night terrors

[OliverRowland]

anyone have any ideas as to handle night terrors?

[momofclaire]

Are you sure your lo is having night terrors?  I think he is a bit young for that, but I could be wrong.

[Colin Macs Mom]

I was actually just going to ask how old your LO is.

[OliverRowland]

he is 11 months.  someone also said it may be from SA....how do I differentiate?

[Erin M]

If it's a night terror, it will happen in the first few hours of sleep, my dd usually has then when we're still awake or right about when we go to bed.  She screams and thrashes around, but her eyes are closed and she's nearly impossible to wake up.  With night terrors, they don't know what's going on, so it's actually worse to pick them up as it just freaks them out more on the subconscious level.  Horrible for mom and dad though b/c we just want to give hugs and make the crying/screaming stop.  We'll take dd and put her on our bed so I can lay close to her without holding her.  Sometimes she'll wake up after she comes out of it and need some cuddles, sometimes she'll just fall back into deeper sleep.  They tend to happen when overstimulating/overexciting things happen or when she's short of sleep from a weird day (we had a bunch around the 2-1 nap switch and some more recently as she doesn't always nap). 

With SA, he'd actually be awake and looking for you, chances are he'll calm down when you get to him.

HTH!

[OliverRowland]

thanks...from your description it sounds like SA.  can it reduce significantly during the day but still be present at night?

[momofclaire]

We had SA present only at night for a long time.   

[sue]

I read somewhere that if it's a true night terror, the child has no recollection of it so after an "episode" if the child is more upset than you, it's a nightmare, but if you are more upset than the child, it's a night terror.

[OliverRowland]

momofclaire, how long?   i'll just keeeping doing what i am doing (go in and reassure him) but it always breaks my heart when i hear the crying!

[momofclaire]

It lasted a little over a month.  I introduced a "comfort word" during that time.  Every night I would say "night night" a million time and after a while I only had to say it once or twice from the door.  I also  introduced a "lovie" around that time, it is a small little doll and now when she gets tired she says "baby baby, night night."