Sleep Walking Child?

Hi,
You've already received so many wonderful responses that I'll make my short. We found a correlation to my son screaming out in the middle of the night and my daughter sleep walking and cow's milk. They now use rice milk.
You might want to look into food reactions.

Best wishes.

Hi, E.. When I was a child I also walked in my sleep and I never had a memory of it once I woke up. My parents finally put a lock on the OUTSIDE of my door so when I tried the knob and couldn't get out, I would wake up, start crying and they would come to me. I out grew it as a teen anger but now I talk a lot in my sleep! I am glad that I have no secrets.:-) To be safe, my motto after working in the medical field for thirty years, I would take him to his Pediatrician. He/She may want to do a CAT Scan to rule out any problems. The Doctor may also have solutions to dealing with this safely. Best of luck. Denise K.

Hi E.,

I haven't experienced this with my child, but my sister walked in her sleep. She is 12 years younger then I am... so I remember alot from when she was little.

I remember she started about the same age as your son. We would find her all over the house. My mom would go into her room in the middle of the night to check on her and she would be gone. The first time it happened it really scared her. Anyway, after a 'trying to escape the house' incident my dad put a chain lock on all the doors, up high enough she couldn't reach it.

I will say, we could always tell she was sleep walking because we would ask her questions and her answers wouldn't make any sense. Once I was babysitting and she wandered out into the living room, I asked her what she was doing and she said 'I wanted to go to the light'. Which on some level makes sense...she saw the living room light and went there. If you could see her eyes.... it was like that old saying 'nice house, but nobody home'. She would have this glazy distant look.... you could tell things just weren't registering.

Basically what happens during sleep walking is this... when we get into our dream state our bodies produce a chemical that basically paralyzes us. When this chemical is not released in high enough quantities then we act out our dreams. I have not looked into it enough to know why the chemical is not being produced, but I'm sure you could find that out easily with a quick google search. My sister was more prone to sleep walking when she was super super super tired.

THe older my sister got the less the sleep walking occurred. I cant' tell you if she ever really outgrew it because at the age of 18 she was in a 4-wheeler accident and is not paralyzed from the chest down. I did go to school with a girl who walked in her sleep, and to my knowledge she didn't outgrow it, but I know others that did.

At this point, I would suggest putting locks on your outside doors to ensure your son can't get out in the night and just be prepared for bizzare happenings. My sister once tried to pee in the cupboard under the sink. She basically took a wrong turn on her way to the bathroom, wasn't awake, and tried to pee in the cupboard. THankfully my mom was awake at the kitchen table and got her into the bathroom.

When she was older and wanted to go on an overnight to someones house or with a group, my mom would just be sure to tell the person/people supervising of the issue and they would be sure to take precautions. Once she went on an overnight with the girlscouts. They put my sister in the very back of the tent so if she started to sleep walk she would have to walk over everyone else to get out of the tent. We never had any problems.

Honestly, at this point I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Hello....
I feel your pain. My oldest daughter was also a sleepwalker. The problem you cannot solve is the explanation part. The child will not have an explanation, so I wouldn't try to get one. Sleepwalkers have no idea whats going on, and are usually physically acting out a dream. My daughter wound up peeing in the closet, going to her friends across the street, and even getting into a physical fight at a friends house during a sleepover... ALL in total sleep mode! For YEARS we couldn't figure out how to get her to stop, we just tried to keep her safe. I put a chain lock up high on the front door so she couldn't "escape" during the night.
Being that your son is so young, you may not experience the side effects my daughter did... her grades started dropping, and she was labeleed ADHD by the school. The pediatrician wanted to dose her with Stratera.
My daughter started when she was about 3 and it lasted until she was 13. At age 13 when she took her to the pediatrician, I was dead set against drugging her. My concern with that is if you drug the child, it will only mask the problem, and when the drugs are stopped, the problem will reoccur.
I decided to try a holisitic (herbal) doctor. He tested her for a bunch of different things, and we found out alot! She was getting up a lot during the night to go potty because of a nervous system issue. He also discovered that she has a diverse reaction to cow's milk. Once we started treating her with special herbal vitamins, and took away the cow's milk, the sleepwalking stopped!
She now is 17, no9 longer a sleepwalker, and we have reintroduced cow's milk back into her diet. When she has dairy (ice cream, sour cream, etc.) we notice her talking in her sleep more, but we have her so restricted on dairy that she doesn't walk anymore. Her grades have improved, and we are now home schooling her to catch her up on the years she did do poorly in school.
Your child may not have the same reaction to cow's milk that mine did... he may have a different "trigger" that sets him off at night... but one thing is for sure, he's not getting the rest that his little body needs, and eventually, the signs of that will show in his everyday life.
I would recommend trying a holistic doctor, ours is also a chiropractor, contactr me and I can give you his information if you'd like. I just couldn't stand the thought of them wanting to put my daughter through the drug therapy, and they also wanted to send her to U of M for sleep studies and a bunch of weird tests. In my opinion, thats just too much for a tired kid to go through!

