Have any of you had this happen before? My almost 2 year old son has woken up from sleeping screaming and having a fit. If I try to touch him he kicks his legs (while sitting) or moves away from me screaming "no" and has thrown his binky and even reached out and scratched my arm once!! It's only happened 4 times, but what the heck does it mean?? My daughter never did this and I am at a loss as to what would cause this behavior. I don't necessarily think it's a night terror, but it's hard to calm him down and takes a good 15 - 30 minutes. One of them was during his nap after his sister slammed a door downstairs. I think it scared him, but he hadn't ever done that before. He has woken from naps because he heard a loud noise outside that startled him or something, but he would just cry. The first 2 times this happened we were camping in our trailer. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Thank you to all who wrote. I guess I never thought it was a night terror because he seemed so awake, and I never looked into it either. Luckily, so far, he has still only had the 4 episodes, but now I feel more prepared for if/when it happens again. And he definitely was overtired when we were camping!
Thanks again! I appreciate all of your input so much!
S.
it sounds like night terrors. You go in to try and wake them up and they may have their eyes open but are still in the nightmare. If you touch them sometimes you become part of their nightmare. I don't know what to do for them sorry.
Dear S.,
I do sincerely believe that he is having night terrors. Basically he is still asleep when he is kicking and screaming he doesn't know what'g going on and I have heard different things about them. Not to wake-them yes, to wake them. It really just depends on what works for you. He is probably getting a little over-tired and maybe stressed for some reason. When he starts to understand what dreams are and tells you about them they seem to subside for the most part. I only know this because my son was the same way. Every now and then he does it again but now he tells me his dreams in a story scenario and they don't seem to happen as often. I also think sometimes growing pains or "leg aches" help bring them on too. I hope you all can start to get some rest.
L.
One of my sons went thru the same thing when he was younger. They would increase if where he was sleeping was too warm. Camping may just have been too warm for your son. I moved my son downstairs where the air conditioner was cooler during nap time and that took care of most of them. I did some research into diet, since I'm in the field, and found as I cut back more on the processed, food coloring and especially sugar (natural sugars are ok like fruits, honey, etc.) more of them went away. I also found he was a little uncoordinated and didn't seem to focus on how he moved (walked, ran, etc.) I put together a physical program for him which included balancing and core strengthening techniques along with spacial exercises to help him understand or rather feel where he is - grounding. Within two months the whole family was sleeping soundly again. My other son has always talked in his sleep and it happens when he's sleeping especially warm. The temperature in the house is cool but if he hasn't drank enough water in the day and ate more junk than fresh foods, he'll sweat while he sleeps and the talking starts. I'm not saying you won't be able to go camping again. I haven't worried about temperature in 4 years so the diet and exercise seems to be more helpful but I remember the cooler temps was very helpful when I first started out for nap time.
Hi S.,
Our daughter has these sort of strange sleeping-yelling-awake sessions when she is overly tired. She is able to yell/scream for a half hour if left alone. To calm her we carry her out of her room and stand out on the deck. The change in the air/atmosphere gets her to calm down and settle back down quickly and smoothly.
Sounds like a night terror to me. We had the same experience with our daughter only maybe a bit more severe.
Read on a web site to put their hands and feet under cool running water to snap them out of the night terror. It worked every time-it is definitely an altered state and there is no way to reach them until they come out of it or you bring them out.
Also if your son is sleeping in footy pajamas try to change to non footy pajamas and no socks. This seems to prevent them from getting night terrors.
Hope it works for you too!
My now 5 year old did this same behavior for years. Last spring after it happened for around 2 weeks every night, I took him to the pediatrician. He was finally diagnosed with Reflux or GERD. He was refluxing at night and the doctors explained to me how horrible it is and can cause BAD dreams. He never threw up or spit up...it is called Silent Reflux. I am not saying this is what it is...but I had never heard of this before my son was diagnosed. I used to think it was night terrors We have treated his reflux and addressed a few other medical issues. I can now say that at 5 years old...he is sleeping peacefully and soundly every night! I guess I am saying, it may be worth a conversation with your pediatrician and asking about the symptoms of silent reflux.
