Toddler night terrors/nightmares - Children's Health Message Board

hillaryb · 12-08-2004, 06:43 PM

My 2 and a half year old has been doing great lately. She hasnt been getting anymore ear infections, she is totally potty-trained now, playing independently REALLY well, and doesn't throw big tantrums. However, at night, usually a couple hours after she goes to sleep, she will wake up, sometimes as much as 5-6 times a night, yelling, crying, fussing, kicking, and it is really hard to get her to calm down and get back to sleep.

My 8 year old did this as well, a little younger than my 2 year old, so I know that this is a passing phase. IT is just so annoying to be woken up to a semi-temper tantrum and to be tired and unable to calm her. I cannot remember how long my older daughter did this, but I think it was for a few months. I know it didnt last a whole year. I offer a sippy cup, try to soothe her, sometimes yell at her to be quiet (I know I shouldnt but its sooooo annoying!!!!

) and sometimes I pick her up or try to sit her up. None of it really helps. I guess it will just go away and be replaced by some new phase that annoys me, but I wonder how many of you experience this??

I just hate having a 2 and a half year old that is waking up like an infant again. Actually, she doesnt really wake, just yells and cries. One time I was in the garage, and I guess she had a night terror, then after I didnt respond for a long time, she did get up and go looking for me. She is really easy to deal with otherwise. Great temperament, and easy to get to bed. She has been doing this for a couple of months. Hopefully it will taper off soon. Last night was a better night--she only did it once or twice. Anyone remember how long this lasted?? With my 8 year old I cant remember, children go through so much as they grow, it all becomes such a blur after a while. Anyone??

feelbad · 12-09-2004, 06:00 AM

Is there any chance that she is getting any caffiene from somewhere?Many many years ago when I used to drink alot of pepsi, my son would take sips from time to time.He would also wake up in the middle of the night with night terrors.I finally figured out that even just the little sips of the pepsi that he was having during the day were the culprit.That is when I stopped drinking the pepsi and switched to water,and lo and behold, the night terrors stopped completely..Marcia

siren1024 · 12-09-2004, 07:41 AM

I had issues with my son night waking and did alot of research. His waking was always over halfway into the night, he was aware of our presence, etc, so I think his was actually nightmares/dreams, etc. But I did research night terrors in the process, and most experts say just to leave them alone and they will pass. Apparently during a night terror, your child isn't aware of your presence anyway, as you can see by nothing helping. You aren't doing any damage to her by not trying to comfort her. She won't remember anything in the morning. As long as you are sure she can't injure herself, the best thing to do is to check on her, but leave her alone until she calms herself. I did a websearch on night terrors and found lots of useful info. We decided, though, that my son's problem was actually bad dreams, in which case he needed comfort and our presence to calm down. With a night terror it wouldn't make any difference one way or the other. A night terror isn't caused by a bad dream or true fright. There is alot of interetsing info online about the difference between nightmares/night terrors.

Good luck!

GILLIBABES · 02-18-2005, 10:49 PM

Hi,
My 4 yr old son does all this kicking and thrashing in his sleep too. Unfortunately he insists on sleeping in our bed and I have been awoken several times by a boot in the face!

A lady in the hairdressers once told me that her child had the exact same problems. She had been to her GP and he had said that they were night terrors. He also said that these were caused by overheating and to remove some of the bedclothes. I had always thought that he was waking up because when he thrashed, he threw off the bedcovers, so I had always wrapped him up extra warm to allow for their removal. Since putting lighter PJs on and turning off his electric blanket he has definitely improved - still wriggles about the bed but the night terrors are much less frequent. Just need to tackle his ADHD now!

PinkPiglet · 02-19-2005, 10:29 PM

My middle daughter seemed to have night terrors a lot when she was that age. Turns out she was allergic to milk and instead of having nightmares like we thought (even the dr.'s thought it was night terrors) she was actually having terrible horrible stomach aches and since she was so young she wasn't able to tell us. Once we stopped all dairy, she was fine. It wouldn't hurt your daughter to do that but it sure might help.

My son had ear infections and was also allergic to milk. He never had the stomach problems but there were a lot of ear infections!

Jeannie