Night Terrors (20Month Old)

My son also started having them around age 2. Maybe 3 or 4 times a year. We definitely notice it happens when his sleep schedule has been off for more than a couple of days or he has been really sick (again his sleep schedule gets off track). The best thing you can do is just hold them, soothe them, and keep them safe (ie from falling off the bed, etc.). My son is now 4.5 years old and still has them. But they are not so scarey for us since we know what they are and can kind of tell when they might happen.

my son had these as well around 2 years old. Unfortunately they do not respond to cuddling or talking because they really are asleep. My husband and I felt so helpless when it would happen because we couldn't wake him or calm him down. The doctors say to leave them alone because they don't even know they are doing it. It is hard to do because you just want to help.

He will grow out of it, my son did. Best of luck. Just know he's not affected by it when he wakes up in the morning or anything.

Soothing doesn't work. You need to change the scene. We would take our daughter into the brightly lit bathroom, sometimes running her hands in the water, or outside into the cold to truly wake her up. They are so deep into sleep you have to snap them out of it. 2 of my 3 girls did this a lot. One of them FINALLY outgrew this mostly by age 7. It doesn't mean anything, it's just sleep depriving!

My daughter had night terrors when she was young, as she got older she stopped having them. (she is 14 now. though she does talk in her sleep sometimes now) The best thing you can do is figure out what is triggering them. On the days your child has an episode, think back through the day. Was is it a stressful day for your child? Is the child overtired? Did you do anything different from your regular routine? You get the idea. Once you figure out the trigger you can offset the night terrors during the day by keeping your child from becoming overtired or stressed out or whatever it is that is the trigger. Another thing you can do is give your baby a drink of water. Sometimes this helps. I know this is scary, there is nothing worse than seeing your baby looking right a you with their eyes wide open and not recognizing you. All while they are crying and freaking out. You will get through this, hopefully soon your baby will out grow it. Hope this helps.

There's nothing you can really do to "stop" it... it is all developmental based.
Read about it online...
Both my kids went through that too, as most kids do.

There is a difference between "night terrors" and "night mares" however. Which you can read about online by doing a Google search.

All the best,
Susan

Are you sure it's night terrors and not growing pains? At 20 months they need more calcium than any amount of dairy can give them. We give our kids Bluebonnett or Lifetime Calcium/Magnesium - blueberry flavorered. It's not specific to kids, but rather just a calcium that is safe for kids. We give them a spoonful of it nearly every night and they sleep like rocks - and never have any growing pains. Keep it refigerated once you open it and then shake well before giving it. Within the week, you should be able to tell a difference. It makes a huge difference with teething as well!

Run her feet under cool water. It totally worked for my son, helped him fully wake up (from my research night terrors occur when the kids get stuck, not fully awake and not fully asleep). We went through the same thing and running his feet under cool water helped ease him out of the screaming and get him back to sleep, but what kept the night terrors away was leaving his feet un-socked during the night. As soon as we started doing that (no more socks or footed pj's) he stopped having the night terrors. Go figure.

Hi K.,
My son went thru that, last almost a year. Would happen 3-4 times a week and each episode would last 20min-45 minutes. I even took him to the ER once not knowing what and why this was happening. Long story short, his pediatrician said usually happens when a child is over tired and my son would not take naps. Dr suggested after the first hour of sleep, gently wake him up to disrupt the sleep pattern as it happens only in certain stages of sleep.

Good luck!

My son had them for quite some time. Unfortunately, you will be exhausted, however what I did when it occurred was to keep saying "say hi mommy". Try to do in a nice voice. I know you are scared with being woken up to a screaming cry. Once your heart returns to normal, talk in a soothing voice. I just kept repeating it, and then all of a sudden he would do the cheerful hello, after many cranky ones. I did not try to wake him. I just kept repeating, he would hear, repeat cranky, and then suddenly cheerful and awake. Granted not happy because he was woken up in the middle of the night. Then I could cuddle and he would go back to sleep. Sometimes it happened again that night, and others he was fine. Sorry this was over 7 years ago, and that is what I really remember doing. I do not remember if I did anything else. Just take a nap during the day if you get the chance, and keep yourself healthy. She will be fine. Wishing you the best.

