20-Month-old Waking and Crying/screaming at night--Night Terrors?

My daughter went through exactly what you are describing at about the same age. She was a great sleeper, then seemed to wake up having night terrors & being inconsolable, almost like she didn't see us right away. After trying many different things, someone told us to put her on the potty right before bed. We thought this was weird advice (we had just lightly started potty training). It worked very well & the night terrors stopped almost immediately. In some cases it may be necessary to put a child on the potty in the middle of the night even if they are asleep (we did not need to do this, but it was also advised by some). Also, it doesn't matter if they are actually successful on the potty just that they sit there for a minute. Good luck!

My 3yr daughter has done the same thing. I wake up about 2-3 times a night for bad dream, has to potty, or she just wakes up. A friend told me it because their imaginations are forming and it will get better. She has had less bad dreams.
To soothe her i bring in the dog if that is what she wants, pull the musicial bear's tail and just rub her back or rock her a bit. If that doesn't work, i will take her to bed with my husband and us for a little while.
It scares me everytime but it is getting better. If she mentions fears like of the dark, or monsters i tell her nothing to worried about for the dog will protect her and monsters are afraid of dogs. After a few times of me telling her that, she stopped being afraid.

My son use to have night terrors. They are very scarey to us parents as not much can be done to comfort them. I also found this true in my case, have her ears checked. Every time my son had a case of night terrors, he had an ear infection. This may just be in my sons case, but worth looking into! They can last any where from a few minutes to over 30 minutes. Turn on the lights when she has them and talk soothingly to her and wait it out. Good luck to you. Oh, my son has had maybe one in the last year. He's 4 now.

I know that i've writen something about this with my own daughter. It turns out that she was stressed out with change. Mine also slept walked. We were expecting our son, so she didn't know where she fit in. It took time and we had one bump in the road with our young cat (her cat) getting hit by a car and dying. Once we told her that God was looking out for him and she got to let a balloon fly to him with kisses, she settled down. I would look around at any stress in her life. Good Luck!

Hi J....
My first daughter never did anything like this, but my second one started these type of episodes from about age one...she just turned two and they seem to be more infrequent now, but it was about once a week that she would wake up at anywhere from 2 hours to 5 hours into her sleep (for her about 10pm to 3am..) and we would fidn her standing in her crib, gripping the rail, stiff as a board screaming in terror....she would push us away if we tried consoling her and if we tried to rock her she would wriggle down and stand in the middle of the room screaming...what we found usually worked is taking her out of her room into a different environment until she stopped screamming and calmed down....they dont usually last more that 20-30 minutes but it feels like hours to us of course. I had a friend whose son did this even during naps....until the age of about 4...so it is more common than you think and I think there are various levels of how severe and how long it lasts...

My mom witnessed one when we visited her and she was heart broken because I tried to explain there is nothing you can do for them and she finally got it...

Hopefully it will pass soon, but you are not alone!

Best wishes for sweet dreams!

Funny you write this because my son (29 months old) has woken up the last 4 nights SCREAMING MOMMMYYYYYY! I told my friend about it and she said she just got done reading an article ( I think in the Parenting Magazine) about kids from the ages of 18-30 months having night terrors. I just go in there, pick him up, and rock him to calm him down. Within a couple minutes he's fine and eventually falls back to sleep... It's heartbreaking seeing them upset but it shall pass...
If your still uncomfortable with your situation, call your pediatrician and see what he/she recommends you doing.
GOOD LUCK!

Hi J.,
I have not experienced this myself, but I have friends who have. It sounds like Night Terrors to me. There are several websites that have more information.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_night-terrors_142.bc
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/terrors.html
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/night_terrors/article_em.htm

I hope this passes quickly.

Have your pediatrian check the baby for pin-worms.

My daughter recently did something similar to this and in her case it was related to teething. She's 12 months and starting to get in the really painful teeth now. It's really sad when they get inconsolable like that. You should try to check her mouth and see if she's getting her molars.

Hi, J.. My heart goes out to you because I know all too well the heartache and stress these events can cause. Your daughter's experiences sound very much like what we experienced. We have a five year-old boy and approximately a year-and-half ago he began to go thru the same thing. At the time, he was approx. 3 1/2 y/o and my husband and I were going through a reconciliation after a year of being apart. I work as a clinical social worker and my husband is a psychologist, but we were both dumbfoundend and very troubled by these experiences. They often happened about once or twice a week, and lasted anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. He would wake up screaming at the top of his lungs and thrash about in his bed, not wanting to be touched or consoled. Often, he would scream "No, no, no!", and appeared scared or as if he felt in danger. I consulted with my supervisor who has worked closely with young children, and she asked if he remembered--or talked about--these experiences in the morning. Well, he never remembered them. When we asked him he would say, "No mommy, I didn't scream." She recommended we monitor the time they happened (it's usually close to the same time every night--approx. 2 hours after they go to sleep), and wake him up shortly before this time. Softly caress and reassure him--or her--that all is "ok" and they are safe. This worked like a miracle. It took a while for us to get it right, but approx. 4 months later he stopped having the night terrors altogether. Although we always tried to maintain our son's routine as stable as possible, it is very likely that changes in our relationship caused a sense of anxiety in him triggering the night terrors. I wish you and your family the best. Just be patient and remember to try to wake her up prior to the expected time. Doris.

