Night terrors at 18 months?

[terryandthechocolateorange]

Anyone else have experience of toddlers having night terrors this early?

DD has never been a good sleeper but is currently waking once or twice a nice screaming, catatonic and obviously scared. It takes letting her watch something on telly or taking her for a walk to calm her down which is tough at 3am.

It's horrible. Anyone have any tips?

My LO went through a short phase of these at 15 months which is apparently very young, but they were definitely night terrors. He was having several a night for about 10 days straight, it was horrendous. We found the best thing was to just be next to his cot but to not pick him up or even touch him. It was awful listening to him scream but they did end quicker if we just comforted from afar.

My DS also had these very early as a toddler. I can’t remember exactly what age now but I would say 14/15 months. He would be absolutely inconsolable even when I picked him up from the cot and tried to comfort/wake him fully - he would be trying to get out of my arms but then if I put him down he would be equally upset and crying his little heart out.

What worked for me was getting a bottle of milk in his mouth (although he would fight that to start with - which showed even more clearly that he didn’t know what was going on). Once I insisted and the teat went in, he would calm down thank god. He hasn’t had any terrors in the last few months touch wood and I’m praying they’re gone forever!

I read here that someone used to have to put their daughter in the shower cause she loved water and so that would snap her out of it! My son loves his milk (not that that’s unusual) so maybe do whatever your DD loves best during normal times to calm her down quickly?