I have a 11 month old boy who is turning 1 in a couple of weeks who for the past several months have started crying unconsolably in the middle of the night. My husband thinks that he had a nightmare but my MIL said that kids his age do not have nightmares.
I am thinking more of maybe growing pain or teething?
Any mamas out there have the same experience?
Thanks.
Maybe he's cutting his molars? My daycare lady's son is 15 months old and cutting all 4 of his at the same time and he's been waking up around midnight crying for the last few days.
It sounds like Night Terrors.
Here's a link from the American Academy of Pediatrics explaining the difference. Our daughter started at about 8 months and has outgrown it for several months (now 2).
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/presch...
It could be nightmares or teething or other things.
Is his room REALLY dark? If so you can always try and get a little nightlight and see if it helps.
Poor lil guy is obviously going through something. Try and be as comforting as possible for him.
Hi M.,
You've probably already gotten a bunch of replies, but you should try googling "night terrors". My daughter used to have them at night (still does, but less frequently). She'd seem exceedingly upset (yelling, thrashing), was somewhat incoherent and inconsolable. Sometimes she'd eventually go back to sleep and would have no recollection of it at all in the morning. Other times, when it seemed really bad we'd wake her up and allow her to sleep in a space in our room. The latter, however, is not advised via some websites I looked up.
The advice on babycenter and others is just to let your child put themselves back to sleep, but that is easier said than done.
The one thing I did notice was that the night terrors were more frequent when my daugther was especially tired and had a long day without a nap.
I wish you the best. It's tough when you feel you can't help your child, but he will eventually grow out of them for the most part.
Take care,
L.
P.S. I disagree with your MIL; I feel that kids your son's age are capable to scary dreams. Babies might not be able to communicate everything, but it doesn't mean they don't internalize things that might sound/seem/look scary to them.
kids that age do have nightmares! if you can dream you can have nightmares, and anyone who sleeps dreams even if you dont remember doing so. my son wakes up occasionally screaming (he will be one next week) and its his I'm scared scream, so we know he is having a nightmare. the best thing I know to do is to rock him and speech softly and reassuring to him, we give our boy one of his toys to hold onto for comfort. he cries for a while and looks around a lot trying to get his bairrings and once he is assured that mommy and daddy are in the next room and wont let anything happen to him we put him down, he fusses for a bit but usually goes back to sleep. I want to add that nightmares are actually are minds sorting through things, things that frighten us, and if infants can have seperation and stranger aniexity why cant they have nightmares?
Is he fully awake? It could be night terrors, and in that case, just let him go. Poor little guy. Did you ever try playing soft music CD on "repeat" at night for him?
Try a night light, or a lovey if he uses one. Also, have you checked to make sure he is not in any pain? Molars may be coming in, and laying for a long amount of time may make it worse.
A nightmare is certainly possible, just not the typical "adult" kind. There is something called night terrors, I am not sure what it's about but maybe it would be worth it for you to look into it. Until then, just give him lots of hugs and cuddles while he is crying, he knows he is safe and loved and you will all get through it! Good luck!
My son did the same thing and when I would try to help him I could tell that he was not awake. He also seemed annoyed when I would try to hold him, so I would just sit next to him and rest my hand on his back. It turned out that my son was having what they call night terrors. Where they cry and cry but never wake up and it ends as suddenly as it begins. Sometimes I would wake him up which would end it, otherwise it could last 2-3 min. at a time. I never had anything like that happen when he was teething. I was able to console him or give him pain medication when he was teething.
It can be a number of things that are causing him to wake up crying. Have you noticed any other systems? It can be growing pains but that normally would make him cranky, not wake up crying. He would also be cranky during the day if teething, sometimes accompanied by fever and/or ear pulling. Nightmares...yes, that can happen if something has frightened him enough. When my daughter was about one, we had a tenant upstairs who would cook dinner every night at about 10pm. She was so loud in the kitchen, slamming the cabinets and banging her pots and pans that my daughter would wake up screaming. I spoke to her about this but she kept doing it, this went on for about a week until I got so angry that I went up there with my screaming kid to show her what she was doing to my daughter. However the damage was already done. My daughter continue to wake up screaming around the same time every night for months!
Another possibility maybe your AC is on too high, if the air gets too dry both my kids will wake up crying. I try to keep it around 78 at night to make it more comfortable for them.
My (now 16-mo old), did the same thing, and it actually seemed to last a few months. He would kick and thrash and I could hardly hold onto him without him pushing out of my arms. He would not nurse, but if I was able to force him to do so he would instantly calm down, but I would have to hold him for like 30min before I could put him back in his crib. And this would happen several times a night! I never did figure out what was the cause, but one night I had severe food poisoning, and I could not get up with him. My husband tried to console him, and after holding him screaming for an hour, had to put him in the bed, lay on the floor next to him singing a lullaby, and let him cry. Neither of us are CIO fans, but miraculously these fits grew shorter and fewer every night. The ped. told me it was just him being demanding, and I didn't want to believe it, but maybe he was right? I still don't let him cry for more than a min or two, and sleep isn't easy yet, but he doesn't have the fits at night anymore. I don't know if he "grew out of it", or if he learned that night that mommy isn't always going to be there?
Possibilities:
1) Night-terrors (look it up online for info)
2) Hunger (he is approaching a growth-spurt which occurs around 12 months old). Thusly, a baby needs to be fed on-demand 24/7.
3) Illness, ear infections
4) teething
5) Developmental based changes in cognition/motor skills etc. and these can tweak sleep too.
If it is Night-Terrors, which occurs at about this age... then it is developmental based... and it will pass.... they can't help it.
Both my kids did that at about that age.
there is a distinction, between Night-Terrors and Night-Mares. Which you can find online.
all the best,
Susan
I think they dream, but I personally as a mom for 27 years, don't really think they have nightmares, nightmares usually come from the subconsious, because of movies, the news, a scary story, or some type of drama or even medication we have taken. I did some reasearch on night terrors cause i do have children who spend the night who are in my daycare, and I taked to one of my parents awhile back who's toddler's ped said her son was having night terrors, but what i looked up was that and what this child was experience was that during night terrors the child is fully a sleep, is not waken by them, and wakes up in the morning rested and as no affects from the night terrors, because they are not remember. It is probably more in the way of teething; and because you have gotten up with him each time, it has now become habit/routine. J.
