# TERRIBLE night terrors when DS has to pee



## missnoodlesmom (Oct 22, 2007)

My son started having night terrors about 4 months ago. At first it seemed to be when he got over-heated. But now they seem to revolve around him having to pee. He's 2y5months and has been PTed for about 5 months. For some reason he will have a crazy fit when he has to pee instead of a. peeing in his pull up or b. wake up and ask for help or go to the bathroom himself. These fits will last awhile - from 5 - 30 minutes and they are getting more frequent (at least 1x a night) and more severe (he smashed his face against the wall 2 nights ago resulting in a bloody nose) as time goes on. I wake him up to take him to the bathroom but it's not enough....he cries out for water and wants to drink a ton before bed. (just to rule it out, I don't think he has diabetes, he just seems to be exceptionally thirsty at this time) I've never wanted to withhold liquids because I think it's pretty mean to a kid to hold back a drink when they are really thirsty. The weirdest thing is that once he pees, he will literally re-pass out at the potty. It's just getting him there - he will scream, thrash around, hit us, pinch, try to bite - he's literally having a complete fit. Nothing in his waking hours compares to this and it's, frankly, extremely scary and really wears me down. I am getting anxiety just thinking about it.








So does anyone have any suggestions, or just please tell me that I'm not the only one dealing with this?


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## missnoodlesmom (Oct 22, 2007)

Bumping and hoping I'm really not the only person who has gone through this.


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## dahlialia (Mar 22, 2009)

I haven't dealt with this particular issue, but we did deal with night terrors a lot. Could it be that he is reaching that "need to pee" point when he is in a deep part of the sleep cycle? Is there any consistency to when in the night it happens? I'm wondering if you could maybe circumvent it by waking him to pee earlier.


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## crunchy_mommy (Mar 29, 2009)

I haven't dealt with this (yet!) but I do remember reading something about waking them up just before they'd normally start screaming. Or if he's not doing it at a predictable time, just pick a time to wake him up at.

You could also try to offer lots more liquids during the day, maybe that will cut down on any excessive pre-bedtime drinking?


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## missnoodlesmom (Oct 22, 2007)

Thank you for the replies. We have been trying to wake him up before the screaming starts and take him to the bathroom to pee while he is still kind of asleep. That has only succeeded in pushing back the terrors to a later time in the night. Maybe I need to start setting my alarm for every 2 hours all night???? UGH. He's never been a good sleeper.....I'm trying to decide if this is worse than the infant stage. At least when he was an infant I could plug him up with a boobie









I really wonder why the feeling of needing to pee is so crazy for him in the middle of the night - he has NO bathroom issues (besides wanting to use too much TP haha) during waking hours.


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## noilate (Jan 7, 2012)

My 4 1/2 year old son does the same thing, wakes up crying needing to pee. He won't come down from his bed himself, so my husband will carry him to the potty with my son crying, screaming that he doesn't want to, but then once he pees he stops all the undesirable behavior and goes back to sleep. It's really odd and we're trying to make sense of it and trying to see a common thread as to when this happens but haven't really come to any conclusion. Have you?


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## cameragirl (Apr 15, 2010)

DD is 5.5 and still will start crying and fussing if she's in a deep sleep and has a full bladder. Sometimes she'll get up and try to find the bathroom, but gets confused and ends up in the living room. She isn't really awake, and just knows that she doesn't feel good. She'll say her tummy hurts. We figured out after a few times to put her on the toilet, and that solves the problem. She's still a little upset, but calms down once her bladder is emptied and we're getting her back in bed. It seems to get worse when she's going through a growth spurt, and for whatever reason, having her adjusted by our chiropractor seems to help.


