Son (2.5) wakes into a tantrum - all the time?

[FloydP]

My son who is 2.5 is sleeping badly and waking into tantrums all of the time. He wakes and doesn't seem to know where he is and starts crying. Most of the time we cant calm him down.

He is sleeping in our room all the time now. I am fine with that but worried that he might simply be a light sleeper and that hes being woken up all the time by us feeding the baby. Or maybe hes not sleeping properly because of the new baby. We have a new baby so perhaps that is the reason, is he feels threatened?

He wont go into his room and becomes hysterical when we even hint at him going into his own bed, even just for a story, and he won't play in there any more.

If anyone has advice on this or has similar experiences please feel free to let me know!

My little sister had this from about the same age and the Dr said it was 'night terrors'. We weren't offered any treatment for it and just advised to wait for it to sort itself out and calm her when she needed to be calmed down. The guidance for how to deal with them may have changed since then so it might be worth going to your Dr.

Hi Floyd

My DD1 (2.8) is doing almost exactly the same thing. She throws herself around, crying and sometimes talks too - all while asleep. We have a new baby in the house too DD2 is 3 months. While her sleep is much more disturbed since the new arrival, its never been great.

Does your son still have a nap? We have found that DD1 is always worse when overtired and have reintroduced an afternoon snooze (not always popular or practical). As long as she is woken up before 3pm it doesnt imapact on her bedtime.

When having a bad night she can have up to 5 of these episodes - we have resisted letting her into our bed, so far. DP goes and sleeps on her floor instead, bless him.

I have tried a spray (water) which we DD1 and I use before getting into bed. This magic spray keeps all monsters away - not really sure if this is working but she cant wait to get upstairs to spray .

We're not out of the woods yet and I'd love to hear of any other tips from parents who have suffered similar.