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night terrors????

@MrsADS: I think night terrors are more upsetting to kids

Here is a good resource
http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/terrors.html

During a night terror, a child might suddenly sit upright in bed and shout out or scream in distress. The child's breathing and heartbeat might be faster, he or she might sweat, thrash around, and act upset and scared. After a few minutes, or sometimes longer, a child simply calms down and returns to sleep.

Unlike nightmares, which kids often remember, kids won't have any memory of a night terror the next day because they were in deep sleep when it happened — and there are no mental images to recall.

@MrsADS: Some accounts do say it can lasts hours? I am so sorry, sounds so hard....Did you bring it up with Dr?

commiseration over here. Our 16 month old is suddenly waking in the middle of the night/early morning and having trouble settling back to sleep. 3 days in a row she was up at 4 and was so wiggly/restless that I'm not sure she ever went back to sleep, although I was drifting in and out with catnaps. Not cool when I have to be up at 5:45 am for work. = / She's also very fussy during the day, not eating well, generally cranky.

I first suspected ears but now I think maybe it's just bad teething. She has all 4 canines coming through now--one is just barely breaking through, one is super bulged out and the other two are swollen as well.

I keep telling myself one day I will sleep.

I would say it is probably teeth. We had similar with molars. Have you tried a pain reliever? Advil?---- derp I just saw you said you did.

My 15 month old is getting molars and a canine and he's done that a couple of times in the past week. I gave him some advil but I think he was so worked up at that point it was hard to notice if it helped. Hang in there!!

T is pretty good at sleeping through the night. And he really likes his sleep. So when he is woken up, either by O, teeth, a cold, or who knows what, he wakes up screaming and so so angry. The only thing that helps is turning on the light and distracting him. This is totally the wrong answer, but we have resorted to sitting with him on the couch and watching TV. We keep the TV quiet and turn something really boring on (not a kids show). He usually will eventually drift back to sleep and we can carefully turn the TV off and get him back to bed at that point. I'm embarrassed to say we use this, but if he screams for hours he will wake up O and she doesn't sleep well anyway! So we get desperate. Luckily it doesn't happen often. He's 16 months as well, fyi.

It seems like maybe you're not into the idea of orajel since I see that it hasn't been mentioned. But, maybe try it once just to see if it does the trick to calm him down? The real stuff, not the natural one. That way you know if it's teething or not. For us, every time we suspected teething he would wake up screaming and we'd rub a small dot on his gums (like a sesame seeds worth on each side) and he'd pass right back out and sleep the rest of the night.
I know it's controversial...but it's also kinda magical. The odds are just so super low of something happening (it's somewhere around 25 cases per year). I just can't believe that something could be so overwhelmingly dangerous and still be on the market for teething babies.
Anyway, we all make choices every day that others might say are too risky. So, maybe this is something you would say is too risky. Just offering another idea, I'm not offended if it's not for you.

@MrsADS: I wouldn't think T would have fallen asleep on us on the couch either but he does. The transfer back to crib is hard, but he is usually tired enough that we can do it carefully. It's not ideal, but when we are desperate it does seem to help. He sleeps so well most of the time that I am not too worried about a bit of TV here and there to distract him from his tantrum.

I know someone mentioned night terrors. It's something we've thought of with T too because of how hard to console he is. My brother had them when I was old enough to remember. He truly never woke up though, and you couldn't distract him by turning on the light. I think sometimes with T it might be a bad dream that wakes him up screaming, but then he is awake and can be consoled (as long as you turn the light on and stop trying to get him back to sleep).

@MrsADS: Good luck! I'll be thinking good sleeping thoughts for you over here. We seem to alternate-when O has a good night, T is up screaming. When T has a good night, O is up like 10 times throughout the night. We are both pretty exhausted these days, and there's no end in sight.

@MrsADS: I am so sorry!

@MrsADS: teething sucks for some I can't help ya with CIO as I can't do it.....lol

I feel you on worrying that in his tantruming state that he might injure himself in the crib. In this scenario, we let him work through some of his upset in the playpen (soft sides, pulled into the middle of the dimly lit living room) for a little bit. Once he calms down, we pick him up to soothe and start the last part of his bedtime routine. If he freaks out, he goes back into the playpen. It sometimes takes a few cycles, but doesn't usually last more than an hour. I think whatever you choose, be consistent so he doesn't end of thinking the tantrum will be rewarded if he carries on long enough. For teething, we sometimes offer really cold water in a sippy, which he prefers to most teethers.

@MrsADS: just thought I'd commiserate...T went down easily at 7, woke at 10 screaming his head off. Was awake and screaming most of the time until midnight, slept till 3:30, then woke screaming again. That was 10 min ago. I'm guessing if he does go back to sleep it won't be in his crib. And O is in bed with me already because she couldn't sleep through his last tantrum. So he's on the couch now with DW. Not a good night.

@MrsADS: we've been going through this lately with my 2.5yo. It's awful and if he weren't in preschool 3 mornings a week, I'd go crazy. I'm pretty convinced it's digestive issues with him. We went to the pediatrician today and she suggested trying to cut out fructose (basically the FODMAP diet). I hope you figure something out soon! I'd suggest trying to see a naturopath, we're seeing one tomorrow.

Also, we tried CIO for 2 nights last week and it was a disaster. Currently when he wakes up we either lie on his floor holding his hand through the crib, or I take him to sleep with me on the spare bed.

@MrsADS: I'm sorry to hear this is still going on. What does his nap schedule look like?