dd 2 having "night terrors", any experience and advice gratefully taken!

[itsybitsy08]

Well title says it all really - this seems to be becoming more frequent, poor little soul is waking up screaming, body racking from sobs, shaking (about an hour after bedtime at 6.45) Its quite distressing to see her so so upset and she really does look terrified!

Any advice would be most appreciated, thanks ....

Poor thing. This seems to have just started for my DD1 (last night was a corker) and I have resorted to telling her that I can do a spell that keeps the bad dreams away (not quite true but maybe feeling protected will help her).
I'll let you know whether it does the trick...

Your poor dd too! It really is awful to see them so upset! That sounds like a nice idea, would be interested to see if it helps thanks

Bump

sounds like they might be nightmares, itsy, dd1 has them. all i can manage is to reassure her with a big cuddle and make sure she can see her nightlight. she also has night terrors but isnt usually awake with these -she shouts out randomly and we can hold a converstaion but she isnt actually awake. i find that doing plenty of reassurance before she goes to sleep sometimes helps, as well as just holding her when she shouts.they are worse when she is overtired or overstimulated.
good luck, it's not fun

Does she respond to anything at all? DS occasionally has night terrors, he has his eyes open, thrashes around and can even stand and walk (sort of) but is not really awake or conscious; and that means when he has one there is literally nothing we can do to help, as he doesn't respond to anything. I have found it is best if possible just to leave him in his cot and try to stroke/reassure him to make myself feel better, until it's over and he suddenly settles right back to sleep. I used to get him out and cuddle him but now he is bigger I think it's safer to leave him in so he is less likely to hurt himself thrashing about or leaping out of my arms! On the other hand if she wakes up properly it's more likely to be normal nightmares, so other things as suggested above might help.

If they are very regular, then changing what you do before bed might just help I suppose - maybe extra reassurances or a special cuddly toy to keep her safe, or watching what she eats and seeing if there are any patterns to when she gets them? Also if it is always round the same time, I wonder if something like the "wake to sleep" thing might help - where you go in a bit before the usual kick-off time and give them a bit of a nudge or whatever to stir them slightly without fully waking. That can help move them into the next part of sleep cycle or break any bad patterns - it's usually used for night wakings but might be worth trying for this?

You poor thing, it's horrible isn't it? How long has she been having them? If it's any comfort, my DS went through a phase about six months ago (when he had just turned 2)where he had exactly this experience practically every night for about 3-4 weeks, then it just suddenly stopped again. Sounds very similar - always within an hour or two of going to sleep, hysterical sobbing etc. We found that picking him up just made him worse, as he didn't know who we were . I just used to sit by the bed until he'd either settled back to sleep or woken up, and then comfort him if was awake. Since that few week period, he hasn't had a single one .

My dd also went through a short spell of this when she was 2, mainly when we were on holiday. What must the other guests have thought that we were doing to her?

I used to carry her around the room in the dark, stroking her, but she didn't seem to know I was there ... wore of fairly soon and hasn't happened since.