H. :0)

That really sounds like sleepwalking and I know it is definitely hereditary.

They make removable alarms that you can attach to the top of your doors. When the door is opened an alarm beeps. This could help to keep your son safe at night. I would definitely invest in something like that.

My brother was a pretty active sleep walker when he was about 10 years old, having made his way outside once too. My mother tried latching the door at the top where he couldn't reach it but he got a chair to stand on and fortunately she woke to find him. He finally outgrew it but the only thing you can do is set up something in his room that will trigger to wake you when he gets out of bed. You might talk to your pediatrician to get more information.

S.

My daughter sleep walks. She doesn't remember anything that happens while she is doing this and is so surprised at what we tell her in the morning. There really isn't anything you can do about it. We installed locks that were up towards the top of the door that she couldn't reach as we too had an issue with her going outside at that age. We had a dog that alerted us to the problem. We made a mistake and started having her sleep in our room so that we would know when she was getting up - that was a terrible habit - don't go there. As she has gotten older she does this less frequently - but still sleep walks. She has done this for 7 years now. They really don't know what they are doing and have no recollection of it - I wish you luck - as far as I know it is just something you learn to live with and thank God that it isn't something worse like a terminal illness and accept it.

Im sorry to say that I can not offer nay advice on the sleep walking but I can about keeping your son safe...(I can only imagine!!!). PLease put a chain or something on the door that he can not reach and unlock so that he can no longer leave the house at night. That doesnt solve the sleep walking but it keeps him in the house which is paramount! Good luck!

Seems pretty scary at the times doesn't it? My daughter was a sleep walker too, but grew out of it. Your son was probably crying and asking for you because he woke up outside and it scared him. When my daughter would wake up and be somewhere else it was terrifying to her. But if you put yourself in that place wouldn't it be that way to you?

Please do follow the advice so many have given you about the lock high up on the door. Sound advice. We learned not to wake her. Usually I would lead her to the bathroom and after she was done there, I would lead her back to her room. I have no idea if she had to go and that was why she was wandering and just in such a deep sleep she didn't know why she was getting up....no idea. But it made sense as long as she was up to take her to the bathroom when she was that young.

It sounds like sleep walking. I was one and I did plenty of extrange things during the time. My mom found me sleeping in the couch, in the bathtub (luckily I didn not turn on the water), taking my pj's off and putting street clothes on and then undoing everything and get in bed with the pj's on again... You name it. I don't know scientifically if it is herederitary, but my dad was as a child, my younger sister was, and I have had conversations at night with my son that did not have any sense (while he was looking at me)... I never tried to get out of the house, but my mom locked the doors and hid the keys evey night, well until I was in my late teens. I have an alarm in my house, but because my main door can be opened without a key from inside, I am going to put a bolt as well. Iknow is a matter of time my son will be getting up.

I don't know what causes sleep walking, but it happened to me ocasionaly. I guess you need to "baby-proof" your house as somebody mentioned. I remember my mom always made sure all the paths in the house stayed clear of anything out of place, before she went to bed, so I would not trip and fall. I don't know if there is much more you can do. When my mom would find me or my sister sleep walking she would just tell us gently to go back to sleep and we did. I did outgrow it and so did my sister, but not untill we were almost teenagers. Still my mom kept hiding the keys every night for years. Good luck to you. That experience must have been awful.

