Restless Sleep

Hi J.,
As a pediatrician we see and hear of all sorts of sleep related issues. Night terrors may start as early as 18 months but do not start at 6 months. I was sad to see one of the responses suggested that it was due to immunizations. Yes he may be a bit sore and irritable after his shots and this may set him up for a sleep disturbance but protection from these diseases is so important. More likely he may be having teething or gas discomfort or may simply be over tired.
I would try to stick to a good routine. In terms of what to do when he cries at night- comfort him. With that said, this is the time to develop good sleep habits. If you can comfort him but leave the room before he falls asleep this is great. You want him to be able to fall asleep without your help ie rocking, feeding etc. This is all easy to say and hard to accomplish. Just know that things tend to get harder as they develop object permanence and seperation anxiety between 7 and 9 months of age. Hope that helps and hang in there.

J.

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Hi J.,
Sorry to hear your lil guy is going through that. My children have all been prone to night terrors at different times usually outgrowing around 5 y/o. I always noted that it happened when they were extra tired/hadn't napped well... We would think, he/she is going to sleep so well after a long day, but it backfired and they had trouble sleeping, kicking and crying during the night for up to 5 minutes or so. He likely needs more sleep during the day with longer nap(s). But, also make sure nothing medically going on, like an ear infection which can be more painful when your child is laying down. There's a book called Solve YOur Child's Sleep Problems and it discusses this and how to go about helping if you are having trouble with naps too.
HTH and his sleep is better soon!
Barb

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J.,
My heart goes out to you and your boy! While I have no experience with this, I found a website that may be helpful for you. I hope this helps :)

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/sleep/terrors.html

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Hi J.,

I am surprised that your son is having a night terror at only 6 months of age. I have never heard of it at such a young age. I would call your pediatrition and see what they say or suggest. It may be something else?? Gas?? I would look it up on the internet or in the book "What to Expect the First Year" too.

I know this all too well. My daughter started having night terrors around the age of 2. It was so scary and exhausting. I would just hold my her and try to protect her from hurting herself until she got exhausted. Then I would just hold her and rock her in my arms and let her know mommy was there till she went back to sleep, kissing her cheek. Her eyes would be half open during it and if I tried to talk to her, it would make her screem louder and have a kicking fit even worse. They would occur once or twice a week, but not every week. It went on for about a year. It is horrible, but she did grow out of it. I wish you the best. Just love him and have some good quiet time before you lay him down to sleep at night.
Wishing you the best!

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My son had night terrors. Everything I read said not to wake him, even his doctors. So when he would have an episode I would hold him and talk to him or even sing to him in a soothing voice (what can be more soothing than a mothers voice at that age). Now he is getting better he only has about one episode every few months and they are not as violent as they use to be. Good luck and I hope your son gets better!

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My daughter had the same thing. It would be once in awhile, but she would wake up out of the blue just in hysteria and it was nearly impossible to get her to stop crying. I would be beside myself with worry thinking there was something physically wrong. The only thing we found to work was to put on a Baby Einstein video. I don't normally promote such approaches, but it seriously was the only thing that would break her from her hysteria. So often I would be up at 2am watching Baby Neptune. She is now 20 months old and hasn't had an episode for quite a while - maybe two months or so - hopefully it is over, but who knows. My husband also had these night terrors his mom claims, so perhaps it is hereditary - did you or your husband have them as a child? I wish you luck and if you come up with a good approach to helping your child through them please let me know.

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Dear J.,

It's so easy when you're a new mom to get frightened yourself about these episodes. 6 months is still pretty young to have night terrors (they seem to start when the crawling and discovery begins at 9 mo.) He may be having a bit of seperation anxiety or hey, he wakes up and crys. If he's awake screaming its not night terrors. To solve your problem, though requires a bit of thought. How is he going to sleep in the first place. Is he just put down or are you spending some time getting him down? A nice warm bath before bed is a pleasant diversion and lets him calm down before sleep. Remember he's a busy baby and too much fun before bed can be too much fun to sleep well. If he still takes the bottle or the breast before bed, make sure that's not upsetting his tummy. Now's when milk allergy crops up and sometimes it manifests itself as a sore tummy in the night. No baby is allergic to breast milk however to my knowledge.
Try these little tricks. Take care of yourself. A bath for you before bed is a good idea too! Remember you are the resource without you there is nothing else...so take good care of you!
Hugs
L.

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my daughters night terrors at that age were related to her immunizations. I did not belive it the first time cause the dr's said no way- but the next series proved it and we stopped. A mothers gut instinct is stronger that a doctors reccomendation.
Just something to think about and track- keep a journal of the episodes etc.
Best wishes I know it is very hard that is why i started researching and watching my daughters reactions and it all added up.

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Unfortunatly all you can really do is let him go through this. He will grow out of it but until then it is so hard to see. When my son was a baby he also had night terrors and they are horrible because I used to think that he was awake and something was really wrong with him but it turned out that he was asleep. He's eight now and has grown out of it but just remember that no matter how horrible it seems it's not that bad because he won't even remember the eposide in the morning and nothing is wrong with him.

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