Toddler night terrors?

743 Views 10 Replies 8 Participants Last post by mthomas, Jun 17, 2004

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Discussion Starter · Jun 7, 2004

Hi. My 17 month old ds has started having night terrors again. At least that is what I THINK they are.
He wakes up from a sound sleep and he acts like he is possessed. I am not exaggerating! His eyes are wide, he screams, cries, bats me away like he does not know me, and thrashes about when I try to hold him and rock him.
I've tried singing, rocking, milk/water(won't take it), nighttime story, etc. It takes him a good hour to get back to sleep.

Any one else have a young toddler that is or has gone through this??
Any advice on how to deal with it and prevent it from happening?

Thanks!
Liz

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CartersMomma

· #2 · Jun 11, 2004

My 3 yr. old ds has night terrors too. He usually goes back to sleep fairly easy though. We think there is a DEFINITE correlation between watching tv before bed and the waking. It doesn't matter what it is that he watched (for awhile we were watching "Emeril" before bed).

I also had a friend who went through it, and all that worked for her was holding her ds, and in time it passed.

Best of luck to you dear!

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kiwimutti

· #3 · Jun 15, 2004

i was looking for someone else experiencing this! my dd is 3 and just the last few nights wakes up several times and goes into this kind of confusion, really up set, nothing i do calms her (we try sitting on the potty,usually she goes or having a sip of water) and i end up getting quite frustrated (im half asleep too).its kind of frightening almost.
We thought what it might be is that shes been watching quite a bit of tv too (we've only had one for a few months) when im at work and shes home with dh. so we've unplugged it and are going to see if that makes a difference. (also we have been having terrible fights and i know thats got to be traumatizing for her.that one seems like an obvious one)

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Geofizz

· #4 · Jun 15, 2004

Wowee. I think we had our first night terror last night. It was awful. DD hasn't seen any TV for a couple of months, so that's not it in our case. The only thing that was different about yesterday was that we ate dinner quite late and bedtime was immediately afterwards. Poor girl was just screaming. There's a mirror on the back of her door and she kept grabbing at it like she wanted it off the door. She also seemed to need to see both me and DH, but she didn't want to be held. After about 20 minutes of histerics, I got her to nurse in our bed as long as there was some light on in the room. It took more than an hour to fall back to sleep nursing. DH moved to the couch after she went to sleep, and she asked where he was when she woke up again 3 hours later, though was easily reassured that he was just on the couch.

I'm hoping this was a one time thing.

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BoobyJuice

· #5 · Jun 15, 2004

We just took our 19 mo ds2 to the dr last week to have him checked for any physical reasons he'd be waking up screaming - ears were perfect and no teeth coming in. It's just like you described though - he's possessed. It isn't crying, it's screaming. He tries to hit us, doesn't want to be picked up, wants out of the room. Our dr said he was "too young" for night terrors. Don't know what else to call this but it's exhausting us. It definitly might be the tv with us. He went from never watching it to fascinated with it recently.

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Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 16, 2004

My ds started these quite a few months ago. His pediatrician said it IS 'night terrors' and that it usually happens when they are going through a developmental surge. He said it is not from too much tv. My ds doesn't watch much tv so that definitely wouldn't be the problem in our case.
Doc actually said theres not much you can do while they are having these episodes except sing a familiar lullaby or recite a short familiar book. Apparantly, it comforts them. I tried it an it works!! Yay! I just wish i could find a way to avoid the night terrors to begin with.

Good luck to everyone,
Liz

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Geofizz

· #7 · Jun 16, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizc
My ds started these quite a few months ago. His pediatrician said it IS 'night terrors' and that it usually happens when they are going through a developmental surge.

Thanks for the update. I wonder what surprises our daughter may have in store for us with regards to development.

Quote:

Doc actually said theres not much you can do while they are having these episodes except sing a familiar lullaby or recite a short familiar book. Apparantly, it comforts them. I tried it an it works!! Yay! I just wish i could find a way to avoid the night terrors to begin with.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try to keep that in mind if this happens again.

Last night was quiet, thankfully.

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yeah yeah yeah

· #8 · Jun 17, 2004

It's normal for really young children.

They have to do with brain chemistry. I still have them during periods of high stress; past a certain age it's indicative of mild epilepsy (I also violently twitch at certain sound pitches). I don't want to scare anyone, but, I thought, "hey, it's info," so I'll throw it out there.

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CartersMomma

· #9 · Jun 17, 2004

This is TOTALLY unscientific, but yeah yeah's post made me think.....in my circle of friends, the kids that have had terrors have all been of the high need/intense personality/spirited child variety......hmmmmm! I guess my personal theory with my son has been #1 that watching tv seems to trigger it, not CAUSE it (too intense,revs up an already revved up brain), and #2 that his intensity has always carried through into the night time too, from infancy. I spent an awful long time waiting for him to "sleep all night", thinking there was something wrong with him, wrong with me, etc...but he has always had his sleep affected by every little milestone/stressor/etc. (but he does have mostly peaceful nights by now, age 3.5) We have eliminated all evening television (he doesn't watch all that much anyway) and in our house, it has made a difference.

My dd does not seem to be like me son, from the womb through her first 5 months at least! She is much more laid back and is a WAY better sleeper. It will be interested to see how my theory tests out

I know this is not an answer to most peoples issues, just my experience, okay?

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Quillian

· #10 · Jun 17, 2004

Lack of sleep,stress and changes in family set up brought on night terrors for my ds at arond 21mo. He had them for about a week or two and they were scary. I did some research and if they form a time pattern wake them about 15 min prior and this interruption can stop a terror from coming on. Get good naps if possible during the day as well and minimize any stress.

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mthomas

· #11 · Jun 17, 2004

i read something abt like similar to above poster. I read that if you wake them abt 2 hrs into sleep it disrupts their sleep cycle enuf that it'll "skip" over the night terrors. Also, children who experiance night terrors are also likely to experiance sleep walking. Just an FYI.
I did both and my daughter has done both.

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