Night terrors?

[SpanglyGiraffe]

26 month old DS has recently started screaming and getting hysterical a couple of hours after he's gone to bed. It's happened once or twice in the last few months, but this week it's happened several times.

He thrashes about, kicks me, bites me, pulls my hair etc and gets really, really distressed. The only thing I can do to calm him down is to bring him downstairs and give him a bottle of milk. He then instantly changes, calms right down, and just sits there on my lap in a daze.

It occurred to me tonight while he was doing it that he might still be asleep while he's doing it. It was only after he'd had some milk for about 5 minutes that he opened his eyes and became alert.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Is there anything I can do to help him? It's horrible to watch

It does sound a bit like night terrors to me. I seem to think I read somewhere that when they have them you shouldn't intervene as it can prolong it or something? As far as I am aware, they can happen more if your LO is overtired.

Here read this

What's his daytime routine looking like at the moment? Is he still napping?

Agree with omama. If they appear to be asleep and don't register you when you go into their room, it is probably night terrors. Not to be confused with nightmares, the former are physiological and the latter are mental/emotional conditions.

I've heard that overtiredness is the main cause of night terrors and certainly waking a few hours after going to bed is also a sign of overtiredness.

Thank you both I agree he definitely is over tired.
When he stays with me during the week, he's awake anywhere from 5 and refuses to have a nap if he's with me. However if he's with my mum during the day he'll nap for about 2 hours, and he does the same when he goes to his dads. He'll also sleep up until 7am when he's with dad, it's very frustrating!
Thanks for the link, it's very interesting. I think I need to concentrate on getting him sleeping in his bed all night again, as he might sleep longer in the mornings if he's in his own room, and then be less tired. He goes to sleep at 7, but maybe I should bring it forward a little bit.

I'd definitely bring BT earlier on days he has no nap, esp if he is waking at 5am. I'd probably shoot for 6pm bedtime at the latest. Even with that, its still a long day but it might be enough to just get him to sleep in a bit later in the morning. Even if he still wakes at 5am, he will have had an extra hour's sleep IYSWIM?

Does he go to sleep independently when he's at home? And does he take naps in his cot/bed? Is the napping arrangement when he's at your mum's/his dad's the same?

Yeah i think i'll give getting him to sleep a bit earlier a go. He goes down fine at 7 in his own bed, no problems at all. He has a nap at his dads in his bed, and i've moved back in with my mum, so he's having a two hour nap for her in his usual bed.
The only way i can occasionally get him to nap is if he's at home with me,giving him a bottle and giving him a cuddle on the sofa. Either that or he might sleep for 30 minutes or so if we're out and he's in his pushchair.
I think tbh it's just really bad habits that we've both fallen into a rut with. He used to sleep all night for me and nap during the day, so i know he's capable of doing it!