Night Terrors? - Hillsboro,OR

Updated on August 27, 2008
J.O. asks from Hillsboro, OR
4 answers

My 13mo. old is having what I think are "nightmares" or "night terrors". They really freak me out and she can't tell me what is wrong. She starts crying and won't stop for about 10mins. I know this is not all that long, but I can't soothe her and she just looks right through me. Is there any advice on what to do? So far, I just hold her and keep telling her "It's ok." until she calms down and goes back to sleep. I tried to find questions about it in the mamasource database but could not find any--I know they are there--maybe I was in the wrong category?

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So What Happened?

Thaks for the feed back. Looks like we will just have to ride it out.

More Answers

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

We went through the same thing with our daughter, who is now 4. She was getting them 3-4 times a week and it was kind of unnerving. I would say they lasted from the time she was almost 2 until she was 3+ and then all of the sudden they stopped. I learned to tell the difference between a night terror scream and an actual problem. I would always go in and make sure she was ok and then wait for her to stop but I didn't do anything but rub her back while she was screaming and crying. I talked with our pediatrician and looked them up online and couldn't find anything that helps stop them. I guess it's just a season of life for some kids and thank goodness it passes! Luckily they don't have any memory of it when they wake up in the morning. I'm sorry I couldn't be more positive for you:)

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B.Z.

answers from Portland on

J.,
3 out of 4 of my children had night terrors accompanied with sleep walking. It is unusuall for a child so young to have night terrors, but I am not an expert. If it is really a night terror, they are not awake. They are in the middle of REM(dream) sleep. My children had them for years and never remembered a single one.
With my daughter, I just had to send her to the bathroom and send her back to bed, she was rarely aggitated. My oldest son was extremely aggitated and there was almost nothing I could do to soothe him. I would send him back to bed and touch him on his arm or back and lay him back down when he sat up to get out of bed. If he stayed in bed, he didn't seem to be as upset. It helped my 3rd son to lie down in bed with me until the night terror went away. I would then put him back to bed. They all needed to go to the bathroom and we have had some really funny oops stories of me not getting them to the bathroom soon enough! Keeping a sense of humor when our kids do irritating things really helps.
The best solution for minimizing night terrors is regular and early bed time. Practically every time one of the kids stayed up late, they would have a night terror either that night or the next. I was dogmatic about bed time and rarely let them stay up late even on the weekends. My sons had night terrors until they were 12 or 13. My daughter's were much less severe and she stopped before she was 10.
An excellent book about children's sleep is "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. It is available at most major book stores, Target and Amazon. It will answer almost all of your sleep questions. He even breaks the chapters down by the childs age, so you only need to read a chapter at a time.
Remember, your daughter is deeply asleep, do not try and wake her and don't be distressed by her anxiety. In the morning, she won't remember a thing.
B.

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D.B.

answers from Portland on

J.,
I am sorry, but I don't have any other advice other than ride it out. My son has had them also. they started about that time. He had a few weeks of three or four times. Then he didn't have them for like 8 months and then we just had two more. I just hold him and rock him and try to calm him. But my understanding is that when they are having them, there isn't anything you can do. there is quite a bit of info on the net about night terrors. So, maybe you can find some info there. Although, I think it is something they will grow out of. A few times I did try turing on the tv to Signing Times (I had it on tivo) And that did seem to kick him out of it. But that was a long time ago, and I didn't try it most recently, so I don't know if that will work or not Sorry. Best of luck to you and your little one.
D.

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K.W.

answers from Portland on

If you Google "night terrors" you'll find many, many web sites that talk about it.

(I agree, the Mamasource pages need to be keyword searchable, not just set up by category. Many questions come up over and over again because we just can't find the topic buried in the categories.)

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