How do I stop nightmares?

my 20-mos-old is having nightmares every night. He wakes up screaming and calling for me. I or my husband try to put him on his side and rub his back. He has a lovey and a nightlight. his twin is in another room (thank god). But we are exhausted and I cannot go back to sleep. Sometimes, he cannot either (like this morning his nightmare was at 5, so that was it). What did you do? Anything work?

 

My ds started having nightmares when he was about the same age. We'd go in and calm him, most of the time by giving him some milk. We found out it was milk causing them. I felt horrible . My father is the same way. If he has any dairy product close to bedtime, he has bad dreams. So we dont give him dairy after dinner time.

 

Meredith, I don't know the answer for you. I do hope you get some good ideas. Might be worth a trip to the pedi to see if the PP's milk idea is something to test!

I've been having to get up nightly too because they come Un-cozy. It scares the daylights out of me and then I can't fall back to sleep usually for an hour. I feel ya!! :hug99:

Keep us posted and let us know if you figure something out!! Good to see you again!

 

When my oldest began having nightmares at around that age, I had a stroke of genius! I happened to be going through some old things of mine and found an old 'dreamcatcher' that I had made at girls camp when I was a teenager. I had a long talk with my son and told him all about how the web would catch the bad dreams and the beads would 'store' the bad dreams so they wouldn't happen anymore. If he had a bad dream and got upset that his dreamcatcher wasn't working, I would tell him that we must have forgotten to 'activate' it. We would then spin it around (mine was on a cord like a necklace) a few times to 're-activate' it and it would work again... Your son might not be quite old enough for this idea, but it is one that has worked well for us with each boy when they started having bad dreams.

I have also given my boys flashlights, which seems to help. They have some animal ones that light up only when you are pushing the button, so the child can't fall asleep and wear out the batteries in one night!

Lastly, make sure he is warm enough. Sometimes when we start having bad dreams here, it's because my boys are waking up cold.

 

Try putting him to bed 15 minutes earlier. Sounds strange, but that is what works for us.

Holly

 

They might be night terrors? I have some friends that had this issue with their kids and basically it came down to they were overtired at night and were sleeping very restless. Are they taking good naps? You may want to try and change bed time and move it up?

Also, it could just be a phase-- we have had a couple of phases where they wake up in the middle of the night creaming out for us. My advice is to go in pat, and adjust- give loveys, etc... and leave quickly, no talking. Also you may have to do a modified CIO if it keeps happening every night otherwise the pattern will stick. Good luck.

 

Moving bedtime helps. But honestly, calming them and telling them you are there is probably the best thing you can do. My oldest had night terrors for years but eventually he passed the phase and only rarely gets up now. Sometimes drinking anything before bed is the cause. They actually don't know what causes night terrors though.

Hope it gets better soon. :hug99: