Night terrors and night walking?

[Gem wright]

Had a Mum talk to me today about her two year old daughter. She is so very worried about her night terrors and sleep walking.

Mum doesn't sleep as keeps checking on her daughter, or she sleeps on daughters bedroom floor. I've explained about night terrors are very common in young children and Gould grow out of it. But I have no experience of sleep walking. Sounds dangerous and no wonder why she can't sleep. But I'm worried with how worried Mum is with it all.
I've also advised her to speak to her hv but it sounds like she doesn't have a good relationship with her and she doesn't want to ask her advice, so she's asked me!
Any advice is warmly welcomed :-)

[ziggy]

my daughter is 23 and has most awful night terrors and she sleep walks.

She often thinks her partner is trying to inject her with poison in her dreams and wakes up hitting him, very scary

They also live on fourth floor with balcony leading from their bedroom, worries me she will fall one night.

Sorry I dont have any advice, it does seem worse when she is stressed. My young grandson has same problem but it doesnt seem to affect his 2 siblings.

I think if i was this mummy I would put stair gate on child's bedroom door and leave door open, it cant be good for mummy not to get proper sleep. We kept stair gate on top of stairs closed every night just in case.

[Mouse]

Two of my sons used to have night terrors & would often walk downstairs. They didn't ever hurt themselves.

It turned out that one had nocturnal epilepsy, but the other one just had the night terrors. The one with epilepsy grew out of it by the time he was about 8 and the other one stopped getting night terrors when he was 5 and we moved house.

Has your mum spoken to her GP?

[charlottenash]

Stair gate, bed gate, baby monitors to begin with for safety but it definitely sounds like doctors advice needed

[PixiePetal]

My DS used to have night terrors and sometimes got out of bed but woke on the way along the landing - we kept a stair gate at the top of the stairs and it was a small house with small rectangular landing with just doors to bedrooms and bathroom. I kept his window closed at night except for the small one at the top and kept my door open.

He seemed to grow out of the terrors by about 8 - seems quite a common age to end (although as ziggy said, some carry on into adulthood)

He was quite a hot child, was worse when he got too hot in bed. I also kept a baby monitor in his room when I was downstairs so I didn't keep going up to look at him before I went to bed. Maybe that would relax mum?

Hope she finds some answers x

[Helen79]

You can buy Angelcare baby monitors that have a sensor pad that goes underneath the mattress. They're supposed to be used to help prevent cot death as the sensor detects if baby stops breathing and an alarm goes off if no movement is detected. They also go off if the baby/child gets out of the bed. Could you suggest one of these to mum as the alarm would alert her to mindee getting out of bed.

I know most parents wouldn't consider co-sleeping at this age but if mum is getting no sleep then I would suggest letting mindee sleep in her bed with a stair gate on the door so the everyone can get some sleep. The night terrors and sleep walking could be linked to her being worried and afraid of being alone in the night so maybe co-sleeping for a few weeks could rule out if that was causing the problem.

[Nickidela]

Yeah I agree - a baby monitor definitely and then stair gates to prevent risk of falling.

My daughter suffered terribly with night terrors - she would be frantic asking for her mummy, I'd always try and comfort her saying 'mummy's here' but she was oblivious! She'd walk downstairs, lay on the sofa, really fretting then suddenly snap out of it! Her eyes would be all glazed over while she was sleepwalking. It was spooky! She was always fine straight after and would laugh it off!

I read recently that there's a link between the calpol containing sugar and night terrors - not sure how true that was though! X

[Bumble Beez]

My son who is eight sleep walks, sleep talks and also suffered from night terrors.

We went to the doc and he suggested simple safety measures like what has been mentioned before...stair gate on the door, or top of stairs etc...

We don't have them anymore tho, he's got to the age where I don't worry so much. I have to say tho, he has never ever hurt himself during one of his episodes.

My son makes us giggle now tho...some evenings he will come wandering downstairs, have a couple of minutes 'tidying up' and then head off back to bed!!

Sarah x

[AliceK]

My son who is eight sleep walks, sleep talks and also suffered from night terrors.

We went to the doc and he suggested simple safety measures like what has been mentioned before...stair gate on the door, or top of stairs etc...

We don't have them anymore tho, he's got to the age where I don't worry so much. I have to say tho, he has never ever hurt himself during one of his episodes.

My son makes us giggle now tho...some evenings he will come wandering downstairs, have a couple of minutes 'tidying up' and then head off back to bed!!

Sarah x

My DS who is 9 is the same. He is always talking and gesturing when he's in bed and very often gets out of bed and wanders around although hasn't gone downstairs yet. He even manages to get down from his top bunk if he's sleeping up there. He used to have night terrors when he was little but not for a long time now. I think it's more common than people realise.

xxx

[Gem wright]

Thanks everyone, mum has already mentioned she has stair gates on bedroom door and stairs. Will definitely mention monitors and the ones with the mattress, also co sleeping.
Some really good ideas, will also recommend GP.

Thank you everyone, also good to see how common it is it and how most grow out of it, and all of you have said no one hurt themselves! Xx