Does My Toddler Have Night Terrors?

it sounds like what i know of night terrors. with my little one, and with my many younger siblings, we found that eating or drinking helped to soothe or awaken them. of course, do this carefully to avoid choking. with my almost two year old, we just stuck a sippy cup of water into her mouth, one that would dribble some when tipped. it usually works great for her. you can try carrying them outside; there is something about the night outdoors that works a sort of magic on many young children. my niece would sometimes snap out of it for daddy, but not mommy. one of my brothers would sob in his sleep when he was older, like 14, and we fed him grapes or something sweet....it just worked for him. i hope you find an answer. i don't think there is ANY harm in holding and rocking or singing. and whether they respond or remember is immaterial; you are giving them love, comfort, and presence when they are sad. i believe their body or spirit senses this and soaks it up.

C.,

It is hard to just watch, but there really is not much more that you can do. The night terrors are harmless, and one day they will stop. My daughter did this of and on until she was almost 3, then they disappeard. You really cannot wake them or comfort them while it is going on, it made no difference to our daughter if we tried. If they wake afterward, and our duaghter almost never did unless we were trying to help her through it, then you can comfort him, but my duaghter never needed any afterward, she was fine and just wanted to go back to sleep. I thought that she wondered why I was even there, and she never seemed to know that it happend at all.

Since he is happy and sleeping so well, try not to worry about it too much. Tell you doctor and pat yourself on the back that he takes naps and sleeps on his own for that long every night.

M.

Hello,
My children don't have them but growing up my brother did. At least 2-3 times a week he'd wake up screaming that someone was on the roof or bugs were all over him or spiders were on the floor. Trying to wake him didn't work & he never remembered it the next day. The good news is he DID grow out it the older he got & by his teen years they were gone. I hope it doesn't take that long for you but just know your son is ok. I don't agree with not consoling them. I agree that it's too hard to watch your child going through it while you stand by doing nothing. My parents tried to soothe my brother each time & sometimes it would work, other times it didn't. Hang in there.

Have you had him checked by a Dr. who is knowledgeable about autism? Not all Dr's are.
I don't mean to alarm you but to make you aware of possibilities. Please have him evaluated immediately.
My grandson did this and began regressing before his second birthday. The result of the evaluation was autism.
Hopefully there is no relationship to this for your child and he is having the more common "night terrors", but if there is another underlying problem, the sooner he gets help the better he will progress.