My daughter had night terrors too. Got hysterical during them and couldn't be woken. ALl I can tell you is that they will pass. My daughters lasted for a few months, then were gone. She did not remember them. It is much worse on the parents. She was about 2 years old at the time. She recently had one night terror, but they have been gone for 8 years - and it may have been brought on by a fever. Hang in there, and if they aren't gone in a few months - make sure you let your pediatrician know. Are you sure they are night terrors and not nightmares?

K.

Are you sure it is night terrors? I ask because my dd went through this around the same age and it was actually teething. She was inconsolable and then we finally gave her teething tablets (after a couple of nights) and she would go right back out. It was the T2's, they were really h*** o* her. They are the really sharp canine looking teeth. Just a thought. We use to take my dd out to look at the moon as well and it soothed her. Not sure where you are though, we are in CA so it is warm enough at night to do that. Good luck and whatever it is I wish you well.

When our son was around 20 months he also had night terrors. At first, we didn't know what was happening to him because he didn't really respond to us. It was like he was crying and scared of us, but it seemed that he didn't really see us there almost like he was still asleep. We would pick him up and try to soothe him but it didn't help. So we started playing very soothing music (like Baby Einstein cd's) and he would fall asleep. It diminishes over time and for us it happened 2-3 times a week not a night then finally went away after about three months. It's scary to experience so I understand.

My 3 year old son has been having night terrors for about a year now. He doesn't have them everynight, maybe only once every 2 weeks. When he does, we screams and cries, and doesn't respond to anything we try, except when my husband turns on the light, and uses a stern voice when calling his name. This immediatly wakes him up, he hugs all over us, and then goes right back to sleep.

We have a 5 month old who wakes screaming with "night terrors" but it's usually on days we can't follow our normal routine and he misses his scheduled naps. I'm finding out through research & experience that having consistent sleep times is extremely important for regulating their sleep cycles and giving them peaceful sleep.

Are you certain it is night terrors? My son is 6 and has night terrors. When he was a baby it was hard for me to tell what it was, but as he grew and I talked with his pediatrician about his symptoms, this is what he was diagnosed with. It is like sleepwalking where they seem like they are awake but they are not - different from waking from a bad dream or something. My son did have night terrors more regularly when he was younger, but now it is the classic symptom of him crying in his sleep once per night about an hour after he falls asleep(he even sits up with his eyes open at times and can respond to my questions but he is asleep and never remembers the episode). The episodes are few and far between now. The last time was about 4 months ago. My nephew also had night terrors and fully grew out of it by about age 7. How tired the child is also affects the night terror. When my son is overtired is usually when he will have one.

So, what to do about it. What we were told by his pediatrician and what we do works fairly well, which is NOT trying to wake him up. That prolongs the terror/makes it worse. We know because we tried this for awhile before we realized that it was night terrors. All we can do is try to help him fall back into a restful sleep. I also realized that the more I verbally talk to him, it seems to make it worse. I may say, "you're okay" and "I love you" but not much more. My son always sits up now when he is having a night terror, so the first thing I do is help him to lie back down as he can't seem to figure that out on his own. Then I lay next to him and/or rub his back or hair. Sometimes too much touch irritates him more though. It is a little different each time.

Good luck! Night terrors are hard to deal with. Oh - another thing the Dr. suggested is to time when the terrors occur throughout the night and wake him up right before to head off the terror from happening. This technique was hard for me because I hate to wake a sleeping baby/child. But, that is worth a try too.

My son had them a few months back and the most important thing that you can give her is your patience. It WILL pass. Even though I know it is very scary for parents especially since you feel so very helpless just know that is yet another phase your little one is going thru and with love & patience you WILL make is thru this.