Night Terrors Explained

[montana]

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2011 ... ed/?hpt=C2

[Debjax]

My son had night terrors, and they were terrifying for his dad and I. He actually had 2 "rounds" of them, the first when he was between 2 and 3 1/2, the second round he was about 5 or 6. The first round, he would sit bolt upright in bed and scream, then cry (heartwrenching sobs) for about 10 minutes or so. We couldn't touch him, it would make it worse. After about 10 minutes, he'd stop, lay back down and go back to sleep. He would be fine in the morning. The doctor explained night terrors to us, saying they were named as much for the parent's reaction as the child's.

The second round, he had the sleepwalking to go along with it. He would make a circuit around the house, same pattern every time. He would go into the living room, run his hand along the couch seat. Then to the kitchen, where every base cabinet and the refrigerator would be opened and examined. Each time, his crying intensified just a bit, as if he was frustrated and didn't know why. Then to my husband's and my bedroom, where he would trace the pattern on the comforter with his finger. Then to the bathroom, where he would look in the closet, the bathtub and then stand in front of the toilet. We'd drop his drawers for him, he'd go pee, the crying would stop, he'd go back to bed, crawl in, and go back to sleep.

He wet the bed every night, something that ran in his dad's side of the family, and was at the age where the "connection" was finally getting made in this brain to signal that he needed to 'wake up' to go to the bathroom. I suspect this was the cause of this round. We finally were able to get him to the point where we could gate the end of the hall, and close all the doors so that he'd go directly to the bathroom.....took a few months....once his brain 'got it' the night terrors stopped, and I only had to wash sheets weekly vs. daily..