Waking up with out of control crying

[vallinnapod]

DS is 1. He was a very easy baby. Only ever woke to feed, didn't really cry just snuffled around. When he night weaned he would wake up, little cry but quickly back to sleep. He started sleeping through at 10 months.

For the last 5 nights he has woken in the middle of the night with full on inconsolable sobs and a real rage. We pick him up to comfort him but to no avail, he seems to recoil from any sort of touch and as it continues he starts to claw at our faces and bite our shoulders. At this point we put him down and he invariably goes back to sleep nearly immediately (the crying has been going on for an hour or so)

During the day he is a smiley, happy baby. Loves a cuddle, when it's nap time he will snuggle into you or a teddy bear (or sofa cushion! Although he has started biting my knee when he cruises along the sofa.

Pretty sure he is teething his molars but he has been for over 6 weeks with no sign of teeth. He has also had a bit of a bug (we all have) but that seems to have gone.

Anyone else with any experience of this? Am I being silly to think it could be a nightmare he is having?

He's having night terrors. My son went through them and they are horrible.

Not much you can do, unfortunately, except talk to him during them and let him smell you, believe it or not, so he knows it's you and/or your husband talking to him.

He just needs to outgrow them.

dd2 does this, but only once or twice weekly
it is horrible
i also assume she's having night terrors. like your ds, she gets worse if we take her out of the cot, so we just stay very close until the worst has passed.

This sounds like a text-book description of "Night Terrors" - see here for some advice.

Thanks for your help. Horrible to think of him having night terrors :( I can only hope it is something else at the moment as he seems a little young and it happens 5-6 hours after he first sleeps.

Fingers crossed for tonight.

Ours went through this as soon as she started teething. We never knew whether to blame teething directly, or night terrors, but she didn't even seem to register that we were there trying to comfort her.

It was a phase that passed... lots of patience.