My son who is 19 months old woke up the other night as I was checking on him ion hysterics. He was screaming and when we tried to comfort him, he arched his back screaming and kicking. This went on for 15 minutes and then we put him back to bed because we were afraid he would hurt himself or someone else. It was like he wasn't really aware of anything around him though (his eyes look like those of someone who had been sleepwalking).
We checked on him about 10 minutes after laying him back down and he was upset, but more aware and his eyes registered we were there. You could tell he responded to us, before he wouldn't. We hugged him and kept him up for a bit and then put him back to bed and he fell asleep just fine.
Does anyone have any experience with this? It seemed like he was having a nightmare but didn't wake up until later. I don't know much about night terrors, but wonder if maybe it could have been a night terror.
We figured it may have been brought on by all the stressful changes with bringing home the new baby, but want to make sure he's ok. Any suggestions or advice is appreciated.
Thanks for all the advice and reassurance. We tried several of the suggestions and have been keeping him on a strict schedule. The changes seems to be working. He now seems a lot more adjusted. Thanks again!
Sounds like night terrors to me. My one son used to have them. Luckily he is 10 now and it's been maybe two years since he's had any.
Myson does that all of the time. That is why i usually wait a few minutes to see if he will settle himself before I enter the room. Most times he settles right back to sleep as if nothing happened. If I enter the room it is before letting him work his issue out he would wake up as if he did not know what was going on. Good luck and congrats on the new little one.
hi M.
my daughter is 9 yrs old but when she was little and up to even now she has done this
at your sons age it was not too bad but when she was like 2 she started having what i found they are called night terrors and still to this day i dont really know the reason why she has them still but she also has adhd and the doctor said that it has alot to do with her night terrors
the medicine that she is on makes them go away
so i would bring this to the doctors attendtion
My son is 16 now but when he was around that age, he had night terrors. It sounds exactly what you went through is a night terror. It is very frightening but all you can do is make sure they do not hurt themselves while kicking and arching around. Nothing can be done for it and they do grow out of it. Also, they don't even remember anything about it.Just hang in there for now and it will get better and go away. I hope this has eased some of your fears?
~T.~
We just went through the same thing with our son. His new sister was born when he was 20 months old and about 3 weeks after she arrived he started having night terrors. It occurred every night for a week and then stopped.
I would go into his room and gently rub his back but I tried not to pick him up, figuring it was safest for him to be in his crib. Either my husband or I would stay with him until the terror was over and then we'd make sure he was settled back in before returning to bed. A few nights we would bring him into our room just to cuddle, more for our own peace of mind than anything else. It does sound to me like your little guy is experiencing night terrors and that you did the right thing. Good luck!
My son has those too (he's 3). We have noticed that most of the time they occure when we are "out of our element". Meaning, at the beach, in a different bed, go to sleep late, etc. They only thing I have found that helps him to come out of it is to physically remove him from that room. I pick him up and take him to the bathroom or somewhere with a light on (not super bright though) and just comfort him. He usually snaps out of it pretty fast that way. Otherwise, if I leave him in the bedroom, he can keep "waking up" like that several times. I only found out to remove him from the room because we were at the beach with friends and he woke up screaming and everyone else was sleeping (including 3 other young children) and I had to try to get him to stop so he wouldn't wake everyone up. I honestly think you will just have to deal with it until he outgrows it. Good luck!
My son, who is now 12, wakes occasionally with night terrors. He is sleep walkin for the first 5-10 min, literally still in his nightmare. It's pretty scary. He usually doesn't realize we are the ones talkin to him at first, and is explainin "omg, they are right there", (or whatever he's dreaming aobut )but then somehow snaps outta the dream, we assure he's awake and everything is ok, then he goes right back to sleep.
My daughter, who is about 5, wakes occasionally with growing pains. She usually wakes up screamin and crying, sayin her legs or arms hurt and could I rub them. Sometimes I give her motrin or tylenol if rubbing them for 10 min doesn't seem to help.
It's a barrel of fun, I tell ya, and they are perfectly healthy normal kids otherwise.
Good Luck.
Hi M.,
This happened to my husband and I with our daughter Kendall when she was around 16 months or maybe a little younger...she is now 31 months. You did the right thing. What happened when this happened to us was we basically freaked out and tried to talk to her, change her, and even hold her and she kept backing away and freaking out. She ended up falling asleep and waking up and not even remembering what happened. This maybe happened twice and both times she didn't remember the next day. She still cries sometimes in the middle of the night but I don't remember anytime recently that she has done that. I actually called my pediatrician about it and she said it could have been a bad dream and if she doesn't remember to just let it go and deal with them as they come and if they come. Children are simply a very young version of us. They dream peacefully and have nightmares. Just take it in stride and treat every experience the same way. I always find that it helps to comfort both if you ask if they had a bad dream even if they don't answer. The sound of your voice soothes and comforts them even if they happned to be still "sleeping" when this happens.