It does sound like sleepwalking to me....something is causing poor Noah some stress that can't be resolved during waking hours. Is Noah potty trained? If not, can you put a baby gate that J.D. can get through but not Noah (like the "push and turn the knob" kind?
An alarm system would be ideal on the doors - not the battery kind but a real-wired system, but finding the cause may get it resolved and stopped.

Sleepwalking is VERY common in kids as their sleep patterns change. All you can really do is to secure the house (or his room) so that if he does get up, he can't leave. Yes, you CAN wake a sleepwalker, that's just a silly myth...however they may be difficult to wake. Just guide him back to bed. I used to have to chase my son around the living room in circles to catch him and point him toward his room...LOL...scary back then but pretty funny now!

Good luck...it won't last forever.
~L.

E.,
My daughter was a sleep walker. It seemed like if I made sure she went to the bathroom before she went to bed she didn't have a problem. If I found her sleep walking and directed her to the bathroom she would go a lot..which made me think that she was walking in her sleep to find the bathroom but because she slept so heavy she was having a difficult time finding the right room. She never had a problem if she went to the bathroom before bed...
C.

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My daughter sleep-walks too, but usally cause she has to go to the bathroom. She has never tried to leave the house. Alarms are the way to go if you are having severe sleep-walking problems. Check web sites for home alarms and get one that goes on the bedroom door and set it at night so that if he opens it, you will be alerted. I have seen some of these that are not too expensive, $20 or less and very, very easy to use and don't require any wiring. Better safe than sorry.
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Hello E.,

My Husband use to sleep walk as a child himself, his father would watch him walk out into the living room and pee on a tree thinking he was outside or in the bathroom. When his father would ask him what he was doing, he would look at him, like what are you talking about and walk away. My husband never had anything like going outside when he was young, thankfully. Our oldest daughter did sleep walk when she was about 2. Mostly she would just come and find us and we would just put her in bed with us. Now that she's 4 she has stopped, she just talks in her sleep now, but I still keep her close just incase she starts it back up again. We haven't had a problem with out 2 year old twins, but they are still in cribs. If I were you and your son keeps trying to walk outside in his sleep I would get a deadbolt and put it up high where he can't reach it. That way he wouldn't be able to get out. I would never want to wake up and find the door open and one of my kids gone. You may just want to "baby proof" your home so your son can not get hurt with his sleep walking. There is nothing more you can really do. Good Luck.
S.

Hi E.

How scared you and your husband must have been. THank God that your husband heard the door!

I don't have any experience with sleepwalking, but I have seen easy to install motion alarms for placing on doors and windows. They are designed, I'm sure, to keep intruders out, but don't see why they couldn't be used to alert you if your son was going out again. I hope it doesn't sound too extreme since it only happened once, but what a scare!

Keep us updated and good luck!

Or you could put one of those handle locks on the door handle. I have two children, one of my 6 yr old triplets and my 17 yr old daughter who sleepwalk (or use to), but I have never had one go outside. That is scary. Those alarms are very loud too. I had them, but they are entertainment as well and the batteries do run out. :(

It sounds like he may be. You might want to talk to your doctor about it (although I'm not sure what they would do). However, more importantly - make sure that your home is safe for your son in case he gets up in the middle of the night and tries to get out. Maybe see if you can find something that you can install on his door so that if he opens his bedroom door it will beep (they have them at the day care my mom works at). That way, if you hear it, you know he is out of his bedroom and can check it out.

Other options would be to make sure your entire house is safe - put a high up chain lock on the outside doors, find a way to make sure he can't take a bath in the middle of the night.

I'm not sure what's going on with your child, but for the sake of his safety, I would recommend installing those hotel-style locks that are at the top of the door. That way, even if he's walking at night, you will know that he's safe and inside. Good luck.

Until you figure out what is going on and how to prevent this from happening, try a baby gate in his doorway to keep him in his room. Also hook locks on the top of the screen doors so he can not get outside. Good luck.