Uncontrollable screaming during the night

[AC14MUZ]

Hi All,

My DS1 who up until recently has been a decent sleeper wakes in the early hours screaming and thrashing uncontrollably. Nothing soothes him and he screams for ages. Right now it’s been going on for 45 minutes none stop. Last night it was over an hour. The night before it was almost three hours. Milk doesn’t work, cuddling doesn’t work, me sleeping in his room doesn’t help. It’s not his nappy, not teething, not poorly. Going in periodically does nothing. I am going crazy with the lack of sleep.

Nothing in his routine has changed, this literally came out of nowhere. His naps haven’t changed, diet is the same, nothing has changed in his room.

Previously if he ever did wake in the night he’s be straight back to sleep with a bottle. But now he screams and screams.

Has anyone else had this? What do I do? I’m reallj struggling to cope.

How old is he?

Pain? Try some paracetamol just in case, a dose won't hurt to see if it helps.

Could be night terrors. Two of mine had them at around age 3. If you touch them it makes it worse. Talking to them calmly or playing soothing music they are familiar with helped.

How old is he?

Are you sure he is not teething? Esp molars or pre molars?

Ear infection?

Night terrors?

He will be two in a few weeks. He’s not teething. We’ve tried calpol but that doesn’t seem to do anything and I didn’t want to keep giving it

Take him to your GP in the morning. It might be night terrors or it might be pain.

Leg ache?

Sounds like night terrors.
I used to play the nursery rhyme cd that they liked and that usually worked.
Touching/ talking only makes it worse.

Sounds like night terrors. My dd used to get them terribly at that age. I found that they seemed to correlate with change...a new nursery, change in routine, travel, new people in our lives. Dd is now 16 and still gets agitated with certain types of stressors (and not with others which bother her peers). You just need to figure out what agitates your ds and as others have mentioned, make sure bedtime prep is very soothing and probably longer than you think it needs to be.

Yes, trying to touch or cuddle or wake them up does not help and makes it worse. They will not remember in the morning, if that's any consolation. That's how I differentiated between night terrors and night mares (dd got/gets both). Nightmares will wake her up and she remembers them in the morning.