Sleep Tip 6- Night terrors
A night terror is very scarey for any parent. Your baby will wake screaming and when you go to her, she will still be fast asleep but crying in her sleep. It is horrible because you cannot comfort your baby. Night terrors generally happen when a baby or toddler goes to sleep overtired. She may have missed a day sleep or have gone to bed too late. So quite obviously the best way to prevent night terrors is to make sure your toddler has regular day sleeps and does not get overtired in the evening.
I think I know we had a “night terror” last night. My boy is 11 months old. Up to six months my husband and I followed everything in the “Baby sense” book and we could put him in his cot, pat him on the back and sing. After a while he would be asleep. After six months when I went back to work, EVERYTHING changed. His daymom rocked him asleep, or slept with him on her bed. After alot of discussions she did not want to apply our strategies and did not believe in having a routine. We got a nanny from age 10 months, that is following our instructions (hopefully) to the letter. But he still wants to be rocked asleep. Some nights NOTHING seems to work. He wakes up anything between 06:00 to 07:00 in the morning. I’m still breastfeeding 3 times a day: when he wakes up, 15:00 and 18:30. He eats his breakfast @ 07:15, lunch @ 11:45 and dinner @ 17:00. During the night he wakes up several times and I then give him breast milk (that I know I’m not supposed to do, but it gets him to sleep…..!) I am SO TIRED. Have not slept for more than 3 hours at a time for MONTHS. With a full time job this is really difficult. My baby is always happy during the day. His naps during the day is supposed to be from 09:00 - 10:00 and then from 12:30 - 14:00. The nanny says he sleeps. ANY advise is welcome!
Hi there, I am so desperate to get help as Nadia says to get 3 hours sleep for months is quite exhausting. My baby is 13 months old and slept very good and through the night until a month ago when she turned 1 year old. Everything changed she will fall a sleep @ 8.00 and sleep very good until 12.00 and then she will scream at the peak of her voice, I will cover her with her blanki, check not cold doesn’t want her bottle then she will be fine for 10 min and scream again this will continue till 2.00 3.00 and then she is fine and sleep until 6.00 and that leaves me with 3 - 4 hours sleep. Sometimes she screams untill i pick her up and i cannot sit down with her then she screams harder and louder!!! please help me i am so desperate. I have 2 boys and never had this with them.
Hi Ladies
Night terrors are very frightning for our babies and for us, as I guess we feel so helpless. Megan Faure wrote an excellent article on Nightmares and fears which may help you with this issue.
http://www.mybabysense.co.uk/peaceful-nights/articles-of-interest/the-trauma-of-nightmares-and-fears
Nadia, look out for our article coming out in April on our USA Peaceful Nights page. It is about Feeding Sense for Healthy sleep. Advice in this article may help you to stop feeding your baby at night. This article will appear on the SA peaceful nights page in May. Also go back to your Sleep Sense book (pg134) as there is a section there on breaking habits.
Esmerelda, I wonder if Separation Anxiety might be the issue for your little one. Sleep Sense (Chapter 8) covers this in great detail. Also have a look at this article by Megan Faure.
http://www.mybabysense.co.uk/peaceful-nights/articles-of-interest/separation-anxiety
I hope this helps.
After reading your books, I’m a firm believer in a security object for a child…
My baby boy started sleeping in his own bed from 6 months. In the beginning phase he would wake up once a night for a bottle.
This did not work for us, as working parents, both my husband and myself could not afford to loose our sleep as we are both busy.
After reading your book, I started giving my baby his dummy when he woke up instead of the bottle. At first, he would fight this and continue waking up. This took persistence from us and in a weeks time, we finally wheened him off from the bottle.
NOW, he wakes up himself, grabs his dummy and security blanket and goes back to sleep, without us even having to get up. We get a full 8 hours sleep and some alone time with each other as he goes to bed 19:30.
I recommend your Baby Sense books to all my friends and it’s a Baby Shower regular in my gift bags.
THANK YOU for the tips, thank you for making it easy for busy, working mothers like me!
Hi Maryke
Thank you for your lovely feedback on the Baby Sense books. We are so pleased they have made a difference to you and your baby. Like you I also always give them as gifts at baby showers because I think every parent should know about the books and the sensible advice within. Everyone I know that I have given the book too always recommends it on to someone else. There is a Baby Sense revolution happening I think!
Keep telling everyone about us and the books.
Hi Maryke
Thanks so much for the great feedback. I am passionate about two things in life: Babies and Sleep. I know what it is to be sleep deprived and I also know that as mums we can change the way our babies sleep. I am so encouraged when I hear of stories like yours… Keep up the great job you do
Meg
Hi Maryke,
My baby is now 17 months old and has been at creche since she was 3 and a half months old. Starting about 4 and a half months ago we have had a problem at night when she starts crying in her sleep and sometimes a little bit of screaming i have consulted the paedeatrician and he says it is night terrors that something is happening during the day thats causing nightmares at night. He prescribed Aterax which should calm her and help her to sleep in the evenings this does not seem to help much. Last Thursday she was diagnosed with a head cold and teeething and i was given Demazin, Myprodol and Aterax i gave her a half a teaspoon of all of these and she did not even resemble the slightest bit of sleepy. i desperately need some tips on how i can help her to sleep at night. I have resigned from work to try and see if it is the creche or if it is something else causing this.
