Night terrors?

[myfunnybunch]

Ds10 had chicken pox two weeks ago. With the fever, he had full-blown night terrors for several nights in a row, screaming "No! No! Yesyesyesyesyes! Go away! No! Stop!" and "Help me! Help me, Mom! Hurry!" and the like even while I was holding him.

 

That's subsided, but he's still waking most nights, terrified, drenched in sweat, and his heart beating out of his chest. He says the world is too big and things are moving too fast, and he's afraid that everything will get louder and louder and louder. The other night his brother came to get me because he was standing by the nightlight squeezing his eyes and plugging his ears and whispering,†It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real.†The last two nights he's come to get me himself.

 

I'm teaching him come get me (when he's not too terrified to get out of bed) and to take deep breaths and listen to his heartbeat and to slowly wake himself, but I'm starting to be concerned that this isn't over yet. His pockmarks are mostly healed, but he still seems a little tired. I'm wondering when I should start to be concerned and think about calling the pediatrician.

 

My poor sweet, he’s a trooper. I wish I could make this go away. Has anyone experienced night terrors with your child? How did you help? Did they eventually go away?

[Susan in TN]

My dh said he suffered from this when he was a child and sick - time was moving at lightning speed, really scary things. A couple of my children have had similar issues when they've had a fever or virus.

 

When my oldest had night terrors every night for months on end, we started putting 1/2C to 1C Epsom salts in his bath 3 or 4 nights a week (for the magnesium), and they disappeared within the week. We kept up with the Epsom salt baths for a good couple of years.

 

It's really scary for parent and child. I'd try the Epsom salt baths to see if they help. I don't think it can hurt, at least.

[Spryte]

Poor baby. Poor mom, too. :grouphug:

 

Is he on any medication that might cause it? If not, it sounds like the virus, but I'd probably want to mention it to the pedi.

 

DS had night terrors for years - we finally pinpointed the cause, a medication that he was taking for allergies/asthma. Stopped the med, and no more night terrors. It was such a relief, I wish we'd pinpointed it sooner. They were terrible. I hope there is a quick solution for you, too.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I second the epsom salt baths. Night terrors are a common symptom of magnesium deficiency. Epsom salts is magnesium that is absorbed through the skin (the best way to take it).

[Ameena]

DD has had night terrors since birth - I'll try the salts bath! We've gotten to the point I can talk her down from them while she is still asleep, but they are still bad.

[Momof3littles]

My 9 yo gets them whenever he's sick, especially with a fever. He has for years. He does best the less I interact, which tends to be the conventional wisdom. Having to pee or being overtired are both triggers for some kids.

 

It is tough to not want to comfort them when they are screaming though :( He would scream and/or hallucinate.

[4everHis]

Might also want to check food sources for nitrates/nitrites. . . things like meat/hot dogs, chips or anything with msg. Once we cut those out of our 'night terror' kids diet they went away.

[myfunnybunch]

Thanks so much, everyone!

 

No meds, no nitrates/msg (we don’t usually eat those kinds of foods). But he has always been a very heavy sleeper, and is just now starting to wake himself to pee. I wonder if the combination of illness and his body telling him he needs to wake before he’s ready has just pushed him over the edge. He does want me to hold him and talk to him. He said even at the worst, he could tell I was there, that my arms were hard and square, not soft, but he knew from my voice that he was safe. Weird how our brains can distort reality so, isn’t it?

 

We’ll try the Epsom salt baths. Who doesn’t enjoy a nice warm bath before bed? Hopefully that will do the trick.

[datgh]

No advice but sending :grouphug: hugs from a Mom who has lived through them.

[Clear Creek]

My middle child had night terrors for quite some time. She would have them like clockwork two hours after falling asleep, and she would sleepwalk with them so much that I considered getting door and window alarms (she would open doors and walk into other rooms before being hit with the night terror and screaming bloody murder). I read up on it, and learned that it can sometimes be caused by a problem with moving normally from one stage of sleep to the next, and the solution was to wake the child up fully right before they would have the night terror. I began waking her up 1 hour and 45 minutes after she went to sleep and keeping her awake for a few minutes (make her recite the alphabet, tell me what she had for dinner...anything to keep her talking and awake). She had no trouble falling back asleep and did not have any night terrors that night. I did it for several weeks, and it seemed to adjust her sleep cycle so that she would move normally from one stage of sleep to the next. She has had them a few times since, but it is always on a night when she is really sick or extremely tired, she never fell back in a pattern of having them nightly.