If it is night terrors (and yes some kids get them this young and younger) just keep doing what you are doing, giving comfort and reassurance. In time it will pass, but you may want to start noting what she was doing before bed (from dinner on) on the nights she has these problems. You may find a common theme, you may not, but it's worth it to note. If my daughter has gotten in any trouble within two hours of bed, even just needing to be redirected, I am in for it! One of my grandchildren goes through it if she didn't have a snack before bed. Good luck.

Hello J.! What you are describing is definately night terrors! My son did this from about 6 mo. until about 4th grade. He had quite a few episodes as an infant, but they few and far in between as he got older. They are very scary! I remember watching him during an episode when he was younger and thinking Oh my goodness, who is doing this to him? Who is he fighting? However, I was a stay at home mom and he never stayed anywhere but home. I did what most of these moms did and just went in and tried to soothe him as much as possible without touching him until he calmed down. He never remembered any of his episodes or even our conversations after he was calmed. I am sorry for going on and on, but I guess that I wanted you to know that there is an end. My son is almost 16 and he is a normal kid with no medical issues at all. I know that I used to worry that it was a side effect of something, but he is totally fine! You have recieved some good responses, I wish that I had information about these night terrors when ours were going on! Blessings, K.

My six year old son used to have the same problem, and now my 22 month old does. Wakes up screaming and the whole bit. My husband said he also had night terrors as a child. I just sit by the bed and rub his back if he'll let me, or just talk soothingly to him. It is something that is happening in their sleep and there isn't much you can do about it. If you take her to the pediatrician and she's perfectly healthy, then you just have to be patient. my pediatrician said definitely not to wake them up, just sit with them until it stops. Eventually they outgrow it. My six year old stopped having those nights when he was about 4, so it could take awhile unfortunately. I don't think my son ever knows I'm there, but at least I can make sure he doesn't roll onto the floor when he's thrashing. He always goes back to sleep peacefully within a few minutes.

Hi J.,

I know how frustrating this can be. It's an awful feeling when you can't comfort your child. When my daughter was almost 2, she started having night terrors. It scared the daylights out of me! I read up on it and everything I read indicated that I should just stay out of her way. Make sure she's safe and can't hurt herself. I don't know if there is a connection, but, once we moved her out of her crib into a big bed, it never happened again. She's 8 1/2 now and she's never had another incident. Good luck!

Yes, it possibly can be night terrors. My friend's daughter does the same things you've explained. Please see your daughter's pedi and talk with him about it. He/she might not do much, but could give suggestions.

Sorry to hear about the rough patch.

~T.

Hi J.- It does sound like night terrors to me. She is a little young for them, but its possible. My son went through a stage where he would wake up and if I tried to touch him he would scream no or just push me away while he was screaming and crying. Most of my friends went through the same thing with their little ones, so I would just give it some time. Its probably just a stage and if you ask her she probably has no recollection of the them at all. According to the "experts" you are not suppose to do anything but make sure they do not hurt themselves. It is akin to sleepwalking and not good to wake them up during the episode. Then again, I know of older women who say when they had babies the doctors used to tell them to put a cool rag on their face and bring them into the light. I tried both and, frankly, I think just talking in a soothing voice and standing by is the better approach. Get it in your mind that she is fine and just wait out the episode, they will stop soon Im sure. Good luck!

I know what you are going through! My son at almost the same age, not yet two began doing this. the first episode was on a plan from Hawaii to Alabama at night. He had been asleep and so was everyone else when he began to cry and scream. I thought he was just scared so I went to get him out of his car seat to comfort him adn he began to hit me and cry louder as if he were fighting me off. This was not common beahvior at all. He did eventually calm down, but we did not know what had happened. This happened several more times while we were on vacation adn we then realized that he wasn;t even really awake when these episodes would occur and sometimes during the episode his open eyes would suddenly change to where you knew he was suddenly aware and awake and he would cry because he did not know why he was out of bed and he did not know what was going on either. I then knew it was night terrors. It happened a few times until he was about 3. I knew to not try to wake him up, just make sure that he was safe and not going to hurt himself. Children do not remember these episodes and waking them up is actually confusing to them because they are in such a deep sleep and unaware. I wouuld just hang out by his bed and wait, making sure he did not fall out or throw anything that may hurt him or his sister who he shared a room with. We think we figured out our trigger. It was when he stayed up too late. If he got into bed at his normal hour with his normal routine, no night terrors. But on the evenings when we were out late or busy with travel and family, they were more likely to occur. I woudl also advise no TV or over stimulation near bed time. It gets the little wires in their brains working overtime even when they do not realize it.
Our night terros have passed, but know that they are common. Many people just do not know what they are dealing with.