screams in the middle of the night

My son, Trevor, wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and crying. Most of the time he does not want me or DH to comfort him, Trevor pushing us away. He is also hard to put down at bedtime, he sceams and cries so then we have to hold him and try to comfort him, calm him down. Did anyone else ever experience this? My daughter, his twin sister, does not have this problem. Could it be bad dreams? I took him to the doctors several times thinking it was ear aches, but his ears are always fine. He is not constipated. I am at a loss what to do for him or what could be wrong. Trevor is so pleasent in the morning. He wakes up with a smile and gives me a kiss.
If anyone has any ideas or experienced the same thing I would like to hear about it.

 

Could it be this? My oldest does this when he doesn't have a nap during the day. He has done it on and off since he was 27 months old. He wakes up crying/screaming and running motion in bed. He seems like he is awake and he can't be comforted. He finally mellows out and goes back to sleep. He doesn't remember it the next morning.

Cari

 

MY first thought was night terrors as well.

 

Sounds like night terrors to me too. The best thing you can do is not try to wake him, hold him or comfort him - that supposedly makes it worse. My Marissa has had night terrors twice - it is very disturbing.

 

At 2.5+ years, Jackson had night terrors for 6 weeks, every single night around 11pm. These episodes would last anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. During this time I would take him out of his crib so he wouldn't wake his brother and lay him on the floor in the living room away from everything until it was over. He would scream and thrash and roll around. His eyes would be open during most of it but he would have no recollection of it in the morning. It was a phase that went away as quickly as it started.

 

Cate has had the same episodes. She hasn't had one in a while (knock on wood) but they were pretty bad at one point.. We tried EVERYTHING to get them to stop. It is disheartening, because I would get worked up over it, and couldn't go back to sleep - even after she had. I eliminated caffeine, and it seemed to help. She would talk about "puppies" getting her (we don't have any animals).. so, I'm sure she was having night terrors. Hers never seemed to last much longer than 30 minutes, but it was a VERY LONG 30 minutes!

 

Everyone who responded "thank you"
I know I am not alone.

 

I just read your post and it is exactly what my Noah has been going through. It was diagnosed by our pedi as night terrors. It is extremely frightening for us as the parents and nothing we can really do for him. He does not really "see" us when we go in to help comfort him. They last on average 30 minutes to over an hour. I know they say do not touch him but, I do take him out of the room so he does not wake Jacob (does not always work) and try to soothe him some. Knock on wood, he has not had any in a week or so, but that is because he has been drugged up since his surgery. ^_^

I wish you luck with dealing with it. I know how exhausting it is for you.

 

Kaitlyn had night terrors and still occassionally does. Its concerning when you see how scared they are and they don't respond to you. We tried a couple of times to "snap her out of it" but nothing worked. Our pedi also said to just watch her so she doesn't get hurt but don't try to wake her. She never remembered any of her episodes.

 

Noah had night terrors as a baby, and still have them occasionally. I've found that a night light helps because sometimes he'll roll out of bed and wake up, and I try not to even go into their room unless he's starting to bother Aiden. Its awful-- I'm sure its a lot harder on the parents then it is on them. To hold a screaming child and not be able to comfort them.... woah, awful.

((((HUGS)))

I hope this passes quickly for you all!

 

My Jack has had this only twice so far- I thought he was a bit young but the dr. said she has seen it in babes as young as 9 months...
she said just to make sure he can't hurt himself- pick him up and hold him- if necessary- but don't wake up...
hopefully they outgrow them fast- because it is super scary!! Poor little things...
Lanie

 

Connor suffered from night terrors. It was awful Now he just sleepwalks! (I was told they are related) The ped recommended distrupting his sleep cycle. Wake him up FULLY before he has one. Before you go to bed, go into his room and wake him up. Make sure he is wide awake. Then have him go back to sleep. After about a week to 10 days of this, it should really help. It did with us. Whenever Connor starts having episodes again, we do it and they go away.

Good luck! I know exactly how hard it is! :hug99:

 

I just read your post but felt that I, too, should reassure you that you aren't alone. Only one of my twins has night terrors but he's had them for a long time. His don't usually last at long as others mentioned, however, I don't always go in his room while he's having them. It's usually around 11/1130 or sometimes 1/2 in the morning. Usually he cries out and it doesn't last more than a minute or two. If they are longer, I do go in (no lights and usually no talking) and find his duck (he sleeps w/ it) and get him to lay down, rub his back and then leave the room. Sometimes it takes a little more than that but not usually.
Hope it's a short phase for you. Boy, I really hope it doesn't lead to sleepwalking...but I believe it.

faith

 

Bea had this around 12-13 months. It lasted maybe a month I think. It was a couple times a week, she would scream bloody murder. Sometimes it would only last a minute, sometimes longer and then I would go hold her for a few minutes until she was calm. It was very strange and I don't know what happened to make it stop, but it finally did. I'm not sure if it would be classified as night terrors, it didn't quite fit the definition. It would usually happen around 12am-2am. Hope he grows out of it.

 

One of my twins always wakes up around midnight to 1 a.m. screaming and crying. I usually have to take her out and comfort her, then put her back in bed. Sometimes she still screams, but stops after a few minutes. I am not sure how hold your son is, but if he is younger, maybe it is teething??

I had night terrors as a kid and still have them at times as an adult. If you ruled out infections, etc, I wouldn't worry. Some kids are just more sensitive.

 

Peyton gas been waking around five o'clock for a couiple weeks now crying for different reasons. This morning it was that she had a boo boo on her toe, and the day before it was that she wanted her seat belt on. I kept explaining to her that she was in her crib, there is no seat belt, but for a few minutes she still insisted that she needed a seat belt.