My First Experience with Night Terrors
When my son was somewhere around the age of two, he suddenly began waking up during the middle of the night crying. Not just a simple cry though. It was a terrifying screaming cry. My husband and I would rush into our little boy’s room and ask franticly, “WHAT’S WRONG, WHAT’S WRONG?” We would pick him up, but he would thrash and kick until we put him on the floor where he proceeded to throw himself around, still screaming at the top of his lungs. This would happen every few nights, usually lasting at least an hour each time, and this wouldn’t stop for a couple years!
Like many new parents, we had never heard of night terrors. We had absolutely no idea what was going on. Was he in pain? Should we take him to the hospital? How stressful to be so out of control and unable to help your own child. Years have past and our son is now five. We have not seen a night terror in a year or so (thank goodness!) but the memories are still etched in our minds.
This story is not uncommon. The ending, however, is always the same…the night terrors eventually stop when the child grows out of them. The main goal is to keep them safe during these events.
Here, several Moms share their own stories:
Shawna Zaludek of Ballerinas and Buckaroos wrote:
My oldest who is now 11 went through night terrors from around the age of 3 to the age of 4. She would wake up screaming, usually in a terrible sweat. I was a young mother and did not know what I was dealing with. I took her to her doctor and due to a very traumatic divorce (her father was a very violent man) she developed night terrors from stress. My heart would break every time I heard her screaming, when I did try to rouse her it usually resulted in her being more upset and very confused. I was so thankful when she finally outgrew this, what a heartbreaking ordeal for a parent to go through as you feel that your hands are tied and you cannot “kiss” the hurt away.
Cathryn Weaver of www.MiraclesWithWater.com and www.DrinkTheRightWater.com wrote: Our perfectly normal, happy, and very healthy 11 month old boy started this and turned us all upside down and inside out with concern. I read everything I could get my hands on and as it turned out, the ROOM DECOR seemed to be the trigger. I had gone from calm baby blue to not-too-bright yellow with green accents and I had a very brightly multi-colored owl on his wall near his bed. I walked him around his room during the day in the light and he played with his toys in his room and all was well, but at night, a totally different story. I don’t know if you have recently redecorated or moved, but for us, the decor was the problem. I removed the owl and no more night terrors. I know this is awful for you and I hope it does not last too long.
Sherri Frushon, CEO of Baby Huggables wrote: I have a son who is now 24 but when he was younger, he went through about 5 years of having night terrors. He would walk the hall way at night, sound to sleep, flapping his hands like a bird in the air, calling out and reaching out.
I had to put up gates every where so he would not fall down the stairs or get in to things he was not suppose to get in to while he was walking around. These lasted until he was about 6 years old.
My other younger daughter who is now 11 years old, had night terrors from about 3 years of age to about age 8. She too would walk the hall way at night and knock with her fist on the walls and keep knocking and crying out loud. She looked like she was awake but in reality was never awake during any of these night terrors. I would gently guide her back to her own bed and help her back in to her bed and make sure she was comfortable and she was ok prior to leaving her room. I did set up gates at night so she would not get herself hurt.
After having been exposed to two (2) children who suffered through these horrible night terrors I did some research and a low carb diet with minimal sugar is highly suggested to those children who suffer through night terrors. It is never recommended that you wake up a child who is having a night terror, but lead them back in to their bed and softly speak to them and tell the child everything is going to be ok, prior to leaving the room.
I also read that night terrors will go away by the age of six (6) however, this was not the case with either of my children. My son was around age of seven (7) when he out grew the night terrors and my daughter stopped having night terrors at age eight (8).
I do believe diet prior to bed has a huge control in night terrors, no caffeine or chocolate of any kind, low carbs and less sugar is best.
Jen Edwards of Kids’ Keys to Success wrote: Great of you to post this topic…It really freaked me out the first time it happened.
My daughter was almost three. We had a normal night…nothing different about the day, nor with her bedtime routine. At 7:30 we read our bedtime story and tucked her in. She soon fell asleep to the humming of her humidifier and at 3 am I was startled out of my own restful sleep with a blood curdling scream. I ran to her room (I don’t remember my feet hitting the floor).
She was standing straight up in bed and screaming unlike any noise I have ever heard before. I picked her up and held her, but she didn’t melt into my arms like she normally does (like with a nightmare). finally she calmed and like she never noticed the noise or disruption she quietly went back to sleep. My nerves where shot from my adrenalin hit and I felt frazzled and dazed.
The next morning she didn’t remember it and I exhausted from adrenalin withdrawal the rest of the day.
I came to learn more about night terrors and how common they are. I wish I had known that before her first one!
Kathy Stuhr of Shaklee wrote: My daughter used to have night terrors when she was still in a crib. She would wake up screaming at the top of her lungs. Eyes wide open but you could see she was still asleep . I would pick her up and she would point to ’something’ and I would walk around the whole house thinking she wanted something. Finally, I would just sit in the rocking chair with her screaming and would do that until she fell back asleep which could be up to 1/2 hour. She didn’t have them often but when she did they were frightening…she probably had 3 or 4 of them. She didn’t sleep thru the night consistently until she was 17 months old….boy was I tired.
Candace of www.sonbeams.com wrote: I’m not sure I could say my son had night terrors, but he has gone through a spell where he’s woken up many nights obviously bothered about something. He’s 4, and it’s hard to explain sometimes exactly what he’s thinking. But he has talked about dreams, and some of the things he’s told us would make them ’scary’ dreams. THANKFULLY, I came across a website due to some health concerns, and strange enough – I believe he ONLY has trouble sleeping on nights when he’s had sugary foods before bed. Candida (yeast overgrowth) DOES cause nightmares and such, and once I began paying attention to when we ate ‘bad’ foods for this – it did appear linked to the nights he ate those foods!
Got your own Night Terror story?
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2 Responses to “My First Experience with Night Terrors”
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I have a 4 & 2 yr old boys. I wouldn’t say they have night terrors but perhaps you could say the youngest gave US the night terrors LOL.
First, our 4 yr old will talk about dreams he’s had and maybe ask how to have good dreams, etc.. We have a routine with our boys before bed we read books and because the oldest has a rocking chair in his room, he gets rocked and cuddled a bit and this has gone on since he was a baby so he still expects it. Sometimes its during these times he’ll ask deep questions about whatever is on his little mind. It can be quite interesting or perplexing for us perhaps as we try to find the right answers about his topics.
My youngest on the other hand did not sleep through the night without waking for almost the whole first 21 mos of his life. (Thats where OUR night terrors come in LOL). I read an article in a magazine saying you should put your baby to sleep the way you want him to wake up, in other words, if you want him to wake up with you sitting in a chair next to his bed, then go ahead and put him to sleep that way.
I got back to trying (I’d done this before w/ success but lost my way) to put him to bed before he fell asleep in my arms.That way he’d learn how to get to sleep himself and learn to put himself back to sleep when he woke up and it worked. It may not have been that easy to do months before but it worked now.
We also use nightlights in their rooms. This not only keeps it from being totally dark in there, but it also allows us to check on them, see if they are breathing okay or fix their covers.
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!