Midnight tantrums!

[Big D]

My 2.5 yr old seriously wakes up in the middle of the night to throw a temper tantrum!

I sleep in a seperate room with our 1 month old, and DH sleeps with the 2 yr old.

It always starts out with just a little wimper in between sleep cycles, then he starts using his "I like to hear my own voice" cry/scream.  Soon it escalates into all out hysterics and nobody can calm him down.  He starts saying things like "I want a blanket" (whether he has one or not) and then immediately says "I don't want a blanket!"  Or he'll tell whoever is in the room with him to "leave" over and over until they actually make some move to leave and then he repeatedly shouts "stay!"  

This literally goes on for hours!  He never exhausts himself enough to calm down or go back to sleep without interventions, but of course what works one night doesn't work the next.  We are running out of ideas of what to do!

Has anyone else had to deal with something like this?

Any idea what's going on here?

Any suggestions?

Any sympathy...?  

[OurLittleNest]

I've dealt with exactly that. She would scream and cry for something, and then reject when it you gave it to her. If she wanted a bottle, she would cry for it. And if you gave it to her, she would throw it at you. If you she wanted Daddy, she cry for him, and when he went near her she would hit him. We think these were "night terrors" but I never learned anything helpful to deal with them except to just wait it out. The only thing that worked for us was to turn on the TV. She would watch it -- sometimes start crying and then become engrossed in the show again -- and eventually she would make a complete turn-around. So that was our plan: Turn on Care Bears. Because anything else -- comforting her, holding her, touching her, giving her a bottle or sippy cup, leaving her alone, anything -- would make her more upset. The doctor said she would eventually grow out of it and I think she might have because she hasn't had one in a few months. I never could figure out the trigger for these episodes. They would come and go. Sometimes most nights for weeks and then it wouldn't happen for a couple months. So yeah, as much as I hate sitting her in front of a TV at all, this was the only consistent way we found to get her to "snap out of it." Good luck.

[Daffodil]

My DD used to do the same thing at the same age. It didn't go on for hours with her, but at least once or twice it probably lasted an hour. It seemed to be somewhat more likely when she was sleeping in a strange place (like when we were visiting her grandma), but there was no clear trigger. Sometimes nursing her helped get her over it. I never could figure out whether it was night terrors or not. The descriptions of night terrors usually make it sound like the kid is totally unaware of what's going on in reality, but she seemed to be able to understand what people were saying and reply to it (mostly by saying "no!"), just like your kid. That stage didn't last long - probably just a few months. I think every time I've seen a post on MDC about kids doing this, it's been kids who were around 2.5.

[HeliMom]

Oh I'm so glad you asked about this. I thought it was just her having issues with the new baby and venting at night, but my DD is 2.5 and doping the same thing too.

[Learning_Mum]

My boys have done similar things. Mainly it seems to be when they wake up when they don't want to. If that makes sense. Basically they seem to wake up and are pissed about it and then get themselves so worked up they can't go back to sleep.

No ideas for it except I would probably end up leaving the room while they had a tantrum but then I have zero patience in the middle of the night.