Night Terrors in 10 month old - Any advice?

[Mommy_Mea]

For the past few weeks, my 10 month old has been waking around 2 hours after he goes to sleep on some nights (about 5 times now), and is inconsolable. He appears to be still half asleep, having trouble finding his mouth when he is trying to suck his thumb, eyes closed or half mast, but all the while crying harder/louder than any other time. From what I have read, it appears to be night terrors. The advice seems to range from leaving them in the crib and not doing anything (letting them drift back to sleep on their own), to singing to them, to leaving the door open and making sure they can hear you around the house at that time... The advice seems to span the spectrum and contradicts itself sometimes, but I know the overall goal is just to move them back into the deep sleep stage.

It is obviously heart breaking to hear his cry like this, and is so hard to *not* pick him up and rock him and try and dry the tears... But that seems to make things worse...

Any real life advice/experience? Obviously we just need to start trying some different tactics, but I always appreciate "been there done that" :) Thanks!

[TwinFoxes]

One of my daughters went through a very short spell of this around the same age. Honestly, I went in and picked her up. She would kind of snap out of it, like she woke up, realized that everything was OK, cried a little, I nursed, she went back to sleep. We were not the types to rush in when the babies were crying, we gave them a chance to settle. But this situation was so different, and very much like you describe. The screams and the closed eyes, she would flutter her hands a little. I'd want someone to wake me up! I'm not sure what we did was the accepted wisdom, but it worked. I should mention that in general, S is a very VERY good sleeper.

[nov04]

We've always had night terrors around here. We went through cycles of them being frequent, then they'd fade away. We've always responded to the kids when they had them, I felt like even if it made it worse initially, they needed to know we were there. I think if we weren't there, they'd panic for a lot longer. I know when I'm sleepwalking or having a nightmare its always more comforting to have someone there, so I would do the same for the kids.

[boogiemomz]

i have no good advice for you, but i babysat a child once a long time ago that had one while i was babysitting, and it's awful!! broke my heart, and he wasn't even my child! just wanted to give you ((((hugs)))) and say hope it gets better for you and your little one. :hug:

[wellyes]

Night terrors are awful. I don't think there really is good advice on how to handle them, but I did always go in & try to wake her up (lights on, change of scenery, etc) to help her ride them through.

When DD gets them, it is almost always because she didn't get enough sleep -- skipped nap, went to bed too late. She resists sleeping, every nap / bedtime is a struggle. The night terrors influenced us to really find other ways to help her -- in our case, giving her lots and lots of exercise every day to make her supertired. Whatever works, right? Just wanted to mention that as a potential trigger for NT.

[happymomma]

Just wanted to let you know that our DS still has them. He is still having them. We go through periods of no night terrors and then we have periods where we have them a lot. So far we really haven't figured out what to do. We usually go to him but it doesn't seem to help either. I hope to hear what others have to say...

[nfowife]

both my kids have had them, though my son seems to get them more. He went through a phase of a few times a week, to once a week, to now it is once every few months. I just go in, pick him up, and walk him around shushing him (not so easy now that he's a 35 lb. 3 year old, but anyhow...). He uses a paci to get to sleep so I just keep trying to get him to take it and usually within about 5 minutes he does and conks right back out and then I just put him back down to sleep. Just know they don't remember it so do what you can to get them back to sleep! I also keep the lights off in the room.


One time I was staying at a friend's house to watch her girls (she was in the hospital after a c-section) and DS had one and DH did not know what to do.... he called me in a panic after he had tried rocking DS and when that didn't work he brought him downstairs to our bedroom (with the lights on in the house), and thinking he had a "spider bite" (?!?), took off his pajamas to inspect. With all of that, DS still hadn't snapped out of it!! They are in a pretty deep sleep when it happens, I think.

[Mommy_Mea]

Thanks everyone, it is comforting to hear other's stories (although I am sad anyone else has to go through the heartbreaking cries!). DS had a shorter afternoon nap, and it was in the car, so it was very likely that he was overtired. I think he is working on going down to one nap as well, as his nap durations are suddenly all over the place.

He is in a big developmental stage too, so I am sure this all plays into it.

The minute the thumbs gets in his mouth, he definitely calms down, but it tends to slip out, so we spend a lot of time trying to get it back in. Nursing helps too...

Thanks for the advice/commiseration. :wavey:

[MommyofAmaya]

Ooops. Wrong thread.

[arivecchi]

I found this article useful when DS1 had his night terrors.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_night-terrors_142.bc

[craftysierra]

My oldest has night terrors. For us they do seem to be brought on by overtiredness, now after an accumulation of not enough sleep. My DH deals with them better, but for us he is in a very deep sleep. There is no one thing thst can consistantly break the cycle some nights. Sometimes just covering or uncovering, giving water, getting him up to use the bathroom or just checking in on him work. They are miserable, but if you can find what triggers them and avoid it as much as possible it helps.