Night Terrors - Aurora, CO

I know of a mom that took her little boy to the chiropractor because of severe night terrors. Since he has been under chiropractic care his night terrors have subsided completely. Just a thought....

Hi T.,
My son who is 5 started having night terrors at 3 and still has an occasional one - usually when he is over tired or over stimulated prior to going to sleep. What we discovered is that no matter what we did to try to stop it the terror would run its course in about 7 minutes - everytime. In fact the more attention we gave him during the terror - the worse it got. My advice would be to remain calm and try to be patient with her. Just stay by her quietly and keep her safe- at her age it would be appropriate to pick her up and attempt to soothe her like you would if she was upset for another reason.

And yes - taking her into your bed will mean someday you will have to break that habit but can also be a wonderful experience of togetherness (If you can get a larger mattress as a twin would not be comfortable for the both of you).

As will all the challenging stages of motherhood - this too shall pass.
HUGS
L.

Unfortunately nightmares are pretty common in little kiddos and I do not believe that they are only brought on by bad experiences. They may dream that they fell off their bike or someone stole their toy. What they perceive as traumatic may not be nearly as bad as you think. My son had nightmares too when he was really little. We put a small bed (or a playpen would work too) in our room so he could feel us near and we could provide comfort when he needed it. He started out in his own bed every night, but ended up in our room most nights. We kept up the same routine of putting him to bed in his room and he eventually sleep the whole night again. I would not be concerned about her "never sleeping in her own bed" because she will grow up of this phase too, but the knowledge that you are near and will always comfort her will last her whole life through.

My son, who is now 3.5, has been going through this exact same thing since he was also about a year old. It is a frightening thing to wake up to, much less to watch your baby go through it. The most common advice that I have been given, from other moms and pediatricians, is to not try and wake them up when their in the night terror state. It's hard to not try to wake them up, but the best thing to do is to soothe them back to sleep. I notice that my son has night terrors far more often when he's in a new environment or experienced a big change (like moving, when he started preschool, etc.) and also when he's had any type of sugary food, especially chocolate. It sounds really silly, but my son loves the Beatles so when he wakes up screaming, I just rub his back and sing Beatles songs very softly to him and he'll go back to sleep usually for the rest of the night. Try not to put your daughter in your bed---trust me when I say that is not an easy habit to break!! :)

Best of luck to you. Being a mom is hard work and I admire you for being able to take it on single-handedly. :)

T.- My daughter had night terrors from about 6months to age 2. It is so hard to see them helpless and scared.
I definately would not allow her to sleep with you in your small bed for fear of suffication. Maybe you can allow her to cuddle with you and them place her back in her crib. Maybe you could move the crib into your room if it makes you feel better. Once the terror is over -the child doesn't remember it-almost like being in a dream.
My husband also had night terrors when he was a child -my mother in law told me to give my daughter a small sip of water to pull her out of the terror. It seemed to work for my daughter- made the terror shorter.
Just some random thoughts- good luck! H.

My son gets night terrors & they started around 9 months, we had to take him outside to wake him up to get him out of them.

We found that he was more likely to get them if he was over tired. He's 2 1/2 now & we haven't had to deal with them much over the last year.

Good luck.

My Son is now 2 1/2. From about 1- 1/2 years of age he had night terrors also. He would usually have them right about the same time every night. He was also having them during naptime at Day Care. I talked to his Pediatrician about it and he recommended that I watch for his pattern and the time it was happening. He told me to try to remember and wake him up about a 1/2 before it usually happens and continue doing it and that it would eventually break his pattern of the night terrors. He said that they occur when they fall into a deep sleep and waking them up a 1/2 hour before would stop him from going into the deep sleep and waking up scared. He also explained to me that when he does have them to make sure that I wake him up all the way before putting him back to sleep. It did seem to help and eventually they stopped, they do occur periodically still but not as frequent as they were. Maybe you can also talk to your daughter's pediatrician for any ideas.

Night terrors occur when something misfires in the brain as a child passes from the deep sleep stage into the R.E.M. stage. It's very common in older babies and young toddlers because their nervous system is still immature.

It helps if your baby doesn't get over-tired. Make sure she's getting naps and to bed early enough. Other than that, you may just have to tough it out, but it usually doesn't last very long or it goes in spurts. Hang in there!

Is she in a full time daycare?

Children see the "true" picture of people so maybe she is afraid of you leaving her with someone and is having nightmares about that person.

I can't really think of anything else that would cause this problem in a child so young. Good luck!

Make it a GREAT week!

S.

MY DD who is about to turn 5 next month has had them most of her life as well. Her ped told us to put her on melatonin. Its an over the counter natural remedy. Call around to pharmacies and see if they have the liquid since yours is still so young. A little later, you can crush the pill form and slide it to her in stuff or she can just eat it. My kids got sick of that and learned to swallow pills early.

Before you take any medicinal advice though, talk to her ped about it.

I'm sorry you have to have your heart stop so many times! We have them a lot less frequently now, but it still stops our hearts to hear her scream out like that.Good luck

J.

Hey T.! There is a book by Henry Malone called Poratls to Cleansing. I'm only suggesting this because you said your faith is important to you and it worked for us with our oldest who also had night terrors. Henry's a little over the top at times, but over all it's truth. It's just about claiming our house and property for only God and the Holy Spirit to dwell. Anyway, just a thought! Blessings! AJ