14 month old waking crying at night for extended periods
September 23, 2013 7:02 PM   Subscribe

My 14 month old baby has crying thrashing wakeful periods during the night on a semi-regular basis (roughly speaking, perhaps once every fortnight). He wakes up crying and can’t be consoled – arches his body and pushes away from me while in my arms (but cries harder if put down in his cot).

Once or twice this has gone on for almost two hours, more often it’s around the one hour mark. He is still breastfed, and I will try to calm him by feeding him, but usually he will feed for a little then arch away from me (or bite me) and start crying again. Sometimes he calms down if the other parent comes in and takes over, sometimes not. Often I give him baby Panadol as I presume that he is in some sort of pain – last night this didn’t seem to have any effect at all, and it was only swapping over parents that calmed him down enough to fall asleep eventually. I wonder whether it is nightmares, because he seems so frantically upset and unable to relax, but it seems strange that it would take him an hour to calm down after a nightmare while being held by a parent.

It’s been happening since he was eating a very limited variety of food, and doesn’t seem to be linked to any particular sort of food. He is happy and cheerful otherwise and doesn’t appear ill in any way. I haven’t taken him to the GP about this, as I know what the answer will be – “does this happen every day? No? Oh well, it could be indigestion, teething, bad dreams, bring him back if it happens more often.” (And I just feel silly thinking about going to the doctor and saying "well, my baby cries sometimes...") Last night's thrashing-crying-session came during a period where he's back to waking up about three times a night and I consequently feel pretty exhausted and frustrated. I just want nights to get easier.

Have any other parents experienced this? Is it a normal developmental thing? Is this how nightmares present, and is there anything we can do about that? If we decide to get a medical opinion (although for such an irregular problem I think this would likely be pretty useless), what sort of specialist would be appropriate?
posted by fever-trees to Health & Fitness (24 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Absolutely sounds like night terrors. :( I have no advice, as it was a short-lived phase in our house. Here are some tips from the Mayo Clinic.
posted by chiababe at 7:10 PM on September 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


I also clicked in to say night terrors.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:13 PM on September 23, 2013


Happened to my kiddo as well, and we figured night terrors. We had to wake her right up and look through books to calm her down. Took a couple of months to go away. Hopefully it won't be that long for you.
posted by gaspode at 7:20 PM on September 23, 2013


Best answer: If not night terrors, perhaps really bad intestinal gas pains? Try some infant gas drops with simethicone in them.
posted by trivia genius at 7:24 PM on September 23, 2013


We had this around the same age. Culprit: teething.

We've also had night terrors, and this was not the same animal.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 7:32 PM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I think night terrors as well though it's a little young for that. It helps to give as little stimulation as possible during the episodes. Touching or excessive talking usually just makes it worse. I usually turn on some lights and just sit quietly and calmly nearby and very gently suggest laying down and going back to sleep.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 7:32 PM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Night terrors! They suck for the parents, but the kid doesn't remember them at all. They're not a real nightmare either, but just some weird crossfire of their sleeping brains.

What ended up working for one kid was to carry him in a rocking motion and drone on and on about the traffic outside - we counted every cab and bus going past and eventually a sleepy little voice would join in on the count. The gentle motion and walking around with him was really necessary. He couldn't be woken up fast, but if we didn't wake him, he would scream for hours and hours. Rubbing his calves and feet gently also woke him up. Then the droning voice (songs didn't work) would get him back to sleep again. The other kid has much briefer episodes and breastfeeding or a bottle works for her.
posted by viggorlijah at 8:48 PM on September 23, 2013


My friends have kids with night terrors and they have found that waking their kids exactly 90 minutes after they have fallen asleep will reduce them. The kids wake up for a second and then go right back to sleep, but something about waking them at the 90 minute mark seems to work. This is all anecdotal, of course, but worth a try.
posted by bedhead at 9:09 PM on September 23, 2013


I don't think it's night terror. As far as I know, that's too young for night terror, and also they don't last that long (and recovery from them doesn't take that long). Furthermore, I don't think changing the parent would have any impact on night terror.

I think it is more likely acid reflux, or a food or environmental allergy, or indigestion, or colic or something of that nature (i.e., physical). I think if it's acid reflux, feeding could possibly just make it worse. Have you tried an infant antacid?
posted by Dansaman at 9:10 PM on September 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


That's a bit on the younger side for night terrors which set in at about 3-4. Not outside of possibility, just a bit young.

