This isn't a 'gifted children' post, I just thought I'd ask for opinions from other parents:)
My 8 month old son appears to be having night terrors! Is this possible so early? Neither of my other boys did so young............. For the last week or so he has been waking several times after bedtime until around midnight when he seems to settle. When he wakes he is absolutely beside himself howling/squealing! Usually his eyes are closed too. he seems so frightened! I have had him at the doctor twice in in the last few days to check for ear infections but his health is perfect. He COULD be teething, though I've been rubbing bongela on his gums and giving him pamol before bed, but it still seems so extreme! Any ideas what could be troubling my sweet, normally placid little fellow?
Just wondered if you understand exactly what night terrors are? If you can pass on this info to C, it might help??
Night terrors are vivid auditory and visual experiences in NREM sleep. They cannot be woken from these and will not remember them.
Most dreams are dreamt in REM sleep and can be remembered and you can be woken.
This is what makes night terrors so horrible... the person having them cannot remember anything, other than a sensation of fear. Don't know if this info helps...?
Hi Giselle
Couple of thoughts here - not sure if telling you anything new, but still...!
8 months is the age often associated with fear of strangers, isn't it? Could it be to do with that growing awareness of a bigger world, and a new found fear of unknown things/people?
Also, I recall with night terrors that they don't actually wake? My son had these after he first started kindy (2 1/2 ish) and would be screaming and crying but completely asleep and totally unaware of his surroundings, etc
At least with him it was pretty obvious what was upsetting him, as he would be crying for Mummy (completely unaware that I was right there holding him...ouch!)
Hope your wee guy settles down soon...both mine were really bad at settling for the night around that age too.
Is it the same time each night- because if so, my understanding after lots of reading is that it can't be night terrors.
My son used to wake at 10pm give or take a few minutes and would scream the place down for a varying length of time. After a year of it and finally working out we can't be alone on this planet, I got a book on sleep disorders out and researched the net and what fitted for us was a version of night terrors called 'confusional arousal' (go figure for a name huh!).
Though 8 months seems young?? my daughter is 9 months and has become a shocking sleeper from about 11:30-2am - not screaming but waking often and sometimes hard to settle. It is doing our heads in. I have worked out she was in some pain with lactose intolerance but I wonder if there is more going on with a tummy ache. I just can't work her out so in some ways it is comforting to know that I am not alone with the age thing... the stranger thing is interesting because she definitely notices strangers now.......
Just a very old fashioned thought - a friend of my mothers who would now be 80+ if she was still alive was a very posh nanny in UK. She was completely terrifying. When my children were at that age and not apparently teething but obviously unhappy she said to me that in her opinion babies often had pain as the teeth came down. So no sign of teeth but stabbing pains in the gums/jaw/ears for poor baby. When the teeth actually came through the parents could see the inflamed area and do something about it. She said she was told this by a Harley Street specialist! Might be an old mum's tale?Pamol should help though if that's true.
Hi everyone:)
Thanks for the responses:) He's actually settled a lot all by himself! He has noticed strangers and gets the bottom lip quivering thing happening when someone new has him :) I'm pretty sure he is teething too........ so I guess it could have been anything of the above.
Rachel, it's hard isn't it? I'm sorry you're having sleep problems at the moment too:( My 4 year old has never been a good sleeper and never slept through the night once until he was 23 months old!!! ACK!! Funnily enough, my 8 year old (the gifted one) has always been a wonderful sleeper!!!
Anyways, must go put the little ones to bed!!! Thanks again:)
My daughter got night terrors at 10 months through to about 13 months. It was very stressful for us - fine for her of course as she knew nothing about them!Night terrors occur about 2 hours in to the sleep pattern, the child looks wide awake and cannot be consoled. Episodes usually last 20-30 minutes. They are more common in older kids but you can have them at any age. Some research suggests waking them after about 90 minutes of sleep - however we found that it just meant postponing them for another two hours! Her reaction to teething was very different as she would not settle to sleep, would wake and want a drink and a cuddle - very different from the crying and being pushed away and staring blindly into the corner of the room.
My baby girl as she turned to 8 months she started the same symptoms. after 3 hours of sleep she gets up with a terrible screem. She doesnt respond to us for 5-10 min. But after that slowly she starts responding and she goes back to sleep. The episode takes minimum of 20 min.
Can that happen? even her doctor couldnt give me a proper answer ( I know thats fair enough !!! )
What my mohter in law does is that she rub some holy watter.. But I dont believe in those... Please help me;...
We learnt the pattern that the night terror would follow. I found it quite distressing so my husband would go in and sit with her until it was over. We just felt better that way. She grew out of it - and is now into teh nightmares stage - age 3. Lucky us!
Hi totally loosing my mind with the same problem. * mth girl. She does it throughout the night though. Sometimes I'll go in and just a pacifier will help. Other times not... If i breastfeed her then she calms down, so is it a night terror then if eating comforts her? Have you tried that? So confusing babies are! Really tired though she's been doing this for 4 wks every night.