I am a 25 year old working mom with a 31 month old daughter.
My name is M.
I know you received plenty of responses, but I had to write since I just spoke about this issue with my pediatrician 2 weeks ago. He said that this is a 'night terror' usually brought on by stress (probably the baby like you suggested). He said it is ok to go into the child's room to calm him/her and make sure they are safe, but don't turn on lights or try to wake the child. Even if their eyes are open they aren't usually awake. It's hard to tell sometimes, but you'll figure out the queues. Hopefully it won't continue much longer - you certainly don't need to be awakened by a screaming toddler when you have a newborn! Take care!
Hi. It sounds to me like your son had a night terror. I know them all to well. It used to take my son 1-2 hours to get over them and go back to sleep. He started having them around 18 months and still has them to this day. He just turned 4. The difference between a night terror and a night mare is: A night terror scares the parent and a night mare scares the child. Unfortunately there is not much you can do except keep them safe. I used to take my son out to the living room, lights off, and turn on the tv. Eventually he would wake up, stare at the tv and I would snuggle him back to sleep. Now I just go in his room and rub his back, assure him it's OK, maybe pick him up. Luckily they only last a few minutes now. "THEY" say is due to stress and changes in development. What ever is due to it's not fun. Good Luck, I completely understand what you are going through. K. R
M.,
My son started the same thing about the same age, maybe a bit younger. It seemed more like he was in pain or truly TERRIFIED, and not a typical night time waking. It took me months to figure out what was going on. Finally he was dx'd with sleep terrors (night terrors). He was having them everyday at nap time, AND each night. It is so difficult to watch and no one truly understands what it is like until you have been through it. I believe that the recommendation is to have your doctor check them out to make sure they have no physical problem and then you have to tough it out, until they outgrow it. We were told to make sure he felt secure at night and NEVER let him go to bed upset and to NEVER let him 'cry it out' when he starts up... because these kids can really hurt themselves if not supervised.
This is not conventional medicine, and it is totally safe, but one thing that really helped my son was craniosacral therapy.
Good luck and keep in mind, things will get better.
L.
My husband did the same thing as a child. It is very scary to go through. The doctors said that he had night-terrors. They don't know what causes them but most kids do grow out of them. Our daughter only has them every once in a while. They're not from seeing anything scary or from problems in the home. They just happen. If you're concerned and they happen again you can talk to your peds doc. Good Luck!
This sounds like night terrors as you suspected. I've never experienced it with my son, but your description matches. The advice is that if you try to comfort your child, it makes the episode worse. The best you can do is watch him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself. It's difficult to watch, but interfering only serves to prolong the episode. Your child is really still in a sleep state which is why he seemed so dazed and he wasn't registering your presence. This is different from a nightmare where they are actually awake and afraid of a dream they've had. Hope this helps.
i would ask your dr it could be nothing but a bad dream..poss a seizure? sounds like you need aproffessional opinion
My daughter was older when she began having night terrors. She would wake up and run around the house and try to open the door and leave. She would just scream incoherantly and in between she would scream " I wanna get out!". Those nights were awful. She never remembered the next day.. When I spoke to the dr. He said to just make sure shes safe. Eventually she grew out of it, which basically is the only thing to do. Good luck and I pray they're over soon.
It could be the changes. If you were in the hospital for a day or two, he could be dreaming your gone again. It could be a change in his schedule too, maybe he's overtired. Just comfort him to reassure him that you are there for him. Make sure he gets the same amount of attention he was getting. If you fuss over the baby, fuss over him too. He could be feeling left out.
My 22 month old has night terrors (he's had them at least 6 months) the dr. says that kids who have them have no idea that they are happening and even the ones you can ask about them don't recall anything. They wake up in the morning like nothing has happened. It's scarier for the parent. You're just supposed to make sure they are safe if they thrash/move around a lot. Good luck.
Sounds like a night terror to me! I have a 7 and 2 yr old and I remember my doctor telling me night terrors could occur... I hope he is doing o.k. and you too because I know how scary and hard it is for a mom to see their baby in pain...
R.
Hi,
This is really scary. My son is now 3 and 1/2 and about a year ago I had the same thing happen. I do believe it is caused by stress of change because his started when he started daycare. His fist daycare experience was not great and when I switched schools he was fine and loves where he's at. Once we switched the episodes stopped. He still has one every once in a while but holding him and talking to him through it seems to get him to wake up and focus on us which then calms him down. (You do get some bruises from the kicking and punching that occurs though:) Hopefully it will get better once he gets acclimated to the changes he is going through. Good Luck!