Sounds like a 'night-terror', especially with the door-slamming incident. Something interrupts sleep during the transition from deep to REM and causes the terror. It's caused by immature nervous system and he will grow out of it. Till then, just stay calm and talk quietly to him
I agree with everyone else. it sounds like night terrors. Just let it pass. It is like sleep walking- you don't want to wake them suddenly. Even with his eyes open he is not really awake. Just stay near so he doesn't hurt himself, but don't touch him. It will be hard, but it will pass more quickly if you just let him be. Sorry.
It sounds exactely like a night terror, these will phase out. It is normal and happens and can happen at naptime. If he is a deep sleeper and something half way wakes him up he can be very disoriented too. Don't worry too much unless it continues for a long time. All you can do is try and calm him and let him go back to sleep.
It does sound like a night terror, one of mine would get "mean" during them, and they can happen even during naps,just not as often. It will just be a matter of trial and error as to what will calm him down, some of mine was picking them up and shushing them, other I had to leave completely alone, no touching, but talk to them calmly and softly and wait until they were ready for me to hold them. The good thing is that they usually have no memeory of it. My second oldest son had to be told to "Knock it off" and not nicely, he would almost instantly stop, but when you asked him about it in the morning, he was 5 when his started, he would have no clue what I was talking about. Patience, it tends to get worse before it gets better thought.
My son, who is 22 months, does the same thing. I think it is night terrors. He had one last night, in fact. He was completely inconsolable, hysterical, didn't really want to be held, didn't want to be put down. Nothing works for us except putting on a movie for a few minutes--it seems to snap him out of it, and he settles down and will go back to bed. The length of these episodes varies; last night, we were up from 1 to 2 am. My son's don't seem to be linked to anything--they just happened randomly. I did read somewhere that they are more likely to have a night terror if they are over tired. Night terrors are supposedly something that kids outgrow, so hopefully the phase will end soon!
Stacy,
It sounds to me like what is labeled "night terrors".
My understanding is that these dreams are so real that anything from the conscious world will be pullled into them.
That is why it is better to simply let your son experience them at that moment than to try to assist to calm him.
As a young child I hated being told to take an afternoon nap, because I know where my mind would take me. My mind was not tired enough to go into a deep sleep, but I was tired enough to go into the subconscious fears of my little child's mind.
The best way to assist is to reassure your son during the daytime hours that he is safe and secure. Create an environment that he can share with you his fears and realize that as bad as it looks he is perfectly fine.
With my whole heart,
C. TLC (Transition Life Coach)
Loving Connections LLC
It's happened a couple of times over the last few weeks. I think it's nightmares/night terrors as well. I try to give the baby some milk and then walk around with her I think your son must be scared of something I try and wake my daughter up if she's having a bad dream and then give her a bottle to help her get back to sleep again. Don't know if just sitting out the night terror is the best thing Don't know what it is really Maybe the bogeyman if you've heard of that He's like an invisible character who comes at night Children can see things we don't But I think my daughters too young and have put it down to nightmares
I know it is scary when this happens and it can also be frustrating, since there is nothing you can do to bring them out of this "spell". My daughter started screaming for no reason at a very young age, at about nine months. I would try anything and everything I could think of to calm her down. She didnt want to be touched, so I would stay close to make sure she was safe. I never did find out what was causing my daughters screams, but she did stop.
Now my nephew has started having night terrors, not knowing what else to call them. But his was a more serious situation. After his last one, his parents took him to the ER and they ran many tests. The Doctor says that his are caused by siezures (sp). He now takes medication and has had no other edisodes.
I would suggest you talk to your Doctor and start there. As I said before, I understand what you are going through.
He's probably having nightmares...try singing his favorite song to him to comfort him
Sounds like night terrors. We went through them with my son. There's really nothing you can do but wait. It will pass. Some kids go through it quickly - only a few episodes - and some, like ours, may take a year or more.
A couple things I learned:
1. Take nothing personally. He's asleep, even if his eyes are open, he's still in the 'dream' when he's screaming and trashing.
2. Comfort him when he's ready. He may thrash around for a few minutes, I found that if I tried to get to my son when he was like that, it only made things worse.
3. A drop of Rescue Remedy can do wonders in calming him down and getting him back to sleep.
Good luck mama.
Blessings,
M.