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## motherof2wins (Sep 13, 2013)

I am the mother of an 8-1/2 little girl. She too has had nightmares since she was about 2 yrs old. At the time I didn't know they were night terrors, we just thought she was crying and wanted to cry so we can let her sleep in our bed. It hasn't improved. We noticed it would happen when she didn't nap. Then there would be days that she WOULD nap and it would still happen. Then we thought it was what she ate that night such as cheese/dairy or pizza. Then it WOULD NOT happen on another night that she ate the same foods. We finally noticed that when we would walk in after hearing her scream at the top of her lungs about 1 hr after falling asleep, we'd find her sweaty and hot! Then we took her to the restroom and she'd pee. But....it was a fight getting her to the restroom. Peeing would wake her and calm her down. Then an hour later it would happen again. This usually happens about 3 times before she would stop having them and sleep the rest of the night.

So...we think its triggered by being tired, hot and having to go pee. Its horrible to say the least. We feel helpless when it happens because she looks awake but is asleep and she doesn't seem to recognize us. Then when she does wake up she cries her normal cry and we know she's awake. She also never talks during it, just hits and screams and bangs her hands on the bathroom counter and throws whatever is close by (ie. pillows, teddy bears, towels).

She was diagnosed with ADD in Kindergarten but I don't think it's related. I just started giving her Calms Forte, chamomile and spraying lavender on her pillow. I thought it worked one night but I did it all tonight and she still had the night terrors, not as bad a usual. She didn't fight or hit me or herself.

Oh the other thing we have is a dream catcher and I don't think that works either. We pray every night and asking for good dreams and sleeping all night with no crying is part of the nightly prayer.

Not sure what else to do. Her pediatrician said to try to keep a log of what she eats, when she goes to sleep and when it happens. Its so hard but I am going to try that. I know this doesn't help but I just wanted you to know that you are not alone.

Oh and tonight she woke up 3 times about every hour on the hour and walked to the restroom to go pee each time then went right back to bed.

Good luck hope your little one outgrows it sooner than later.


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## Evgeniya1988 (Aug 24, 2016)

This post is so old I am not sure if you are still active on this forum but I really really really need to know what ended up happening with your son's night terrors once he got older. Everything you wrote here is exactly what is happening to my 2y and 4mo old toddler. I don't know what's going on with him and the same way like it was for you things get better right after he does go pee on the potty. He screams bloody murder and keeps saying that his peepee hurts but if you offer him to use the potty he gets even more mad and starts screaming even louder. I am wondering now how long this horrible phase will last and why it's happening to us. 
I would truly appreciate if you could reply to me especially that a couple of years later the situation for you must have changed for the Better (really hope so)



missnoodlesmom said:


> My son started having night terrors about 4 months ago. At first it seemed to be when he got over-heated. But now they seem to revolve around him having to pee. He's 2y5months and has been PTed for about 5 months. For some reason he will have a crazy fit when he has to pee instead of a. peeing in his pull up or b. wake up and ask for help or go to the bathroom himself. These fits will last awhile - from 5 - 30 minutes and they are getting more frequent (at least 1x a night) and more severe (he smashed his face against the wall 2 nights ago resulting in a bloody nose) as time goes on. I wake him up to take him to the bathroom but it's not enough....he cries out for water and wants to drink a ton before bed. (just to rule it out, I don't think he has diabetes, he just seems to be exceptionally thirsty at this time) I've never wanted to withhold liquids because I think it's pretty mean to a kid to hold back a drink when they are really thirsty. The weirdest thing is that once he pees, he will literally re-pass out at the potty. It's just getting him there - he will scream, thrash around, hit us, pinch, try to bite - he's literally having a complete fit. Nothing in his waking hours compares to this and it's, frankly, extremely scary and really wears me down. I am getting anxiety just thinking about it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Xerxella (Feb 6, 2008)

If your son is saying his pee-pee hurts, you need to get him to the doctor. He could easily have a bladder infection. He could be a tough little guy and during the day when he's playing, he toughs it out, but at night his emotions shine through. 


Anytime a child says it hurts to urinate or anything hurts during bodily functions, you should get him to the doctor.


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