Covid nightmares 7yr old

[Whereismymind21]

Posting for traffic as got no replies in parenting…My 7 year old has recently returned to school post Covid isolation. She wasn’t very ill with it thankfully. She had a couple of nightmares during isolation but since she’s gone back to school, they’re every night and they’re awful..she won’t or can’t tell me what they’re about but when I get to her she’s crying and shaking. She goes back to sleep quite quickly when I lie with her and soothe her and doesn’t mention it the next morning. Has anyone else experienced this post Covid? Obviously avoiding something like the plague for almost 2 years and then getting it must be very tough on a 7 yr old and she has mentioned in isolation that she was embarrassed about it poor love. I hate to see her in such distress. I know everyone’s mental health has taken a battering over Covid..I really worry about the effect on the kids😞
Any advice on how to deal with this? Thanks for your wisdom

Poor baby. This has been such a crappy time for kids. No advice sorry but much sympathy.

Hopefully someone will be along with some proper advice op but in the meantime you’ve got me! Your poor dd, the nightmares could be caused by any number of things at the moment. My 5 year old is going through the night terrors and has no recollection in the morning but I would say they’re worse when she’s over tired, maybe your dd is particularly tired after fighting the virus. For us what has worked is making it very clear that if she has any worries she can talk to us and we’ll support her, since then they’ve dramatically decreased. Make sure she knows it’s the virus’s fault not hers. I would also have a quiet word with her teacher as they often have a very good insight with these things (the teachers at our school are bloody amazing).
So, ime just helping her to talk through her worries safely should help a great deal, hope she feels better soon.

I had terrible night sweats at about week 4 which had me waking up in a panic several times a night. Lasted about 10 days.

Thanks so much @reader12, @Phoenix76 and @catless for taking the time to reply and for your sympathy, advice and experience. Much appreciated. @Phoenix76 that’s great your teachers have been so good..really helps. I have spoken to her teacher but might do so again if they continue. Thanks again all 🙏

Hi, DD hasn’t had covid, but I thought it might be helpful to explain that at age seven she did suddenly change from being able to go to bed on own and fall asleep happily, to lying awake for hours panicking and crying about baddies coming to kidnap her / thieves etc. Nightmares etc. There was no apparent trigger for this, I did some reading about it and it seems to be an age thing (apparently 7-8 is a very common age to become afraid of death etc). I had to go back to cosleeping which we hadn’t done for years!! Oddly for us the night fears only stopped when she broke a bone and her ‘real problem’ seemed to suddenly make the imaginary problems unimportant. She says she remembers feeling scared and that it was very real, but now she just doesn’t feel that way anymore.

I hope your child feels better soon.

My then 10yo DD started getting nightmares when lockdown began so not quite the same as your DD. We made a dream catcher together (happened to have a kit she had been given for Xmas!) and talked about how dream catchers work (bad dreams get caught in them so they don't dream them and then they disappear in the sun). The 'magic' behind this seemed to work for DD as she only had the odd nightmare while it was above her bed.

Does she remember having the nightmares in the morning? I've had night terrors my whole life, and for most of my childhood I had no memory whatsoever of waking up and crying and screaming. Even now I only remember about 50% of the times it happens. And it definitely doesn't haunt me the morning after. (I often feel like a right twat for waking my kids up with the news that there is a giant bird in the bedroom or whatever, but I'm not upset by the memory!)

According to my DM, the thing that helped the most when I was little was a rigid routine and an early bedtime. I was fine either way, but my parents definitely got a much nicer night's sleep when I was well rested.

If your DD is upset by the memory of her nightmares, or if you think there's something else troubling her, then obviously ignore me. But it it is night terrors - don't panic, it doesn't mean anything sinister and she's probably just a bit baffled by everyone insisting that she's been upset in the night!