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Behaviour/development

Night Terrors!

4 replies

tryingtobemarypoppins · 14/09/2009 21:52

My DS 22 months seems to be having night terrors. Most nights he screams out between 3am and 5am. He goes from silent sleep to fall on screaming, sweating, standing bolt upright in his cot. When picked up and brought into our room he can take up to 10 minutes to stop kicking and thrashing, this morning he leapt off the bed, ran (little legs, bless) into his room pointing!!! There was nothing there......I hope!!
He will often settle back to sleep and sometimes on his own in his cot. We are expecting another baby in Feb and were thinking about making the move to a bed soon as he sleeps so much better for a nap, soemtimes 2 hours, in our bed or my mums bed when she has him twice a week.

How do you maanage these terrors, they are exhusting every night.

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Skillbo · 14/09/2009 22:30

Not sure how much this will help but a little boy I used to babysit had this really bad from when he was tiny.

His parents bought him a dream catcher (I think you can get them from most artsy shops or online, I would think). They explained that this would take away the bad dreams and although he still had the occasional nightmare, the night terrors went away.

I'm not sure how much your DS would understand as such as he is very small, but it might be worth a go.

Sorry not to be more help but I hope he starts to sleep better, poor little soul.

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easylife73 · 14/09/2009 22:34

Hi, this is my first message here, I'm new!

We had this problem with DS1 when I was pregnant with DS2 - he was about the same age as your son. He would sit up in his cot screaming hysterically for exactly 20 minutes, then just yawn, lie down, close his eyes and go immediately back to sleep. Unfortunately, at it's peak this was happening about five times a night. Not fun when you're 7/8 months pg!

If we tried to intervene or calm him down at all it seemed to make him worse, and in t he end the health visitor told us to check him once, and then leave him to it. I couldn't do it though (poor love) and used to just sit by the cot making "shush" noises very quietly. Didn't actually make any difference to him, but at least made me feel like I was there and doing something.

Gradually he seemed to grow out of it, it happened less often and then stopped. He's now 9 and sleeps really well, no nightmares or anything.

It's hard to accept that somethimes there isn't a "solution" but I'm sure he'll grow out of it, and if he does sleep better in a bed, it's worthing trying it to see if it does make a difference (as long as he's safe).

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ClaudiaSchiffer · 14/09/2009 23:39

Good post easylife

My dd is the same - although she is 4. She has had night terrors from about 2, they happen occasionally, say every couple of months for a night or 2. Dunno why, no real triggers that I can see. She yells and fights and screams - it's awful. I just stroke her hair, and say shussshhh etc etc. Getting her up or attempting to wake her does no good at all. I asked our GP about it once, she said it's normal, just do as we were doing. She has no memory of it in the morning. They do seem to be getting more infrequent as she gets older, so am hoping that like easylifes ds she will just grow out of it.

She is a very happy little girl otherwise

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tryingtobemarypoppins · 15/09/2009 19:21

Thank-you all so much for your advice.

It is really exhusting! We had read about slightly disturbing him before we go to bed, so will try this tonight. I think your all right however, like everything its another phase!