My 19 month old has had a fever the last couple of days. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it but I thought I'd mention it since the possible "night terrors" started around the same time.
He has been really fidgety while sleeping. He'll cry and moan a bit and move and kick a lot. This is unusual for him.
This morning he woke up crying uncontrolabley. He seemed to have his eyes closed too. I couldnt do anything to console him. Finally after a few minutes of holding, hugging, singing, etc...I turned on the lights and gave him a bottle. He finally calmed down.
Has anyone experienced this? Any insight or advice is appreciated....
Thank you, everyone, for your responses and advice.
Jacob only had the crying episode that one time and his eyes were closed so I don't believe it was night terrors anymore. I think it was fever related (like you all suggested) and he just wasn't feeling good.
His fever is gone and he is sleeping back to normal! :-)
I would take him to the pediateician, could be an ear infection. My kids have had lots of problems sleeping when they had ear infections-they hurt!
Could just be the fever. I know that when my daughter is sick like that she will moan and cry in her sleep. Almost like she can't get comfortable so she is moving around alot. I would just try to keep him as comfortable as possible. But I would say it's because he doesn't feel well. Good Luck and I hope he feels better soon.
Fever can lead to night terrors. Generally, night terrors will occur around the same time of night for the child because they are related to the sleep cycle, but when a fever is the trigger I don't know if that is the case. With night terrors, the child will be inconsolable and it's generally best not to try to wake them from it because they're not truly awake. In my experience, like Janie's, my daughter's eyes were wide open and she would not respond to me at all, but I don't know if their eyes will always be open. I wrote about my experience and our conversation with our pediatrician here: http://www.purebebe.com/blog/2010/08/25/night-terrors-mor...
Since it seems yours may be triggered by fever, hopefully that means they'll be short-lived and will go away once he feels better. If the fever and night terrors continue, I'd definitely talk to your pediatrician about it. Hope this helps!
My youngest has strange open-eyed night terrors. He can be in hysterics with his pupils dilated, and doesn't seem to know we're there. It can take a lot to wake him, usually we end up carrying him around the house, trying to get him to focus on things. Usually the best things to help him wake are the little coloured lights on the DVD player.
our daughters night terrors seemed to be related to being overtired....she was missing naps and napping too long....because she was sick...we did this everynight for a month and a half....it seemed to be about 30-45 minutes a night she would scream uncontrollably open eyed though.....
it could deff be sickness related also....it will iron out.
Hi,
We are experiencing night terrors with our 19 month old as well. For about the past 6 months or so he's had them and they are terrible. :( It is recommended that you do not attempt to wake them but try to softly and quietly soothe them while they are sleeping. Now from my own experience, this can be rather difficult to do but they say not to attempt waking them. We've just quietly say things to our son like "you're OK, mommy and daddy are here, you're in your bed," etc. If it's really bad and he's really crying terribly, we'll pick him up, rock him for a minute and then put him back into his bed where he'll quiet down and be OK. Best of luck, the night terrors are not fun at all.
