not coping very well with my toddlers screaming - please help

[babymutha]

My DD was 2 in December, and for about the last year or so has had a big sleep issue- always crying and screaming when she wakes up. She started having night terrors in October after we left her with my mum for the weekend - she'd have up to 3 a night, and could take up to an hour to settle after each one. Slowly they calmed down, so now she has 1 or 2 a week. But she can cry/scream/yell for an hour and a half when she wakes up after her afternoon nap and for about 45mins when she wakes at night. I try everything to soothe her; cuddles, talking to her, asking her what's wrong (she talks well), rocking, offering milk/food... but it's like she's a big newborn - she just screws up her eyes, arches her back, kicks and screams, endlessly. I've even wondered if these are tantrums and left her and walked out of the room, but it doesn't make any difference. Does anyone else have this? I feel I can't leave her with a baby sitter, so I hardly ever go out. My sister looks after her 1 day a week while I work and is really perturbed by her crying and always mentions it. She was such a happy baby and would wake up smiling and gurgling in our bed beaming at us - any ideas?

could you go to gp and get referred to sleep clinic to assess what's really going on we had sleep therapist come out to us when ds was younger not for same thing but they do deal with how to handle everything

my friends ds had lots of sleep terrors she was told to keep diary record what food/drink has before sleep, what times he woke if it was similar time every time she had to go in and wake him 15 min s before to prevent the terror

he rarely has any now i think his growing out of them his nearly 4 but it was hard for her from 1-3

thanks bubbla, I think I will try it.

let us know how you get on and i'll ask my friend what else if anything she tried from the sleep clinic think ive told you all she had to do to start with was the monitoring