My 6 year old girl has night terrors. She has had them since she was 3 years old. They were horrible at first. Now they are about once a week. She wakes up screaming, hitting, kicking, shaking, etc.. She never remembers the event and it usually happends when her there is a change in her sleeping schedule. Even though they are a lot better and less severe I still worry and wonder what causes them. I have looked it up and taken her to a doctor. At one point she was waking me up every night. The doctor suggested it could be seziures. He wanted to do a cat scan. Unfortunately our insurance won't cover it. Now I live with the fear they will return and that she may have brain problems. I have heard negative things about receiving a diagnoses of seizures that may not really be present later in life. Any advice would be appreicated. Thanks M..
My son had night terrors also. He never remebered them.
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Dear M.,
My oldest daughter experienced the same thing. We would do exactly what another mother has suggested. As we calmly spoke to her, we would offer her a change of socks, pajama top, etc. and once she was involved in the routine activity she would begin to calm down. Another thing we did was keep a bottle of "sleepy spray" (actually lavender and vanilla room spray) and we would ask her to shut her eyes and we would spritz it around her bed all the while we spoke soothingly. She's 17 now and she still will occasionally ask us where the sleepy spray is:)>
Hi M.,
I don't know that much about night terrors but I do know that my parents dealt with them in me when I was a child, I used to act out the exact way as you descibe you daughter acting out. I am very surpised a dr suggested that they may be seizures, was he a sleep specialist?? I didn't have them as often as your daughter, but everyone is different. I read that if a sleep disorder child's night routine is different than normal it is likely that child will experience a night terror that night, so you may want to really try to keep her on a strict schedule. Mine began to go away when I was 6 or 7 and then I began sleep walking often, until I was 15 or so. I would not worry about her having brain problems! If you are that concerned I would seek help from a sleep specialist and if the doctor you last saw was a sleep specialist, then I would find another one.
Best of Luck!!
Jes
"Night terrors" are a developmental stage babies/toddlers go through. "Night mares" are scary dreams. It is a common occurrence.
See these links to inform yourself about it:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&a...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&a...
http://www.google.com/search?q=what+age+does+night+terror...
And here's a link on night terrors v.s night seizures:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&a...
I can understand your worry... please take care and I hope the information in these links can help.
Good luck,
~Susan
www.cafepress.com/littlegoogoo
Hi M.,
When my daughter has nightmares I sit and we talk about the nightmare. The first thing that works for her is breathing deeply, this helps calm her down. Then I ask her to close her eyes and I start at the end of her nightmare and create an alternate ending for her. Usually in which she has overcome the struggle in her nightmare and ends up in a vast meadow covered in flowers and the sky is clear blue. My daughter is visually inclined and this seems to work for her, it also soothes her just to know that I am present when she is overcoming this dream, she wants to feel safe. For her, it is difficult to go back to sleep without still seeing the same dream in her mind.
Perhaps you can work with the senses most prevalent in your child - for example using music, aromatherapy, tea etc. Basically I am trying to teach my daughter how to meditate and protect her body and energy so that she feels safe even when I am not laying with her. Some one also recommended to me that I give her my pillow, so that my scent can be a comfort to her when she sleeps. Meditation books will also explain how colors take an active role during meditation etc...
Good luck to both of you :)
My daughter had night terrors starting around 6mo. Our chiropractor suggested a different form of chiro to correct the situation. She referred us to a chiro that uses www.nmt.md and the terrors stopped within a few days. They did start to return a year later so we took her back and they stopped again.
Hi M. -
I don't know if you are open to this, but there is an excellent book that addresses night terrors called "Children's Past Lives" by Carol Bowman. It's truly a gem of a book.
Good luck, L.
Hi M.,
Both of my kids had terrors. My son's were horrible! What finally worked for me (after yelling and shaking - both no good I know now) was having them do something "normal". They are in a terrifying dream so I would help my son change his shirt. I know it sounds weird. I would just talk to him, "we need to change your shirt 'cuz it's sweaty and you'll get cold C'mon now let me help you. That's right." And sometimes I'd have to do it again (once 3 times) and them he calmed down enough to get back in bed and lay down. I know it sounds bizarre. It worked for my daughter as well. I, or the routine action, must have gotten between the child and the bad terror just enough to break its hold.
My Son use to have simular night terrors,or maybe you could call it hallucinating. He would typically get these,when ever he had a temperature. He would even get these during the day,if he fell asleep.He would open his eyes and be looking right at us, and the terrors would continue.We couldn't understand,how he could be awake,and still be screaming and seeing frightening things. It scared us to death.He was equally as frightened by these,so we always stayed calm.We discovered,that when ever he had even a slight fever,he would have these.The Dr. told us, that some childrens bodies just can't tolerate fever,and this was the bodies way of fighting the fever.As soon as the fever went down, his terrors seized.We use to give him luke warm baths at night ,just to cool him down,so he wouldn't have the terrors. Eventually,the Dr. gave us a prescription for medication,to keep fevers down when ever he became sick.He grew out of this,after a short time.
