3 Year Old Waking, Screaming & Crying Several Times Every Night

This is behavioral.
DH and I have been dealing with this with our (now 4.5 yr old) son for 2 yeras. We hit our breaking point earlier this year. He was getting up 1-4 times/night. Sometimes for a drink of water, sometimes screaming....bottom line...we'd go in and tuck him back in.

We took him to a sleep doctor, and a sleep therapist. Nothing physically wrong with him, so the therapist helped us totally rearrange his bedtime routine. I'm happy to say that we've have more "sleeping all the way through" nights since we've made changes than "wake up" nights.

Our changes:
-No sugar from dinner time on. He'll have some goldfish crackers and water as a pre-bed snack.
-No TV! After tub, it's straight to reading stories.
-Earlier bedtime. Was 8pm...now it's 7:15.
-Alarm clock that tells him when he can get up. You can get it on Amazon.

PM me if you'd like to talk more about this. I was skeptical and thought nothing would work. We'd tried everything. But totally overhauling his routine has made a huge difference in our sleep!

Three is still in toddler zone which means barring any mental malfunctions, illness or terrors etc (does she seem legitimately terrified, or just awake and crying on purpose? Only you know) it's behavioral based on the fact that she's awake, and allowed to carry on that way. For instance, we disciplined fits or getting out of bed from the very start, while many friends thought that was mean. Those same friends have spent sleepless years with kids up crying and getting out of bed, whereas ours learned right away it was not an option. But, aside from discipline, there are IMPORTANT and effective ways to make sure your kids sleep soundly to begin with at three:

Keep active during the day (you sound like she's not over-tired and you're pretty good in her routine, so she may need a bit more activity-hard in winter sometimes).
And MOST importantly: FOOD! This is still the age where not eating enough will cause kids to wake at night. It's very deceptive, because they may seem perfectly full, and they may eat everything they're served all day, but my third is now 3, and if she skips some meals or snacks for a few days running, especially during a growth spurt, she'll STILL wake at night and be fussy without even knowing why-until a firm warning to stop which she obeys-but then I know she needs to be eating more during the day. Usually I MAKE SURE she eats very WELL all day long with very little sugar in her diet aside from whole fruit, but NO FRUIT after lunch or mid-afternoon. Any sugar in the system after mid-afternoon can really affect some kids at night.

You may solve the problem just with more food, less sugar and more activity during day alone, but if not, you should add some discipline to the actual behavior, as in one calm warning for beginning the crying, and immediate follow through if it persists. If a kid CAN stay up fussing all night, they usually will. I have several friends going through it right now. I just wouldn't allow it personally. Good luck, I hope you get some sleep soon!

Yikes...a year is a long time! Unfortunately I don't have any advice...but if no one else does either...check out babysleepsite.com. I've gone there for lots of other sleep problems and always LOVE her advice. (I reference this site alot and am in no way affiliated, they just helped me through some sleep issues with my first DD when it seemed like no one else understood what I was going through!) Good luck to you, hope you get your answers!

So crazy but my daughter has been having night terrors since she was like 2. She is now ten and even still has them once a year. For a time it was a constant thing. The crazy thing is... She could talk to me like as if she was awake. She can answer questions and then go back into this dream state. She goes in between the terror and seeming awake. I can ask her anything. She looks right at me. I say, "r u awake kait?" And she's all, "yes mommy" n it used to scare me when she was a child. Night terrors come in all shapes and sizes. Poor babies! They do grow out of them eventually. Strange but when my daughter has a fever she always gets one. Hope this helps.

If she's scared of the dark, does she have a night light or something else to make it not so dark? We strung up some Christmas tree lights in our daughter's room and they really helped a lot. She also has her special stuffed animal to sleep with as well as a pile of others - she really likes having 1 extra large one in bed with her, she says it makes her feel like she's got someone in there with her and she's not so alone.