Health Forums

Posted: 26 July 2006 at 2:28pm | IP Logged

mum2joshua's son suffers from night terrors and she wrote an article about them on here

If you look in the articles sections at the top of the page and then click on the "Night Terrors" one it'll bring it up

HTH

xxxxxx

Posted: 26 July 2006 at 6:48pm | IP Logged

You can read Chris' article here http://www.madmums.com/gh_showarticle.asp?hid=161

There are a few mums whose children seem to suffer these.

Posted: 27 July 2006 at 9:31am | IP Logged

I used to sleep walk, I was terrible and night terrors and sleeping walking are linked. When Joshua first started it only lasted a few minutes I had no idea what it was. i assumed it was a bad dream but he was only 4 months old. It used to happen a few times a month and by 6 months he was diagnosed as having night terrors. By 12 months he was hurting himself and the episodes were lasting anything up to an hour and a half, and more frequent. All I could was sit and watch and it really upset me. When he got to 2 years they were coming everynight and could last up to 2 hours. My health visitor, supportive as she was said there was really nothing anyone could do, so I put up with it. Although Joshua remains asleep it is draining on him, and of course me. There was never a pattern, they say if it occurs around the same time wake them up 10 minutes prior for a drink or bathroom visit.

It came to head earlier this year when Joshua was 2 and a half, the terror was going on for 4 hours and was constant. He was causing a danger to himself and to me. He tries to hurt himself and throws himself around. Although the bedroom is safe, he uses furniture or anything he can get to. It happened twice in one week that lasted for 4 hours, the third time I thought it was never going to stop and I called the NHS. Whilst on the phone he started calming so we didnt call out an ambulance as first suggested, but the next day I took him back to my GP and begged for something to help him. He was put on a mild sedative, and after that was working he was put on a fairly strong sedative. Eventually they became less frequent, and then stopped for a short period, but then the sleeping walking seriously took off lol

Joshua has been off his medication for about 3 months and the night terrors have started again, but only a couple of times a week and lasted no more than an hour, but normally about 20 minutes. Im hoping its just a hiccup and I dont want to put him back on medication. He has also started having nightmares, monsters and things and I know thats just his age vs imagination but when my new health visitor comes out to see me next week, Im going to discuss possibilities of a sleep therapist for him. He was too young when it got really bad.