To think the night terrors are indeed terrifying for the parents too!

[frecklemcspeckles]

I have a 7 year old who has suffered from what we think are night terrors for the last few years, on and off.

I know the theory is that you don't wake them and they don't remember so it's okay. But we are finding they are horrific and go on for a long time if we don't try and waken her and jog her out of it.

Her eyes go huge, she has uncontrollable shaking in her lips, she "sees" stuff that isn't there that terrifies her (terrifies me to be honest, she is clearly "seeing" some freaky stuff that is petrifying her).
Her eyes are huge and almost fully black pupils, she's not awake but not asleep also as she answers questions. She clings to us and tries to hide from the "things" she see whilst writhing and crying. It's just horrific to watch and I'm really struggling.

We try and connect her to the room "look there's your fairy house" and that seems to bring her round and settled much faster but I'm worried that advice is "don't waken" but that seems cruel to me to let her continue to suffer. Aibu??

My ds suffered from night terrors it normally happened if he was ill. He is 12 now and hasnt had them for a couple of years.

We found that talking to him and reassuring him didnt help, the terror just went on for longer.

The things we found that helped were getting him to drink some water, washing his hands and coming downstairs to watch some cartoons. Sounds really odd but it worked. It seemed to get him 'back in the real world'

My ds was like this for years. He's 18 now and hasn't had a night terror for a few years. Last one was when he was ill with a fever. Horrible to watch as he was absolutely terrified. He used to go charging round the house so fast looking beyond scared and I used to really dread it happening. I feel for you.

The only think that ever disrupted my son's night terrors was pputting him on the loo!

Putting them on the loo is genius! I get night terrors. I wear a specific perfume at night to jog my memory so I can walk out of it using a script I memorised.

Work out a guided fantasy. Talk to her and guide her towards your voice then take her to safety.

I didnt know the advice was not to try and wake them. You cant really wake them ad such its more to bring them back to reality so i think you are doing them right thing by trying ti focus on something in the room.

Ds gets them sometimes, first one was with a fever but now randomly gets them and has started sleep walking too. Someone informed me the other day a med he's on can cause nightmares/night terrors. Must check that out and see if it's true.

I simply speak soothingly to him but might try drink or toilet next time.

Putting on loo is my absolute first port of call for distressed child at night. My younger siblings used to have awful night terrors and putting them straight on loo seemed to resolve things quickly.

Yes we've also done that with putting her on the loo. It just doesn't seem to break the cycle. I'm half to hear others suggesting that we are okay to try to get her back in the room. We do try and give her something to fix on or look at or talk about but it's so hard!!! Yes the NHS advice is not to wake or disturb. It's so counterintuitive to me as she is so distressed in that system I can't imagine worse could happen but awakening/focusing her on something else.

My DS(3) gets them too. They’re really horrid. Sometimes putting something on he iPad for him to watch helps, and sometimes giving him a job to do, bizarrely. I think the last time I told him I really needed his help to load the washing machine and it seems to sort of focus his mind. Sometimes nothing helps though. My ex-boyfriend’s little brother used to get them as a teenager - they started when he was 14, just after their mum died. He used to run around the house shouting and attacking inanimate objects, and was much too strong for anyone to keep hold of . Eventually I think he found that white noise helped him avoid having them, and so did making sure he wasn’t overtired when he went to bed. Not sure if either of those would help with a younger child though.

My dd had them a few times aged 2. I remember reading that a change of temperature on their body works at bringing them around so we used to just lay her on top of our bed which would have been a bit cooler. It must be the same reason people have success with the toilet, the colder seat must help.

My dp had night trrrors as a child-and he was very definite that when our two did that we should get them out of their bedrooms as quickly as possible and bring them into another room and make sure they were properly awake and had some thing to drink and watch a bit of telly or have a story before going back to bed. It seemed to work.

I remember mine.

Spiders and wasps and creatures all trying to twist me up and kill me eurgh... I’m still scared of some of the things.

I used to scream for my mum and see her coming in and I could see the things but she couldn’t it was fucking awful. I’d try and run out of the house too...

My mum used to bring me water/tea, throw a blanket over the ‘place they were in’ and cuddle me/ hot water bottle and read to me or tell me a story in her bed. Mostly it was get me in to her room ( safety) and out of my room ( danger).

Ah Lemonys that sounds so like what she goes through but she doesn't seem to remember them the next day. It's very strange!

One of mine used to get them if she was extremely overtired. It's horrible. I just used to sit with her until it passed and she'd just roll over and go back to sleep.