United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Does anyone know anything about night terrors in children? Why do they happen? How do you make them stop? My 6 yr old son (my non BPI baby) wakes up nearly everynight after about an hour of sleeping, screaming his head off. It's like he wakes up in a panic & is screaming "mommmy" the entire time he's flying down the stairs. He gets louder and louder and sounds more & more panicked with each scream. Of course, he usually wakes me up out of a dead sleep, so I panic, jump up out of my bed, turn on all of the lights, and run to find him. When I get to him, he's very "out of it" and then doesn't remember anything at all in the morning.

His father is active duty military and just left for Iraq going on 4 weeks now. This has happened EVERY night since he has been gone. Is he having some kind of seperation anxiety or some kind of fear that I am going to be leaving too? This is the first time this has happened so I'm just at a loss. Help...anyone?

~Laura, mom of Tyler, Age 10, ROBPI

That sure is what it sounds like to me. My husband was active duty and my oldest son had the same thing, I know this sounds gross, but you need to get a t-shirt that his daddy has worn and lay it in the bed with him, it cleared it up for my son, I know since he has been gone four weeks, that all his shirts have been washed, try a clean one, but the one's that are worn help the most, it is the scent, call me crazy but it works.
G?AYLE

Is he doing it in his sleep this can be dangerous if he is not awake and falls. Frankie acted in somewhat the same way after his second surgery but he would be awake and able to tell me about his dream he would be screaming but was to terrified to leave his bed he was 4 at the time I started letting him sleep in bed with me and after a night or two it stopped then I started putting him back in his own bed after he had been asleep for a while and he was soon sleeping through the night. This lasted about 2 months before he could fall asleep in his own bed without it starting all over again.
I wish you the best Mare

I can't help you with any personal knowledge, but found this site. It may be of some help.
http://www.nightterrors.org/

Hope he gets over it soon. It does sound like it started b/c of his dad leaving though.

Good luck,
Marieke 33, LOBPI

That site had good info on what Night Terrors is, but not really any helpful info on what to do about it. Thanks tho Marieke! I'll keep researching it and def bring it up with his pedatrician. It just breaks my heart to know he misses his daddy that much that he's panicky about it in the middle of the night.

~Laura
Mom of Tyler, 10, ROBPI

I gave my kids a homeopathic called rescue remedy or another brand is calming essence.

You can either give it during an episode or before bed to help prevent one or lessen the severity.

Cindy

I recently seperated from my daughters father and she has not slept through the night since. If she is very upset sometimes we call her daddy and let him talk to her for a few minutes and she usually goes right back to sleep. I dont know if there is any possiblity that you could do this but if it is daddy that he is missing maybe you could record him to listen to. Every child is different so I do not know if it would help or make it worse, but it may be worth a try!