Night Terrors in 3yr old.

[CheekyVimtoGal]

My son is 3 and a half and he is waking up up to 5 times a night screaming and uncontrollable. Says he had a bad dream but sometimes neither me or my husband can comfort him because he just cries.

My husband suffered from nightmares as a child and still does. Would this a reason for his night terrors?

Anyone elses child suffer from this and how did you curb them? Its very settling for him, he doesnt watch scary TV and has a book before bed, usually Thomas the tank or Spot.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

I have no experience of waking this many times, but DS1 did suffer from Night Terrors, between about 18months and 6 or 7. They (as opposed to Nightmares) happened before 10pm, and he'd be inconsolable, crying, sometimes pointing at things that weren't there, and apparently asleep with his eyes open. Very scary before I knew what they were. He could never talk to me, and never remembered even having them (unlike nightmares).

So, maybe you need to see if these are Night Terrors or Nightmares.

Nightmares seem to start up around age 3 or 4, and tend to occur later in the night

The only thing that helped was for me or DH to go in, speak very gently, and sing to him. He didn't really seem aware of us, but he'd calm down fairly quickly and go back to sleep.

Hopefully someone with more experience will be along soon

I also posted in Chat. and some replied to me which was very useful. Yes they are night terrors, he seems awake but he isnt. Hve spoken to the nurse at the Drs this morning but she wasnt helpful at all.

My ds1 gets these. He is 6 and started about a year ago. They do eventually grow out of them but of course it is very upsetting for us when they happen. We have a routine that we click in to as soon as the signs start - we both talk to him gently and put a cartoon on for him - it seems to distract him out of the 'terror' enough for us to calm him down. Then he falls asleep. We tried other things but this works best for us and doesn't prolong the distress.

These tend to happen after a very emotional, tiring or exciting day, we've noticed.