Night terrors????

[can]

Hey all! My lo is 14 months old and has been very poorly all week with fever and apparently some kind of viral infection. Anyway he is finally on the mend however all during the week he has been waking 2-3 times a night screaming. I mean petrified screaming, cannot be soothed takes ages for him to stop despite what we do. Does this sound like night terrors? Last two nights it only happened once a night. Any advise would be great

 

[Pumpkin9]

I had night terrors when I was little. From what my mum and dad say to me I'm be screaming and even have my eyes open but I'd actually still be asleep and so I wouldn't recognise that they were with me and trying to comfort me. From that perspective it does sound like it could be the case.

I grew out of them by the time i was 8 although strangely I can still remember them, I also still have very vivid and reoccurring nightmares (I'm clearly weird!)

I don't think there is much you can do really, just be there and try to comfort as best you can xx

 

[H16]

My daughter has started having night terrors and she is a similar age to your LO. She will be properly screaming and crying but still be asleep or sometimes she looks awake but seems out of it and takes forever to calm down. Luckily she has only had them a handful of times over the last month or so but I feel really sorry for her when she does have them. Not sure what advice to give though as I think they just have to grow out of it which hopefully won't take too long if we are lucky xx

 

[fcroxy]

Harper has been doing this too on and off for a few weeks and I actually only thought of night terrors yesterday. I thought maybe she was too young, she's 14 months too, but looks like it can happen to them this age

 

[LaceyKeo]

DS went through a little bout of these a while ago.

Frightened the flippin life out of me at first, as he was "awake", then I found out about night terrors and figured it wasn't anything to worry about.

Make sure they can't hurt themselves (eg, if they get out of bed are they gonna fall down stairs, or whatever). Don't actively try to comfort them as they usually get more distressed if touched.
Don't try to wake them.

Sit in the doorway/close by and talk to them in a low, calm voice.
Doesn't matter what about, just mumble at them.
After a while they should either actually wake up, in which case you can then put them back to bed, or, they'll just turn over and go back to resting sleep.

The difficulty for me was the inability to comfort him, but once I realised this was a night-terror thing, not a failing-as-a-mother thing, it didn't worry me any more. It's horrible to see them through it, but remember it's worse for you than it is for them. They know nothing about it. Xx