Nightmares or Night Terrors??

As a child my now teenager used to have a lot of nightmares. First we thought something terrible was happening to her at daycare. Not the case. We soon found out she had seasonal allergies causing her headaches, pain in her jaw and ears, etc. Soon after she was medicated, the 'night tremors' stopped. The doctors couldn't medically connect the two but nothing else changed.

Hi C.,
This type of thing has also happened to my daughter on occasion (she's now 3 years old). I really wouldn't worry too much about it, especially if the pacifier calms her down so quickley. It could just be a bad dream or a just a little bit of gas! Just comfort her as best you can and hopefully it won't happen too often ( I know its scary). Good luck! D.

According to everything I've read...she is to young for nightmares. It's night terrors. And give it some time. It's just a phase and it will pass.

My daughter has recently started screaming out "no" in her sleep and jumping up as well. I'm not really sure why this is happening either, she never use to do it. My daughter is 29 months.

I have the same thing going on with my son. He is going to be 24 months old on the first. Any information you recieve could you pass it on to me. What have you done to help the problem. My thing is my son want to then come lay in our bed where he is asleep by the time he gets there and we move him back. We just dont know what is waking him up.

I am the mother of three children. My oldest son use to have what are called night terrors. He had them until he was about five. He use to scream and cry like someone was hurting him. His body would shake and his eyes would be open but he was still asleep. My husband and I would stroke his back and assure him that everything would be o.k. and he would eventually calm down and go into a deeper sleep. I asked my mother and granmother about it and they said that these things happen and he would grow out of it and he is now 16 and hasn't woke up screaming and shaking since he was 5.

Hello, This also happens with my son, a couple of times a month. I am not too sure what causes this, however I was advised that if there is stress in your home environment, that it sometimes effects your child(ren) or something that could have occurred durning the day that did not sit well with your child. Just wanted to share what was advised to me and I hope that this helps you.

Hi C.,

Both of my kids did that and I have heard from my pediatrician, many books and other parents that it's very normal. Just keep things quiet and soothing, let her fall back asleep and eventually it will pass.

If it starts to truly interfere with sleep or happens more frequently, consult your pediatrician about it.

Best of luck,
H.

http://www.athome.com/hollypia

C.,

My guess would be night terrors. I think nightmares usually start in toddlerhood, when their imagination is more developed. Also, night terrors usually involve screaming while still asleep, and even once it's over, they don't usually wake, or remember the next day. Of course, since she's only 8 months, she can't tell you if she remembers the event, but since she's not waking up, it's probably not a nightmare.

My son has had the occasional nightmare, and even once he wakes from it, he's still crying, and very clingy.

HTH

It is normal.
It is called a night terror.
My son had them from 6 weeks to present about every month or so (sporatically).
It differs from a nightmare in the frightened scream, glassy eyes and when making eye contact they seem to not recognize you.

As you know it only lasts briefly and they go right back to sleep.
Nothing you have done causes it and nothing you can do will stop it.
Don't worry.
Just comfort her and ease her back to sleep.
God Bless you all.

HI!

I would say that you are not alone is this matter. I also have been dealing with this "Night terrors" deal now for the past two and half years. I have spoken with anyone possible in the medical field. They all say this is normal, how I do not know!!! It scares me to death to go through this. I can't fall asleep at night because I worry I won't hear my daughter. Sometimes they are mild and she goes right back to sleep, other times she is like sleepwalking during this. I found her in her playroom clawing the walls, or standing on her bed screaming. All I do is comfort her, she doesn't know I'm there but it seems to help. I bring her to the potty and she usually goes. I was told she will out grow this, hopefully soon!! She doesn't recall any of it the next day. However, I do and I am exhausted..lol I did notice that if she is in bed with me she doesn't have them. Lately I have been letting her younger sister share the bed with her and she has had them less then before. The youngest one has started to have a few every now and then. Just try to give comfort and hopefully it will work out for you. The soon the better I say!! Good luck!

During a nightmare a child will usually wake up and be somewhat responsive to you and you should be able to calm her. She may open her eyes, talk to you, reach for you, etc. If it's a night terror she may scream for hours and not even seem to notice you're there. She won't actually wake up, even if her eyes are open they won't focus on you, and touching or talking to her may just make things worse. Nightmares you can usually soothe and they should go away after awhile. I still haven't found a good way to handle night terrors, as my son has had them on and off for about a year. They seem to be happening less and less as he gets older though. I found keeping nap and bedtimes consistent and sticking to a strict pre-bed routine help. I've looked up literature and asked my pediatrician and from everything I've seen, sometimes it just happens. Nothing anyone did causes it and there's no real "cure" for it. Children won't even remember a true night terror in the morning and it's not going to hurt them in any way. It's just going to mean you don't get to sleep if it happens. You can talk to your pediatrician if it continues and see what he/she says. Sometimes a doctor will even recommend a sleep study to monitor the child. It's what I do for a living and I've seen young children in my offices. But, no, you're not alone. Hope this helps.

Hi C.,

Hi, I can't tell you if she is having night terrors, but my daughter did. The things you need to watch out for is that if there are night terrors they are going to get worse and usually you will not beable to do anything about it and she will not take the pacifier. And you just have to wait it out. When my daughter had heres there was no waking her sometimes she would open her eyes but she would still be a sleep. The doctor claimed that stress was night effected it but I think differant. Hopefully they are nightmares because I would hate to have any parent go through night terrors because they don't remember anything the next morning.

good luck
H. c

My son had a similar problem, although he was 3-4 when it was happening. He would wake up and basically freak out crying and screaming. Nothing could console him. He would & wouldn't want you to hold him. Everything you would try to do, he would scream at you. It usually took my sitting with him in my lap crying for about a half an hour until he would calm down enough to go back to sleep. When I asked him in the morning if he remembered waking up, he would say no. Luckily, it hasn't happened in a year or so. I've read that night terrors are common and won't negatively effect the child in any way. I'm sure it's just a stage.

Nightmares usually happen closer to when you wake up in the morning like 5-6am, whereas nightterrors happen in the middle of the night between 1-3. The times would changes depending on her sleep schedule. I honestly don't think its night terrors, mainly because children are pretty much inconsolable after night terrors and it would normally take much more than a pacifier to calm them down. My daughter did this when she was teething(she is still teething). Do you know that she wakes from a deep sleep or is it that she wakes up(like every baby does several times a night) and does not have her pacifier to soothe herself back? My daughter is not a good self soother and this is how she acts when she needs to be "soothed" back to sleep. Just a few things to think about.

hi C., my daughter was waking up from deep sleep and crying like that for 2-3 months at around that same time (8mns) it passed. i dont know the reason for that, maybe teeth (though 2nd set didn't come out till 14mns) not sure, but most important it passed and i heard about that kind of thing before from other moms, they all said it passed within few mns. what i thought is after 30-45 of deep sleep my daughter senses that i'm not next to her, when i come in i reasure that i'm there, she stops crying (sometimes few times a night)however, night terrors happen closer to 2y.o.(as i was told by many) don't worry, it's just one of many stages they go through.

My little girl does that occasionally. She's all quiet in bed, then suddenly she screeches and cries as if something bit her. She calms down pretty quickly though, whether I go in and cuddle her or not. I believe it might have something to do with teething pain because she seems to do it a lot less frequently now that most of her teeth are in. Try giving your little one a dose of infant drops Tylenol before bedtime if she's teething. It helped with my daughter. I also have a sippy cup of water in her crib so that she can drink if she needs to. Good Luck!