Step one would be gas drops.
Step two the standard teething stuff (frozen binky, etc)

I would also not hesitate one second to call the pediatrician. Something is going on and you're not able to suss it out on your own. That's why you have a doctor.
posted by 26.2 at 9:14 PM on September 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Yeah, I think this is definitely worth asking the pediatrician about. It could be so many things, and the little one can't explain it to you, and you have only your observations, which are confusing at best. The pediatrician will have a knowledgebase from which they can advise you, even if it's a non-medical source. That's part of what they expect to do for new people and their parents.
posted by batmonkey at 10:00 PM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


The arching of the back made me think gas pain. I'd try gas relief drops but I also wouldn't hesitate to go ask our doctor. Don't feel weird about it, this is what they're there for.
posted by JenMarie at 1:35 AM on September 24, 2013


I don't think it's too young for night terrors. I know it usually happens in kids a little older, but I know mine had them right before he turned 1. He had the stereotypical vacant look in his eyes, didn't respond to his name, or soothing. I swear I read somewhere that kids are at a higher risk for night terrors and related behaviors if one or both parents are sleep-talkers/walkers, which my husband definitely is.
posted by chiababe at 5:12 AM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


I also came to say night terrors. My son had them starting right around that age; for us they were tied to developmental leaps. Not much I can say to help, except that they don't do it forever.
posted by anastasiav at 6:25 AM on September 24, 2013


Look into Sandifer's Syndrome - acid reflux can cause this type of symptom.
For reference, I had night terrors as young as 9 months old that continued until about 5 years old. I remember them. It is also connected to depression diagnosis later in life.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 6:35 AM on September 24, 2013


I don't know if this is it, but what about keeping a food diary for both you and him and see if maybe you are eating something every 2 weeks that is bothering him via breastmilk?
posted by CathyG at 7:55 AM on September 24, 2013


Best answer: I'm chiming in again because I feel that people are giving you speculative, factually far-fetched information. Although night terror can occur as early as age 1, it much more commonly happens after age 3. Furthermore, per NIH the typical length of an incident is only 10-20 minutes (and based on my own personal experience I think it's probably typically more like 10 minutes or less). See this NIH page for solid information:

www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000809.htm

And for extra measure, note this at Kidshealth:

"After a few minutes, or sometimes longer, a child simply calms down and returns to sleep."

Take your child to the doctor to check for things like acid reflux and other possible abdominal issues, and ask about night terror too while you are there.
posted by Dansaman at 8:08 AM on September 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


My kiddo has reflux and would wake at night all the way up to 18 months. When the doc put him on dissolvable Prevacid tablets, he started sleeping through the night.
posted by Fleebnork at 8:41 AM on September 24, 2013


I think this is normal, and fairly common. My kid certainly did it quite a bit around that age and still occasionally wakes up screaming for extended periods (she just turned two). But overall she's sleeping a lot better these days--beginning at around 21 months when she was completely weaned. I think you're right--your GP will probably tell you it's teething or bad dreams or something along those lines. If your son is otherwise happy and healthy during the day, and seems to be developing normally, I say leave it alone. If we had pursued all of possible causes of our daughter's sleep issues in early life, she'd have had: surgery to fix a lip tie, tongue tie, and enlarged adenoids & tonsils; prolonged antacid therapy; chiropractic and cranio-sacral therapy; extreme cry-it-out interventions; homeopathy & naturopathy; diet restrictions; etc. Instead, she had none of those things, and just started sleeping better on her own.
posted by bennett being thrown at 9:11 AM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


The arching back is making me also think reflux, gas pain, or food allergies causing stomach pain.
posted by biscuits at 10:53 AM on September 24, 2013


OOOO. IS he eating any kind of cheese? Yellow cheddar or Yellow American.? There is an ingredient in it called annatto which causes headaches and really bad stomach pains. I mean the kind of stomach pains people allergic to gluten get.

If The child is eating anything with annatto in it stop it and see if that helps . I am allergic to annatto and I get Severe migraines and stomach cramps from it. I would think getting these as child would be worse.
posted by majortom1981 at 12:51 PM on September 24, 2013


Here to n'th night terrors.

For our kids, we realized that, although they seemed awake (what with the flailing and screaming and eyes open) they really weren't ....some part of their brains were 'stuck' asleep. What worked for us was full-frontal wake-up: turn-on-the-lights, sit them up, loud "Hey!! You're asleep! Wake up, Kiddo!" Once they actually woke up, they'd blink a bit, drink some water, and go straight back to sleep. But before we hit on this, they could stay in that inconsolable crying and flailing mode for an hour, easy.
posted by Ausamor at 1:05 PM on September 24, 2013


Have you tried changing the lights in the room, maybe adding a string light? Or soothing noise? You can get a white noise mp3, and you could burn it to cd.
posted by theora55 at 5:10 PM on September 24, 2013


Response by poster: Thank you very much for the advice - I feel greatly reassured hearing about your experiences. I think based on the various descriptions of night terrors, and his age, that it seems more likely to be gas, even if I can't work out an apparent cause.

I have bought some gas drops to try next time to see if it helps, and I am writing down his wake-ups so that I have a better idea of how often this actually happens (and whether it happens with any particular foods). I'm keeping in mind some of the night terror distraction techniques as well, so I have a few things to try next time. I will also raise this with our GP and perhaps get a referral to a paediatrician - although I'll do this when I have a few more concrete things to say about how often it happens etc.

I marked a couple of answers that I think are most likely the case for me, but really appreciate every response.
posted by fever-trees at 3:36 AM on September 25, 2013


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