Toddler night terrors -any experiences?

[BeadyBoo]

Just settled my nearly 3 year old back to sleep, totally heart breaking. Does anyone have any experience of how to handle these?

[vesti]

For genuine night terrors-they are asleep.

And in my experience don't remember having them.

Hard to believe when you child is roaming round talking and seeming to respond.

Just settle them and don't go on about it the next day.

Just don't mention it.

They grow out of it.

[standswithfist]

yes - just this last week! my daughter (now 6) also suffered from them. The NHS website had some useful information.

and i am in a mothers group on FB and their advice was very useful - as in its very common - they are asleep - just ensure they don't hurt themselves (if thrashing about) and it will pass.

My son (19 months) had it for 4 nights on the trot last week so very little sleep was had by me. i found it hard being unable to comfort him but after a while after screaming he called me and i could hold him. The best thing to do is to either get the light on to bring them out of the deep sleep or take them into a room that is lit and see if that helps. once awake they fall back asleep quite quickly and should (touch wood) not get it again.. that night.

One friend her son had it so severe she just had to walk him round the rooms with all the lights on till he came to.

Good luck... i hate it but the next day he was fine each time. it was just me that was traumatised!!!

[Oxalis]

My daughter has night terrors when she is very overtired or has a temperature. She screams/walks/responds and behaves as if she is having the worst tantrum ever but her cry has a higher pitch than usual. She is now four and sometimes does have some recollection of them, as you would recall a bad dream. They happen about three hours after she goes to sleep and sometimes recur at 90 min intervals (thankfully not very often). If I turn the light on in her room as soon as I hear her scream that sometimes stops them and she just turns over and goes back to sleeping peacefully. Otherwise, I just stay with her and make sure she is safe. Talking to her just makes things worse so I now keep quiet. After 15-20 mins she will suddenly sit on my lap/lie down and go back to sleeping peacefully. She is a happy and healthy girl but several of her immediate family have parasomnias too which I think is quite common.

[sanity girl]

My son also gets night terrors - fortunately not so frequently recently. I do the same as standswithfist - get him out of bed and take him into my bedroom with a light on - hold him and reassure until he comes to then he falls asleep again straight away (in my bed!)

[Saffron]

My parents thought I had genuine night terrors, and didn't talk to me about it. I was actually having nighttime panic attacks, and I was very much aware of them! Since they didn't talk about it, I just suffered in silence. :(

It is worth confirming with your LO that s/he slept ok, just make your enquiries gentle. xx

[Belle]

My son (just turned 6) has these, he also used to sleep walk a lot, and in both cases he had no memory the next day (though as Saffron says we would gently bring it up from time to time to check). He had one recently but that made us realise it's been ages. I'd say they started around 3/3.5 and seem to have tailed off around 5, 5.5. They weren't that frequent, maybe once a week. It's very upsetting because it goes against every fibre of a parent's being to not comfort a child in distress, but we found it had no effect, or actually exacerbated things, and in a way you have to either let it play out, or as others suggest, bring into the light to try to 'reset' things. Definitely different from nightmares, which he also suffers from and is able to remember and talk about, and be consoled about/waken from during an episode.

My son has asthma and I do sometimes wonder if the two are linked, I've been in his room sometimes when he is going through a disturbed night, and I notice that when his breathing slows down and pauses (the way you do when you're sleeping), he will suddenly take a gulp of air and then a night terror kicks in.

Oh, also to say in my experience (touch wood) my son has never hurt himself during an episode, despite wandering around etc (and he's on a top bunk!). We once found him crouching and gasping in 'terror' at the bottom of his brother's cot (brother slept on, oblivious), but my son was definitely not awake, and had no memory the next day - in fact we dropped the subject quickly as it clearly upset him hearing about something he had no recollection of.

[GinaG3]

I was a sufferer of night terrors until I was 11, including sleepwalking. My daughter seems to have carried this on, she's 6. We notice they only seem to happen around times of stress, latest was moving house and having a new baby (at the same time!!!!). It also happens mainly with colds, when she goes to bed with a stuffy nose and especially with temperature.

I know from my own experience that I grew out of them, mine were worst from age 8 when my youngest brother was born and the dynamic of our family changed. At 11 they stopped but carried on intermittently until I was around 14. My parents always left me to it, with the terrors they tried to stop them during the night but couldn't, with the sleep walking they tried to carry me back to bed but that failed too. In the end they just let it all play out, I always found my way back to bed after doing some very random stuff. I never had any recollection in the morning so could never actually quite believe the stories that become some form of tradition around the breakfast table.

We just leave our daughter, we've tried waking but nothing gets through to her (she's fully in deep sleep mode when it happens) and actually I think can sometimes make it worse waking them. I hate hearing her crying in the night, sometimes she screams, other times its just sobbing. I find it very difficult to leave her and it breaks my heart every time but I can't find another conclusion.

I'm sorry I don't have any tips for you but just so you know it is actually quite common. Good luck, hopefully you will be through it soon, I know how difficult it can be.

[snowboarder]

My two have both had them - my youngest still does at nearly 4 - maybe once a month. They seem to often happen when he crashes out into a really deep sleep when overtired, then we hear screaming about an hour later. I find it helps to get to him fast, then I take him to the toilet which seems to bring him out of it. He then settles again super quickly, and doesn't remember it at all.

[Strawbs]

I am having similar with my 3 year old but I think more bad dreams and thinking monsters will come out of the cupboard and get him. The screams are chilling and can happen up to 3 or 4 times a night on some nights and he is literally shaking in fear and screaming 'mama keep me safe', it is heartbreaking. We make sure his tv is very vanilla ie at the moment it is all about bubble guppies.

All I have been able to do is sleep on his floor on a mattress for a week or so (tbh I got more sleep that way vs up and down all night) and keep reassuring him I am there and then gradually reduce that. I figure it is a phase albeit an upsetting one and he will eventually move through it.

Good luck!

Oh and we bought some dragons which he chose and strategically place them around his room at bed time of his choosing and he thinks they will protect him and that seems to be working at least to get him off to sleep. I am also going to make up a label and stick it on a can of Evian or something which is a monster spray so he can spray that everywhere before he goes to bed, maybe that might help!

[BeadyBoo]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Did any of the sufferers also have any history of febrile seizures or constipation?