# one year old screaming for hours in the middle of the night: help!



## TurboClaudia (Nov 18, 2003)

our son just turned one year old last week. the past three nights he has woken up about halfway through the night and proceeded to scream for at least an hour. last night it was on and off for about four hours. we are walking zombies today. it is full-on, inconsolable, i-wanna-be-held-no-wait-i-don't-wanna-be-held-no-i-changed-my-mind-i-wanna-be-held, gasping for air, don't forget to breathe screaming. we've tried everything we know. we thought it might be teeth, so we gave him some hyland's last night before sleep time but he woke up about four hours later and did the screaming thing again. he is on the verge of standing on his own and taking some first steps, and he's also on the verge of making some words. it's quite apparent that he is not geting enough sleep -- he's been taking naps upwards of 2.5 hours each day, the other day it was a four hour nap -- and we are certainly not getting enough sleep either.

any other suggestions or thoughts?

~claudia


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## starbarrett (Jun 16, 2004)

Wow, that sounds scary! And tiring. Are these night terrors? Where he may seem awake and screaming, but is really still dreaming? And your touch is not consoling because it's mixed up in his dream? I've heard that for terrors, the thing to do is not touch the child until they've full wakened and recognize you. Just throwing out ideas. Sorry if it's not applicable. Good-luck!


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## OakBerry (May 24, 2005)

Ear infection? My son only had one, he was about that age, and that was how he behaved. Pressure builds up when they lie down, and it's painful. He never pulled his ears and acted fine during the day, waking up and screaming at night was his only symptom.


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## MamaE (May 1, 2004)

Sounds like the night terrors DD went through when she was that age or just a little older. They were the scariest, most upsetting thing I've had to endure so far with her. She would not accept any form of comfort- even nursing and she has never refused that. It's so frustrating to be unable to comfort your own child, isn't it?

Here is a website that was helpful to me at that time. It may at least help you rule night terrors out (or in







):

http://www.nightterrors.org/

Just a quick note: DD had a handful of night terrors clustered within a few months time and has not had one since (in almost a year, I would say). In other words, a few night terrors now is not a life sentence!

Hang in there.


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## hunnybumm (Nov 1, 2003)

My DS did something similiar, sort of. We were visiting family in CA and he was in the process of getting his first set of molars. One night he woke up unconsulible crying (back arching, pushing me away, etc) for 2 minutes, then snuggled up next to me wimpering for 2 mintues (i timed it, it was exactly 2 min off 2 min on). This went on for almost an hour before I gave him motrin, he fell asleep rather quickly. An hour and a half later he woke up doing the same thing. We took him to the ER and he had a double ear infection. However, he has had a few ear infections since and this hasn't happened.


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## TurboClaudia (Nov 18, 2003)

thanks for the replies, everyone.

thankfully, the screaming sessions ended with the night before i posted, and then later on the 17th, we discovered why: two new teeth had poked through on bottom (the outside incisors)

he's been sleeping much better the past few nights, even sleeping all the way through from 930pm to 530am one of those nights. wow. what's a mama to do with all that uninterrupted sleep?









~claudia


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