Night Terrors

Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:23:43 +0000

Your child has been sound asleep for an hour or so but suddenly starts screaming and crying. You try everything you can think of to soothe him, going down your list: needs to nurse, hot, cold, feverish, wet, in pain. Nothing you do seems to help, and what’s worse, your child does not even seem to know you are there, trying to help.

Photo by Dez Pain

That’s what happened to me last night when my 11-month-old had her first ever night terror. Night terrors are episodes of intense crying and fear in children who are sleeping and are difficult to arouse. I will leave it to the experts to explain more about night terrors:

Ask Dr. Sears: Night Terrors
WebMD: Night Terrors

Thank goodness I had heard about night terrors from friends who had experienced them with their children. Otherwise I would have taken the half an hour of inconsolable crying as a sign that I needed to take my daughter to the emergency room! Fortunately, my daughter eventually allowed me to nurse her back to sleep. She slept well after that and appeared perfectly fine in the morning. I, however, was a wreck! One of the things I love most about breastfeeding is that it “fixes” almost anything — hungry, thirsty, over-tired, cranky, lonely, ill. When my daughter was crying inconsolably and she arched her back away from me when I attempted to nurse her, I felt a helplessness I have never felt before as a parent.

Has a child of yours ever experienced night terrors? How often did they happen? Were you eventually able to prevent them? Did your child outgrow them? How did you handle them when they were occurring?

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Night Terrors