Eating would not provide comfort DURING a night terror but, the way the body responds it could well help to pacify a child who has come out of a night terror.
As far as Holy Water goes ... maybe she has a point ... although I would never lay claim to our water being holy, I did find that a wet flannel worked wonders to bring my youngest back to the "real world" and to a point where she COULD be comforted.
I dont what she was seeing in those dreams of hers but any attempts to comfort her or wake her up (apart from the flannel) would result in her "fighting for her life" - biting, punching, kicking etc rather than waking or calming her.
As I understand it (and I am sure someone will correct me if I am mistaken) - if you are able to comfort them DURING the event, its probably a nightmare rather than a night terror.
Our son suffered from night terrors and this started from a very early age. He had a rough birth and never slept for more than two hours at a time until about 18mths old. We started to notice what we thought were nightmares very early on as he always awoke from sleep screaming. As he began to talk (which was early) we realised it was more night terrors as he had the typical night terror thing going on where we thought he was awake but he would seem extremely agitated and angry and then suddenly snap out of it and not realise what had gone on. At about the age of 5yrs old we stumbled onto a pattern where if he had sugary food or chocolate after about 3pm, he would pretty regularly have a night terror but if this was with held they lessened. He is now 7yrs old and is probably having one about once every 5mths. And usually after chocolate etc? I am not suggesting that this is the sole reason but it seemed to work???? Or could have been a coincidence!!! In saying that he wasn't having sugary or chocolate foods as a baby , but it worked in the end for us and there did seem to be a pattern. But I would say it is probably different for everyone.
My daughter is 7yrs old and has just started having them in the last 2mths. I haven't taken her to the doctors yet because i thought maybe she just needed some reassuring from me or our whanau that she was okay. I'm really concerned as she has never experienced them before. None of her siblings have ever had this so i am unsure as how to handle it. I have found though that I can wake her up if i keep calling her name in a calm manner.
I am just really concerned as to why this has begun and how to help her through them. If there is any suggestions please let me know. I would appreciate any info or help that anyone may have. Thanks in advance and have a great New Years.
This is in response to Ma rather than the people with younger children.
My daughter had a lot of nightmares and sleep walking around 7 years old. We found out she was being bullied at school and once we got that sorted out then the nightmares and sleep walking stopped. Maybe a coincidence but I don't think so. Three years on and all is happy both while awake and asleep!
My son had night terrors aged about 4yrs and like Tiz Me nothing we could do would help, and if we tried he resisted violently. In the end we found just tucking him in with a minimum of fuss would settle him best and he would have no memory of it later.
But recently my 6 year old daughter had the same type of symptoms and at the same time every night, about half an hour after falling asleep, she would scream and have that terrified look in her eyes, we couldn't console her. This time though the culprit was worms, we wormed her (and the rest of the family), hot washed all the bedding and no more problems.
It just didn't occur to me that it could be worms, until my sister came to stay and she'd had the same trouble with her kids.
My almost 7 year old daughter started having auditory nightmares over the last 6 months. She hears a clanging or banging noise that won't go away. She tells us to plug our ears.The terror in her big blue eyes is frightening to me. She is asleep with eyes open the whole time. I remeber as a kid, similar age, i would be found in our dark basement sleepwalking and screaming. Eventually,goes back to sleep without remembering anything in the morning. She is having a tonsillectomy soon. Perhaps this is contributing to the auditory nightmares...
My daughter had night terrors from the age of 11 months to 5 1/2 years old, we had been referred to a sleep nurse after years of sleep problems, we would always try to wake her to snap her out of it, mostly we couldn't. In the end we were told of a theory that children relive their experiences through dreams, and if a child has experienced a trauma of some kind they need to process it in order to relese it, mostly parents interrupt this process by trying to wake or comfort their child, in fact parents should sit quietly and observe ( easier said than done I know)the child should settle itself after completing the dream/nightmare as the trauma has been processed in their little minds, if the child does not get the opportunity to complete the process, their little minds will continue to try to solve the trauma by repeating over and over until the process is complete, meaning night terrors over and over, the more we wake and comfort them the longer you will have to deal with night terrors. I thought this sounded like a load of bull, but thought back to when it all started and remembered my daughter got croup at that age, we had a traumatic experience in hospital due to a uninformed nurse and in my panic state resulted in me yelling at hospital staff, then my husband in front of my sick crying baby(not my proudest of moments). So after remembering all this the next night my daughter started her terror, I did what I had previously never done, crept into her room, tears streaming down my face I quietly watched to make sure she wouldnt hurt herself as these terrors can get violent, the terror must have lasted about 30 minutes then she yawned rolled over and settled back to sleep peacefully, and has not had a night terror since, she is now 7. Good luck you guys going though the same thing I know how heart breaking it is to have a child with sleep problems, I only wish I was strong enough to have tried this years earlier.
