My three year old daughter has always gone to bed on her own perfectly. About a year and a half ago she starting having what I figured were night terrors. She would wake up about 3-4 hours after going to sleep at 7 pm and cry and scream. It seemed to be worse on days she was overtired. She outgrew her naps around that time too and if she takes one, she's up until 10 that night. Anyway, now the wakings have escalated to full on kicking screaming fits and very often she's saying, "Owie, owie, owie". DO I need to take her to a sleep specialist or ignore it until the behavior goes away?
eliminate milk from her diet for 2 weeks and see if that solves things. There was a study done in 2001 or so that showed that the majority of preschool night wakings were caused by a hidden milk allergy. This is what made my daughter start sleeping through the night finally - and she was just shy of 4 yrs old!
N.
With mine sometimes it is a bad dream, but sometimes she has woken with a charlie horse. It was scary because I didnt know what was going on and she would scream like crazy, but be still asleep enough not to speak clearly. My husband finally figured it out and we would rub her leg and one night when it happend a couple times gave her some motrin.
We followed Happy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child, by Dr. Marc Weissbluth like a bible with both our girls. If you're going to take her to see anyone - he's at Northwestern. We went through similar with our younger daughter, she's 4.5 now. I was told it was separation anxiety. For a while we backed up her bedtime to 6:15, 6:30, which seemed to help. We also out of desparation gave a her a dose of Benedryl before bed for about a week. (We are not big on medicating our children, this was on the advice of our ped.) The combination seemed to work.
Good luck.
I would take her in just to make sure she does not have sleep apnia. I don't know your religious beliefs but if you believe in laying of hands, you and your husband could lay your hands on her and pray for her just after she's gone to sleep, if this is night terrors then that should help!
try later bedtimes maybe 8 or 830. ususally at the age of 3 some really outgrow naps. so if shes up early in the morning and dosent go to bed until late she should be pretty tired.
Is it possible that she has any sort of bugs or spiders in her room/bed? I know that sounds weird, but I was just reading the different posts today and it seems half of them are on night wakings and sleep issues, which I've been dealing with for over 3 1/2 years now since all 3 of children tend to be up at least once a night and none have ever slept well. Anyway, back to the point...It just came acrossed me that maybe there is something in her bed causing her to wake up. A toy or pet or something under the fitted sheet? We used to get pine needles everywhere in our house before we removed the giant blue spruce trees. I've seen them get in strange places. Or is it possible that she is dreaming about someone hurting her? My 3 1/2 year is a very vivid dreamer and will get up and walk around and lay down somewhere else multiple times a night and be talking or crying about various things from monsters to sissy hurting her to losing a toy. We have even had her hit and kick at us when my husband and I have tried to calm her. She has acid reflux and her sleep is always worse when something has trigger her stomach ache again. I know you have probably thought about all these things, but hopefully you find the answer soon!
Hi-
My daughter went through this around two. She would wake up in the middle of the night thrashing around, very agitated yet very much not awake. It was actually pretty scary- I wasn't sure what to do. If I tried to comfort her or pick her up, she flailed and hit and kicked. My doctor said that it sounded like night terrors. He said they are very common during the toddler years. She is amost four now and does not have them anymore. Phew! I am sure she will grow out of it- hang in there! It wouldn't hurt to talk about it with your doctor if you are worried. I know I was!
Take Care,
S.
Is she having foot or leg cramps? Those are very painful and also very common. Our son who is now 3.5 seems to have now outgrown this, but for a while he was waking up with really nasty foot cramps and also getting them during the day. I just rubbed his foot or had him get up and walk around for a minute or two before getting him back to sleep. At the time this was happening a lot, I started reading about "growing pains" and read in some places online that they don't exist... but I beg to differ... I've had plenty of friends tell me that they had them, kids had them... and our son would TELL me that his foot hurt... Ask your daughter was hurts and see how she responds. At first we didn't know what the problem was either (I also suspected night terrors but that wasn't the problem at all)...
My daughter went thru the same thing only she was two! I tried putting her to bed a little later (she's usually down between 7-8pm). The closer I got to 8 she slept thru most of the night. I also stayed away from giving her anything with sugar or caffeine or that might possibly keep her up, after 6pm. If weather permitted I would let her play outside to use up some of that energy that she would get on the 1 hour carride home. Establishing a routine might also help. Start with brushing her teeth, getting her dolls ready for bed, pick a book or two and read to her. She might also be experiencing some stress because she will no longer be the baby. I found this book yesterday, "The Night You Were Born". The most special day to every parent is that day when their own unique little child is born into this world. It is a day of wonder and amazement, a very unique day unlike any other in their life. On this special day, to them alone, has this little precious baby child been born, and there will never be another one in the entirety of time like this baby. On The Night You Were Born is a precious children's book about this very special little person brought into the world on this very special day.
Maybe you can start with this book. Good luck.
A.