S.-it sounds like a night terror to me as well. My 3 1/2 year old went through this for about a year and sometimes still does. He would get violent with me and no matter what I did, he couldn't seem to snap out of it. His would last about 45 mins to an hour. All we could do was sit there and make sure that he didn't hurt himself. If we turned on the lights, it would get worse, if we touch him it would get worse, if we tried to talk to him, it would get worse. we recorded on episode on our camcorder and took it to the ped's and that is what he believed it to be. His ideas-do nothing!
Sorry I cannot give you more help. Good luck
I hear your pain and frustration. My son did the same thing at the same age and now my neighbor is going through it with her son at the same age. I t almost seems like they are sleep walking and not all there......? What I found that works is to get him into a different environment, take him into the bathroom and turn on the light and water, take him into the kitchen, so there is new lighting and surroundings. Neither my neighbor or myself could figure it out, but changing environments helped as well as keeping a schedule. It seemed if nap was even ten minutes later or lunch was a little later, this threw and he would have one of these fits about 1 week later........Best of luck, they do stop, eventually!
My son (age 5) does that too. It's hard to call it night terrors for me cause it sounds so extreme--but the definition fits. I agree with your other advice. Make sure he is safe and let it pass unless it becomes extreme. If it does...consult a doc. Good luck! Amy
Same here! My two year old (just turned two) wakes sometimes from naps this way, and sometimes in the night. I have been doing research, and they say if it's really a night terror, to just stand by the crib or the bed and speak soothingly to them "it's okay honey, go back to sleep, you're safe, etc." - do not pick them up or they will fight you more and get more upset. If they truly want to be soothed by you, they will let you know. Just be sure they are not in danger of being hurt in their bed/crib/etc. (I always have tried to pick her up, and she kicks and stretches and tries to get out of my hold - couldn't figure out why I was making it worse - now I know!). You can try to rub them or touch their arm, etc. but you just typically just have to wait it out. They can last from about 15 minutes (varies), and it happens when they are in the deepest sleep. Research that I have found also says this is FAR more upsetting to parents, and that with night terrors, children have no recollection AT ALL, therefore they can't verbalize the problem to you nor can they explain to you why they are upset. They don't even "know" that it happened. Stay strong and support each other through the tough moments, and hopefully things will be better.
Advice from what I have read is to be sure they get plenty of opportunity to sleep - try not to cut nap times short, and get them to bed at night at an early time to maximize their amount of sleep they could get. Be consistent about it.
They say the night terrors usually happen about 2 hours into deep sleep - also if it happens on a regular basis, I read you should gently rouse them around that time to throw off the deep sleep pattern - meaning, don't fully wake them up, but disrupt their normal pattern for a moment so that the night terror timing is thrown off. I have never tried this - our schedule has no regularity to it.
I would love to continue to talk about this with you to see how things work for you and I will share how things are going at our house too. This has just started for us in the past two weeks - it's about half and half occurring at nap time and during the night sleep. Either way, it's tough to see her so upset, and I am sure you feel the same exact way.
S.
It sounds like he is having night terrors. My son has these every so often also. My son it two and that is about the age that night terrors begin. My mom told me that my sister had them also around that age and that all you can do is to wait out the screaming. Just hold him and tell him that mommy is here and you are safe. Just keep reassuring him. It is hard to have your little one do that. I understand!
I come from a whole family of very active sleepers - sleepwalking, talking, and nightmares. My poor mom! One of my children has inherited the same types of sleep behaviors, and she occasionally has a nightmare that wakes her up screaming. It takes her a very long time to wake up completely, and during that time she cries, screams, and behaves completely irrationally. She doesn't seem to recognize us or respond to anything we say.
If this happens before we (adults) are in bed, we will bring her out to the well-lit living room and set her down on the couch. Just sitting in the light and hearing the TV or us talking will gradually wake her up, and then she relaxes. Once she is thoroughly calm, we can put her back to bed. If it is the middle of the night, we may still turn on some lights, and put on some lullaby music. Since I have had many nightmares myself, I know the feelings she is having - total confusion, waking up out of a very realistic dream. It's almost as if I am trying to fit the people around me who are talking to me into the dream sequence that is still running in my head. If it was a scary dream, then I may not be nice! The most helpful thing for me was always for someone to speak calmly and reassuringly and give me some time to wake up before expecting me to respond.
Hope that helps!
