grandparents and night terrors

The experience for anyone seeing a child go through a night terror is frightening. Our granddaughter Mae is 5 and has night terrors. About 15% of children today have this problem. Here are brief symptoms and some ideas to help them.

SYMPTOMS
* uncontrollable crying---no, i mean "screaming", and this is not just the normal screaming
this is Rosemary's Baby screaming----the movie with the possessed child
* ridged sitting up in bed with violent stiff legs
* writhing body---the only difference in what you will see and Rosemary's Baby is the head does not spin around. But all the rest is very similar
* total blank stare,,,they absolutely are not awake and their eyes are open,,but you can see they are almost trance like

AND THE SCREAMING CONTINUES---
Here are some ideas they may help

* be very sure the child's bladder is completely empty---even if they dont have to go ask them to please squeeze out a few drops---research shows that one of the reasons for night terrors is that the child has to go to the bathroom
* here is the BIG ONE----WAKE THE CHILD AFTER SHE IS SLEEPING FOR ABOUT
15--20 MINUTES. Wake her completely , until she sees you clearly and focuses on you . Ask her if she has to go to the bathroom and get an answer. The best thing is to get her up and go , but at least be VERY SURE she is awake.
* now snuggle her back and tell her she is SAFE.
We have found this works almost every time . If this is working just decrease it over time

This is rough, especially on grandparents who have no idea what is going on. If your child is experiencing night terrors be sure to inform all your baby sitters. It is a good idea to put her through the prevent steps above before you go out.

Grammie