I had the worst experience last night! My 2nd daughter Cara, now 23 months, is the most peaceful child ever. Not even getting all her teeth upset her sleeping pattern. We moved her into her own bed from the cot a week ago, as she was climbing over the rail, so I do not know if this caused the problem, but she starting waking up at night since last Thursday. Sunday evening she fell out of bed, which was strange, as it happened on the furthest side of the bed, not were we put her down, and then last night, Monday 23 Nov 09…she cried around 02:00 and I went to pick her up, but she was literally trying to climb the wall, banging her head against the bed railings, I picked her up, but she hit me with her fists in my face. She was kicking and screaming. I put her down at one stage, to have her indicate to me, where she wanted me to take her, and she ran into her chest of drawers, but even hurting herself, did not change the type of cries and hitting - she seemed to be totally out of control. I thought it could be teeth and gave her a Voltaren suppository, then took her to my room and spoke gently, getting her to sleep with me in 20 minutes time. My peaditrician just told me it’s called a night terror and that I can read about it on the web. What I’ve read so far is pretty disturbing - some telling me not to try and comfort her, and blocking her access to windows as she could try to run through them! I never knew about this “THING” called night terrors that seemed to have entered my house unnoticed. I can only pray that we find a solution to this, as my dear child slept through the night from 8 weeks - 19:00 - 07:00…I seem so unrealistic, that look in her eyes, the violence she displayed…She has been in the same routine from 4 months, going to the same creche, having naps from 12:00 - 14:30, I do not understand this! Any advice from moms that’s been through this??
HiTania
It certainly does sound like night terrors and it must have been very upsetting for you. Have a look at this article that explains what night terrors are and how to cope with them.
http://www.babysense.co.za/peaceful-nights/articles-of-interest/the-trauma-of-nightmares-and-fears
My baby boy is now 17 months and never had a problem going to sleep before. He slept though the night from 3 months - 10 months, but eversince wakes up a couple of times a night. Previously we were able to confort him and get him to settle down. (This included giving him a milk bottle, putting him in our bed, giving him Panado/Ponstel in case he had teething pain, rescue remedy. I also started giving him Floradis Magnesium for the last couple of nights. I know those are not ideal, but we did whatever it took for all to have at least some rest. In January we moved him out of our room to his own where he sleeps daily and plays in happily. We have an Angelcare Monitor and keep the night light on.
For the last week, he wakes about 2-3 hours after going to sleep, starts moaning which turns into hysterical and uncontrollable cries. The only thing that kind of settles him down is pushing him in his pram for an hour. We follow a schedule and after his bath last night, we read a story and he was perfectly fine and playful. The moment we put him down to have his bottle, he became hysteric. We sat with him on the carpet, tried lying down next to him in bed, carried him around, but NOTHING could calm him down. This went on for an hour and then we forced him his bottle, he had a couple of sips and fell asleep. At 00:15 he woke again and the episode repeated itself. I managed to give him 2.5ml Stopayne, but he continued crying for about 45 minutes thereafter. After some pushing in the pram he fell asleep at 02:00. (It sounded that he was asleep, breathing deeply, though his eyes were open?) At 05:30 he woke, again crying terribly. We opened the blinds, started chatting, told him he didn’t need to sleep anymore. He seemed so tired and has some milk whereafter he got up as if nothing happened!
We have a fantastic nanny to he knows since 2 months old. She’s very gentle and during the day he is the most calm and playful little thing. He never cries or struggles falling asleep for his morning (11:00 - 13:00) or afternoon (15:30 - 17:00) naps. I must mention that he has an iron deficiency and he’s been on Haemoflor Junior 15mg/day for 3 months and since yesterday he is on Chelafer, 2.5ml/day. I know iron deficiency and sleeplessness goes hand in hand but he has a balanced diet consisting of cereal, pureed and fresh fruits, cooked meat/chicken and veggies, yoghurt, cheese, teething biscuits, dried fruit, water, juice and Novalac 3 formula. (He has constipation and is on 1/2 sacket of Pegicol daily.) He is not walking yet, only crawls and “walks on his knees”. He is quite tall for his age and weighs about 12kg.
He had grommets in October 2009 and we went to the E & T Specialist this morning to check if all is still ok with his ears, so that’s ruled out. Also the dr couldn’t feel any teeth cutting through. We discussed the situation and he prescribed Aterax 5ml/day. And if he still wakes hysterically I should give him Buscopan Pediatric.
We are so worried, never mind sleep-deprived. I feel so sad for my baby’s sake and don’t know what we can do to make it less traumatising and make him feel better at night. Please help.
We followed Baby sense book to the letter. Regarding the sleeping patterns ect. My 22 month old is going to nursery school on the 1st of March. They told me that he will only have one day sleep at 11 o’clock. According to Baby Sense he still needs his sleep every 3.5 - 4 hours. We tried to stretch his sleeping routine. Since we’ve being doing this he is having extreme night terrors. When will this stop? I’m desperate, I can not stand this night terrors. It feels as if someone is ripping a part of my heart out every night this happens. And he is having about 3-4 night terrors every night for the past 2 weeks.