[CrazyCatLady]

Anybody have any advice on how to help a toddler through these? It's been going on since she was almost a year old. Except it took until now for me to figure out what is going on. Maybe once a month, for 2-3 nights in a row. My dd will start screaming in her sleep. She screams, kicks violently, will hit you if you try and touch her, the more you try and help the worse it gets, she throws herself around so violently that it's hard to keep her from hurting herself on things, but you can't hold her or pick her up either.

All we've been able to do so far is hold her tight, turn on the lights, try and get her to wake up by bouncing her a bit and maybe turning on the tv or something. Usually she'll wake up after about 25 minutes of hard crying and if we can get her to eat or drink, then she'll snap out of it. But then it takes another two hours before she wants to sleep again.

Any advice on how to prevent these? Or how to help her "wake up" faster? Or maybe how to help her go back to sleep after it's over? She doesn't understand words very well, so we can't explain much to her. Thanks in advance

 

[Jaydens_mom]

wow that just weirded me out...

Are you saying she does all this while STILL ASLEEP? or is she waking up and throwing these weird sessions?

 

[CrazyCatLady]

Her eyes are sometimes semi open (kind of), but it's obvious that she isn't really with us or fully awake yet. It takes at least 30-45 minutes before she's really awake. I used to think it was teething, or a tummy ache, or being over tired, etc. But we've ruled all those things out now and just last night I realized what's really going on (at least what I think is going on). But yeah, the screaming, thrashing around, and beating us up seems to be while she's still sleeping.

 

[Jaydens_mom]

i don't exactly know what seizures are like... but have you taken her to the doctors about this? is it maybe seizures?

 

[mmfoote]

Hi!

Our son has night terrors too and it took us a while to figure it out. From what I've read, its basically just a symptom of a developing brain, which happens more often when the child is sleep deprived (not like we have much control over that!) Instead of having their dreams in REM or light sleep, they are having it in their stage 4 or 5 deep sleep. The child will have no recollection of their dream and will not be more tired in the morning from it (if you just let them sleep.) It is actually scarier for the parent than it is for the child.

What we do with my son is stay near but try not to touch him or say anything, because any contact or sounds make it worse. Within about 5 minutes, he will fall back into a deep sleep. If I try to intervene or comfort him, it will make it much worse. I know its hard not to comfort your child during an episode of night terrors, but it usually works best just to be around to make sure they're safe and not do anything else.

If you wake the child up, they will just be more disoriented and confused because they have been woken straight up out of their deep sleep. From what I've read (thanks Dr. Sears), night terrors usually happen in the first few sleep cycles of the night. You might track what time they are occuring and if it is a similar time at night, you can go in about 30 minutes before and just kind of rustle around so their sleep cycle is a little disturbed and comfort them back to sleep.

And I guess its just something you grow out of as your body develops. Some grow out of it when they reach school-age, others not till puberty or adulthood.

Hope this helps!

ETA: Just wanted to add that, yes, a lot of times, the child's eyes will be open during a night terror, but they are not truly awake and really will not remember any of what happened (like sleepwalking). And please feel free to PM me if you have more questions. I'm certainly not an expert, but I've learned some things from other moms whose kids have night terrors and we'd probably learn something from each other too!

 

[flminivanmama]

the only thing that worked for us was to go in about 20 minutes after ds fell asleep and slightly rouse him. we only had to do this for a week or two IIRC untill they stopped completely

 

[CrazyCatLady]

That does help, thanks a lot. But it also makes me wonder some. I would have believed the sleep deprived thing before. But she started school about a month ago, and now for the first time has been on a schedule and finally gets a good regular amount of sleep.

I also think it would be better sometimes if we didn't try and comfort her. But we have no where to let her be at. She kicks and rolls and flips so hard. There is no way to keep her on the bed or anywhere else. She just violently bangs herself into something no matter how much we try to pad the area. Heck, she'll climb over the pillows and find a wall to smash herself into. I have a play pen that we've never used. Maybe I could set it up for this? She would be safe in there. But wouldn't that be like cio? Sometimes her daddy holding her seems to help. But most of the time our helping does make it worse.

Guess I have a lot of questions about this. Thanks again

 

[mmfoote]

I know...it is really hard not to try to help. We cosleep, so I am always right there when it happens and the times when I try to help, my son kicks and flails for at least 20 minutes and then sleeps even more horribly once he finally seems to wake up from the sleep terror. When I don't intervene, really it is only 5-10 minutes at the most. And he really has no idea that it happens. One time, I asked him how he slept last night and he said fine. I said, "Really, you seemed like you were having a bad dream or your teeth were hurting because you were crying and screaming." He looked at me and laughed and said, "No, silly mama!"

: It really is harder on us.

My son is blocked in on one side by pillows and me on the other side, so he doesn't hurt himself yet. That is a hard one for you if she is really moving about. Maybe the playpen would work and then when she fell back asleep, you could move her back to her bed? I'm trying to think of ways you could just block her in when its happening but not have to move her or touch her since a hands-off policy seems to be best for night terrors.

Quote:

I would have believed the sleep deprived thing before. But she started school about a month ago, and now for the first time has been on a schedule and finally gets a good regular amount of sleep.

But who knows...maybe those are the days when she had more physical activity or her body is growing or she's fighting an infection? Or maybe a more stressful day?

If you get a chance, get a copy of Dr. Sears "The Baby SLeep Book" from the library..there's just a small section on night terrors, but it helps...maybe his website too? Haven't had a chance to look at that...

ETA: (Always more thoughts!) Sleep terrors are supposedly genetic. Don't know about that one because neither my husband or I know of having had them,but we haven't talked to our parents about it either, so maybe its somewhere in the gene pool!

 

[greensmile]

My son only had these before he was diagnosed with celiac disease, once we eliminated all gluten they were gone forever. he still sleep walked for along time though. there is a blood test for that now, 1/133 americans have it , most are undiagnosed. Just a possibility.