Night terrors or tantrums?!

[thenoisytimetravelstudent]

When three year old DD was younger (12-18months) night terrors started when the teething got bad. We didn't sleep for three months! Looking back I don't know how we did it, there were full on screaming sessions in the cot 2-3 times a night.

This week she has been a bit under the weather. Temperatures runny noses and pale and tired. The terrors or tantrums are back we don't know how to face it again. There is dd2 in the house as well; we work long hours and are already exhausted! On top of that poor dd1 is obviously miserable during them!

Has anyone else experienced something like this? I understand high temperatures can cause dreams but surely calpol would keep that under control?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I don't know much about night terrors but they happen when a child is asleep and you shouldn't wake them as it can happen repeatedly as they happen in a certain part of the sleep cycle (not sure if it's light or deep sleep) but if you wake they start the cycle again and have the potential to have another night terror.

I would suggest the "tantrums" you mention aren't in temper and neither is there anything in what you have written that suggests night terrors.

On both occassions you give clear reason a why baby will want extra reassurance - teething when younger. Poorly now.

So what is making you call these tantrums? I would suggest it is just the child being extra upset because of a specific reason (pain, feeling poorly) and wanting more cuddles than normal. If those cuddles are denied, or not given in the amounts child needs to feel adequately comforted, the crying will get worse. That isn't a tantrum. It's just what toddlers do when upset in the night.

I would imagine her runny nose makes it harder to breath. Very difficult to breath if wanting to comfort suck on a dummy too. Then the temperature and general poorliness is naking her feel absolutely rotten when she does wake up.

So practical solutions:

• raise her head to help breathing.
• Calpol and/or ibruprophen for the temperature
• then your time and cuddles, given freely when poorly. How about bringing her into your bed? Or setting a mattress up on the floor of her room to sleep on?

I call them night terrors because in the early stages it was clear that she was still asleep. During this she would be upset and no attempt at cuddles or reassurance could comfort that - any attempts did make it worse. I am not withholding that from her. I agree and understand that waking her is not the best thing here but I hate to see her distraught and I am unable to comfort her.

Sometimes I think it's a tantrum because I know she doesn't understand what's happening and is scared and once away is often still inconsolable and has difficulty calming down.

She is off to bed tonight with calpol to try invade the low fever returns in the night, we'll see how it goes.

Literally have the exact same! My little girl started when she was about same age and has night terrors during the night when shes poorly or started nursery but she always has them during naps and i can never tell if she has woken in a terrble paddy or if its a night terror vecsuse she never paddys like this and there the same as when she has night terrors but not sure if they are if that makes any sense cant help you as i have no idea myself but going through the same :(