My son started to do that a little before he turned 2. It scarred me so much. I did some research on it and found out he was having night terorrs. They are like nightmares, but they appear to be awake. All you can do is make he doesn't hurt himself. Don't try to wake him. It will stop. If you feel they are becoming more frequent or he is becoming more violent, take him to see his doctor. Our son is turning 4 in September and he hardly has them now.
We experienced night terrors with our daughter and so I read up a lot on them. This sounds like night terrors to me for sure. I think they peak during about 2-3 years old. They are especially common when a child is overtired, like if they've been up too late. My daughter would often have them if she had been swimming in the afternoon/evening because she was extra tired. Could this have been the case when sleeping in the trailer? What happens is that they are sort of stuck between sleep cycles. They are cycling out of a deep sleep cycle and not fully awake. They typically happen during the first hour or two of sleep. It is quite alarming because they are so upset and cannot be consoled. We would try taking her out of her room and into a bright room, but we couldn't "snap" her out of it. This is because they aren't really awake. They will have no memory of the episode in the morning. The best thing you can do is watch to make sure they don't hurt themselves. It is so sad and hard to watch! My daughter eventually outgrew them. Good luck!
I went through the same thing with my older daughter. Everyone told me it was night terrors, but she would go screaming across the house and wouldn't let anyone near her. We just had to let her scream for a while until she would calm down enough to go to her (which could take a long time). We discovered that is was due to artificial colors/additives. We eat a very healthy diet, but every once in a while she would get a treat. If she had anything with dyes in it, especially m'n'm's or cheetos this would happen. As soon as we cut them out completely (you can get the same treats at Whole Foods without the dyes) this activity decreased enormously until they went away completely. Just read labels and if there is anything artificial your whole family should avoid it! Hope that helps!
S., it DOES sounds like night terrors to me. Kids awaken and don't know where they are or who you are. All you can do is talk softly to his until he realizes where he is, and make sure he's in a safe place. You don't have to try and touch him or hold him, as he probably won't let you. Your son is not your daughter, and you will find he does a lot of things she never did. It doesn't make you a bad mom, it just means your son is different than your daughter. It's nothing you are doing, so please don't put anything on yourself Just keep on loving him. He WILL outgrow it, and it is kind of scary when a child so suddenly and violently rejects you. Notice glassy eyes with no comprehension or focus in them? Be patient, and then grateful when he's over them. My son outgrew them around four. Long time, but now he's 14 and as normal as a teenager can be! Hang in there, this, too shall pass!
Hi S.,
It sounds like night terrors to me. My son was 18 months when his started, usually at night but a few times happened at nap time. He looks like he was awake, usually within the first hour of sleep, he wakes up crying, gets up and walks around most of the time crying and yelling for mommy but when I try to touch him he yells 'no, no, I want my mommy' and pushes me away, it usually last for about 15-20 minutes. I talked to the pediatrician, she said night terrors. I didn't know anything about them at the time but have since learned they are related to sleep walking and they think part of the nervous system that is still developing but they don't know alot. The Dr. said it was fine to try and wake him which we started doing however it became more difficult over the years to the point that I have to take a cold wet cloth and put on his back to wake him. When he wakes he either just grabs hold of me and goes right back to sleep or walks with me to his bed, climbs in and goes back to sleep. He never remembers them in the morning and waking him does not do anything but stop the episode, he doesn't wake up freaked out but calms down immediately. The Dr. said rarely this continues to age 15, my son is 9 and maybe has one episode every few months now, almost always because he has been up too late and is too tired. He has been worried about spending the night at friends as they tend to stay up late and he doesn't want it to happen elsewhere. He trys to have sleep overs at our house, I explain to the other parents why, that way we get to bed at a good time and if he does have an episode I am there to deal with it. Also have found the quicker I get to him, sing or talk to him when he is first waking up then I can get him back to sleep without going full scale night terror. My sons seem to be his fears of something happening to my husband or I, he answers questions sometimes in his sleep but not much. Again, the faster I get to him the less severe. Also when this all started we lived on the 2nd floor, staircase down to the front door, we put a latch he couldn't open on a gate at the stairs and also made sure the door to outside had a lock high enough he could not reach. Dr. said sleep walkers can end up walking in the street and not even know it.
Good luck, it isn't as bad as it seems and most kids grow out of it pretty young.
SarahMM
