by which point he has either woken up, or calmed down!

[Heathcliffscathy]

the wee thing is interesting. don't know if it dare try it but frankly we are nearing the end of our collective tethers.

i've always thought that night terrors are due to lack of good sleep (TM SWWNBN) but it is a self exacerbating cycle tbh.


he has a cough/cold as well, and also is incredibly whingey during the day too and sensitive.....a month ago he was in perfect child phase! arghhhhh

any further thoughts gratefully received.

[skatergirl]

My little girl went through a phase at about 3yrs of having night terrors, I think that when I looked it up on the web it said there was nothing you could really do about it. I just sat with her to keep her safe until she settled. It is upsetting to watch but apparently they have no recollection of it. She used to push me away and say she wanted Mummy. She has nightmares sometimes now but that is different, she gets upset and she remembers them. Its hard to see her scared in her bed, she thinks there are gorillas in her room.

[suedonim]

My dc have had night terrors and whilst they are horrid for you to watch, luckily the child has no recollection at all.

One thing you can try is rousing your child just before the time they usually start with a terror. Istr most terrors occur in the first few hours of sleep so if you time when it starts, eg two hours after going to sleep, you'd rouse your child 15mins beforehand and then settle them back to sleep again. The idea is that you change their sleep pattern a little so the terror is avoided. It's not 100% guaranteed but worth a try.

[Heathcliffscathy]

bump for daytime lot....

[MuffinMclay]

They're horrible aren't they. My ds (13 months) went through a phase of having them at about 10 months, and still has them occasionally. He seems to have them on days when he has got really over-tired. Might be caused by something quite different in a 3 years old though? Has he started doing something different recently?

With ds all I can do is sit close by and watch. If I try to hold him or comfort him it makes him more upset.

Hope someone can help, and that it passes soon.

[Emmecanary]

Have just posted another thread on a similar topic - DS is 2.5 and 3 months ago started waking in the night, between 1-2am (goes to bed at 7:30). He's not upset, just stands quietly outside his bedroom door, behined the stair-gate until DH or I go to him. He's responsive, so certainly awake, but lies down and goes back to sleep almost straightaway. Just means DH & I getting broken sleep (have a DD of 5 months and she's a great sleeper!), just when we thought we were over that!!

Any thoughts please? Not sure that its night-terrors as not upset or crying....

[Georgiaplus1]

My sister's 2 year old girl has them UNTIL SHE discovered that she was the food she was having. Arabella was eating crisps (chicken flavoured are THE WORST) and also salt and vinigar and it sent her into having this night terrors where nothing could stop her / wake her / calm her. As soon as my sister stopped her (breaking into the junk cupboard) eating this food, it stopped and this was about 12 months ago.

I promise it has something to do with preservatives in processed food.

x