FOR MOEBIUS MOMS AND DADS: DOES YOUR CHILD HAVE NIGHT TERRORS? SOME ADVICE

This actually comes from an advice column in the Washington Post.  Now the family involved in this exchange does NOT have a child with Moebius Syndrome.  However, as many of you know, having night terrors is sometimes, though not always, associated with Moebius, and so I think all the information we can get on it is beneficial.  So read on, and see what kind of a situation developed here, and what advice is given:

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WHAT TO DO FOR A CHILD WITH NIGHT TERRORS

by Marguerite Kelly

By Marguerite Kelly,

Question: My daughter and I are exhausted. She and her 5-year-old son live with me, and his night terrors have worn us out.

My grandson went to sleep easily and in his own bed until he was 2 years old, then he started getting up two to three hours later and climbing into bed with his mother or me. Although he is clearly asleep when he does that, his eyes are wide open, and he doesn’t know where he is or who we are. He also mutters unintelligible things to himself, and sometimes he has night terrors, just as my older daughter did as a child.

We bring him back to his own bed afterward, which is difficult to do without waking him up, but he often has another episode later in the night and we have to go through the same routine.
His bedroom, which is quiet and dark, has a soft-white-noise machine and a blue light on his humidifier and no TV, so I thought it would be a perfect place for him to sleep. Any advice?

Answer: Almost all children have dreams, and some of them have nightmares. Only about 1 to 6 percent of children have night terrors. But about 80 percent of children who have night terrors have relatives who had a similar problem. The issue usually starts when the child is 3¹ / ₂ and tapers off around 5. It will usually stop completely, without any help from anybody, when they’re about 12.
No one really knows why children develop the problem, but some say it’s due to an immature central nervous system, stress or exhaustion, low blood sugar or even a late dinner.
Although night terrors are often confused with nightmares, these two things have different symptoms and causes, and they happen at different times in the night.
The start time of night terrors varies from one report to the next but is usually in the early part of the evening.
Whether your dear grandson takes one minute or 30 minutes to get through his night terrors, it must be so painful to hear him scream in fear, act confused and disoriented and look at the people he loves without knowing who they are. Night terrors make even a quiet child become intense, dramatic and almost demonic, and they make his heart race, his breathing go into overdrive and his body get drenched with sweat.
As tempting as it is, this is no time to wake up your grandson. It’s much better to turn the lights low and tell him, softly and gently that everything is really all right. Keep saying that until he calms down and you can take him back to his own bed.
Although he’ll fall asleep after this episode, it may leave you and your daughter quaking with worry. This is truly unnecessary, because night terrors are seldom a medical or psychological problem. You can always take him to the pediatrician for a quick checkup, and you can do everyone a favor by taking turns with your daughter in the care of your grandson. If your daughter takes care of him one night, you will have more to give him the next night when it’s your turn.
To learn more about sleep, dreams, nightmares and night terrors, read “Sleep,” edited by Rachel Y. Moon, M.D. ($17), a fine book published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and go to the National Institutes of Health site www.medlineplus.com to read about the latest sleep studies.

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