Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For the past couple of weeks, my 2 1/2 year old DS had been waking up in the middle of the night screaming and crying. He doesn't fully wake up, but starts crying loudly and doesn't want to be comforted. I try to pat his back or put him in my arms but he is pushing me away and starts crying even louder. He only comes down when my husband goes: ssshhh, sssshhhh,..... But then it repeats in an hour again. What is this? Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions as to what it can be?
Sounds like a night terror. Its pretty common with young children. He's probably not awake therefore the pushing away from you is not a personal thing, just sort of part of the dream state like sleep walking.
Night terrors. Upsetting, but they will pass. Just offer comfort when he'll accept it. You might put a nice nightlight in his room, and since the "shhhh" sound seems to comfort him, try playing a water noise cd really low in his room while he sleeps?
yup, sounds like night terrors...my son had them when he was about 3, for us, they lasted longer than typical, we dealt w/em for about a year! And boyo, they were bad! he'd wake up screaming, and if we touched him, he would fight, scream, and tear about. When he had these, all we could do was watch him and make sure he didnt get hurt. If your little one gets up w/these at all, make sure theres nothing in his room that he can hurt himself on if he goes into a tear....besides waiting it out, establish a calming bedtime routine, start a good hour before bedtime, keep a food diary, some foods might set him off more than others, the water noise cd is a great idea! We put our sons radio on a soft christian music channel and that helped him, also a low watt nightlight.
oh, btw, if your husbands shhhhshhhhshhh soothes him, you might try getting one of those heartbeat bears, stock up on batteries, and let him sleep w/that. just a thought.
Best of luck to you!!
tiffany
oh, btw, any changes in his routine/life might have set this off....kids can stress over things that would never occur to adults. My sons was triggered because they stopped running a train somewhat near our house, in the night, you could hear it, hardly, but appearently enough! We had never even noticed, but he had! go figure...
Both of my boys did this around 2-3. The weird thing is that when i went into them, they both asked who the man was. There was no man in the room. The boys are 17 months apart, so it was weird that they did it at the same age.
Thank you very much for all the input thus far. Yes, it is very well may be night terrors. My boy is very sensitive and very emotional, who knows what could have affected him during day...
He also has 2 molars coming out so my other thought could be teething pain?
I agree, night terrors would be my guess. My daughter went through this late (around 4 1/2) when I was pregnant and we were out of town. Is there anything bothering your little one? Any changes in routine or anything?
I know how hard it can be, but this too shall pass, I swear!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.