Anyone have experience with Night Terrors?

BusyBeeMommy

Wed, Feb 02 2011, 9:30 pm

Wow my DD just had the 2nd night terror this week and she's been having them often lately. I was about to start a topic about it when I noticed this! She does have a lot of food coloring and MSG because of all the junk they give out in school. I'd love to eliminate it but how do you do that with a junk-addicted 4 year old who is given tons of junk in school???

aidelmaidel

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 9:51 am

BusyBeeMommy wrote:

We told the teachers that we needed to stop giving her these things and gave them a list of what is okay and what isn't.

NOT OKAY:
super snacks
bissli
any flavored popcorn or potato chip (ketchup, BBQ, Falafel, Pizza, onion, etc)
anything that says MSG, yeast, etc. (see list above)
anything colored: Red, orange, pink, purple, and blue (unless the package explicitly states no artificial dye)
some chocolates (they sometimes have red dye in them YUCK!)

OKAY:
plain potato chips
plain popcorn
plain pretzels
bamba (not the strawberry one, it has red dye)
anything flavored yellow or green is usually okay
most chocolates

In the beginning I was madayek, but now I don't make a huge deal about winkies or sprinkles.

I brought a big package of apple juice boxes and several bags of "okay snacks" that the teachers could give to her instead of whatever they were giving out. I also give a large bag of dye-free lollipops (yummy earth) for my child to have when the teacher gave out other nosh.

At the beginning of the school year I give the teacher a list and I also ask the teachers if they could send a note home at the beginning asking that if you are sending nosh for shabbos party could you please send one bag of "plain" nosh (see above) for my child. Most of the time parents are accommodating and if not, the teachers had their stash.

BusyBeeMommy

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 6:47 pm

I'm going to try taking her to the bathroom tonight. She was up screaming 4 times last night complaining about leg pain however this morning she said that all is fine.

Aidelmom, I threw out all the stuff we have in the house with MSG and red food dye but it will be impossible in school. They have shabbos party every Friday and a birthday part averaging once every two weeks. My daughter is a HUGE nosh-aholic and she will manage to somehow get her hands on the stuff. Also, she will not accept not having a nosh that all the other kids have. She is a determined personality that will fight to get her way, not the type to cooperate because I tell her the junk makes her feel bad.

aidelmaidel

Fri, Feb 04 2011, 6:07 am

If your child is experiencing leg pain, please have her seen by a doctor.

While probably nothing, night leg pain can be caused by a number of things from growing pains to restless leg syndrome. Its worthwhile to just have her checked.

Our school shabbos party is broken up into individual bags of: shabbos abba brings grapejuice and a shehakol snack, shabbos imma brings a mezonos snack and a haadama snack. In our community the haadama is almost always popcorn or chips.

3mitzvos

Fri, Feb 04 2011, 9:06 am

Wow, so this is why my dd wakes up every night at around 11 screaming and crying!!!! Talking to her and especially touching her seems to make it worse... My husband and I were at our wits' ends trying to figure out what was wrong! Well, at least now I know what it is and we can try to prevent them from happening.

laylay1

Sun, Feb 06 2011, 6:18 pm

About the leg pain - I had an interesting thing with my 3 year old. she would wake writhing in pain night after night- we took her to doctors we took blood tests, xrays, and an MRI but nothing was found.
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finally one dr figured out it was because she is double jointed between the ages of 3 and 6 the loose joints can cause extreme night muscle pain (if the pain is only at night this can be it) the treatment is wearing very supportive high top shoes and a dose of motrin. they usually outgrow it by 6 or 7.

BusyBeeMommy

Sun, Feb 06 2011, 7:54 pm

Interesting about the leg pain. I will keep it mind if it happens again, but BH DD slept last night without waking us. She did cry once but she did not carry on and did not come to wake us. Hopefully this will continue.

I also want to point out that I think I read in "What to Expect - the Toddler Years" that night terrors can also come when a child is not receiving adequate sleep and when they go to sleep too late.

proud_mama

Mon, Feb 07 2011, 8:37 pm

omg, I still remember when I was growing up, my brother would wake up very often in middle of the night screaming. Everynight it was different things, sometimes he would yell about a dog, sometimes yell that someone is trying to get him, about nazis... My father would hold his hand, walk him out of bed to his study, sit him down and say hamapil with him and then walk him back to bed, usually by the time he got back into bed, he was calmed down and would sleep for the rest of the night. It went on for a couple of years when he was around 8-9 years old.