Nightmares :(

[Juice]

I think my poor little munchkin is having nightmares. For the last four nights she's woken up about an hour after she's gone to bed. She wakes up crying and screaming and covered in sweat. It's heartbreaking. She'll only go back down after I've brought her downstairs for a bit for a cuddle.

I know nightmares are common at this age (she's almost 2) but I was just wondering how long this phase often lasts for? And is there anything I can do to help her? Anything I can do to stop it happening? This is a kid who hardly ever cries, so to see her so upset like that is really really horrible!! I just really want to stop what ever it is she is dreaming about

 

[MrsS143]

Does she eat near bedtime?
No experience with kids but i know i have bad dreams if i eat certain stuff near bedtime. Particularly cheese x

 

[kumber]

I have always had bad nightmares from babyhood and ds seems to be following in my footsteps. Unfortunately in my experience, there's nowt you can do. Some foods do cause nightmares when close to bedtime but other people can just be prone to them. Does she have a very active imagination? There is often a link there. Just keep giving her cuddles and reassurance that you are there and it's not real. It's horrid but it is a phase and it will stop.

Have there been any changes to routine or lifestyle recently that may have triggered something? For example, I went throgh a full month of nightmares every night when I refused to see my dad again at 9. It doesn't have to be as big as that, but if she is prone to nightmares, changes in lifestyle or home life can sometimes be a trigger for an 'episode', as it were.

 

[Juice]

I can't think of anything that has changed :/ the only thing I can think of is that she's had her afternoon nap in the car instead of in bed for last couple of days because we've had places to be and stuff to do. But that happens at least 1 or 2 times a week and she's fine with it. She'll be napping at home today so we'll see if that has an effect.

Imagination wise, she does quite a bit of pretend play, but she doesn't talk much yet, so it's hard to know what she's thinking. She communicates through pointing, grunting and using the odd word when prompted. So I can't even ask her if there's anything I can do to make her better :/

 

[kumber]

By the sound of it she's going through a phase. It can be part of their mental development - their imagination grows both for the better and the worse. I don't think there's all that much you can do, nightmares are a normal part of a brain's learning and development so, whilst horrid, are actually a good thing.

If you're really concerned, do talk to your hv about it.

Edit -- a few of the mums told me on here about helping a child with their emotional development when they're unable to talk and are getting frustrated so for example, saying to her something like "you're scared because you've had a scary dream. It's ok to be scared, dreams aren't real and mommy is always here to protect you", or something of that nature. I'm not that great at explaining it, the other mums were fab. Let me see if I can find the link to my thread. It might help comfort her that even though she can't verbalise how she's feeling, you understand she's scared and she understands that that's ok.

Edit -- I can't find it, can't for the life of me remember what the thread was even about! Google "raising an emotionally developed child" and quite a few things should pop up anyhow.