Well, that was creepy.

[rivka]

Alex continues to have a cold, and last night we stretched her bedtime a little later than was optimal. At first she seemed to go right down, but after about half an hour she woke and cried. I went upstairs to settle her. A few minutes after that, she woke and cried again. She seemed exhausted, but unable to stay asleep.

I decided that maybe her congestion was worse lying down, and that perhaps a dose of cold medicine (antihistimine + cough suppressant) would relieve the symptoms enough to allow her to fall into a deeper sleep. So I gave her a dose, and rocked her for a few minutes, and put her back into bed.

The next five hours were a nightmare.

Alex would sleep for 10-30 minutes. Then she'd start to whimper fretfully, quickly escalating to crying and... what I can only describe as howling: intense repeated vocalizations of "waah! waah!" - as a word, not actual sobs. We'd go into her room and her eyes would be shut. She'd thrash her arms or, in the worst episodes, roll her body vigorously back and forth. She wouldn't respond when we spoke to her. She couldn't say what she needed. Touch seemed to help, especially holding her in the rocking chair. When we'd do that, she'd slowly calm down and fall into a deeper sleep, without ever waking up all the way and being lucid.

I slept in her room so I could attend to her. Eventually, after 1:30am, she fell into a deep sleep, waking only one more time at 4am to use the potty. This morning she remembered none of it.

The only thing I can think of is that she had a weird adverse reaction to the cold medicine. Somewhere out there her pediatrician is saying "I told you so." The last time we saw him, he said that we shouldn't be using cold medicines because they're not proven to work in children and the risks outweigh the benefits... but we've still sometimes used an antihistamine at night to help relieve her symptoms so she can sleep. Um. I guess that didn't work, huh?

Comments

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

It sounds very much like Night Terrors, which Casper has had from time to time (without the benefit of cold medicine.) I have read that Night Terrors are more common when the child has a fever and/or is overtired (and my experience bears this out), both of which were probably the case for Alex last night.

So maybe it's a coincidence? But not worth trying medicine tomorrow night to find out!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Maybe so. If it had only happened once, I definitely would've thought it was a night terror. But fifteen night terrors in the space of five hours? I've never heard of them being so frequent.

Poor kid.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Poor kid, indeed! It sounds like night terrors to me, too. My boys had them from time to time, too. The meds might have kept her dopey enough that she kept falling into them.

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. My sympathies to you both.

We are discovering much the same problem ourselves, although it has different symptoms. Although he hadn't had a problem with OTC cold meds, this week, when we gave him cough meds it was an unpleasant experience. He's was so itchy he had trouble sleeping, but he was too dopey to fully wake up and tell us the problem so he would wail and flail in his sleep until be found the itchy spot and he would settle back down for a bit. In addition he was loopy--half asleep/half awake, talking to himself, not let us get any good sleep. The cold meds are getting pitched out the window and I'm looking up more traditional methods to relieve his symptoms.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

The cold meds are getting pitched out the window and I'm looking up more traditional methods to relieve his symptoms.

I remember her pediatrician telling me, as part of the no-cold-medicines lecture, "If she coughs so hard that she throws up, well, then she just needs to throw up." That's not something any parent wants to hear.

Do you use a warm-mist humidifier? I swear by those for coughs. The cold-mist ones are, in my opinion, worthless.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

That sounds awful. Having been through a few nights of night terrors, I can't imagine having something similar last so long. When I was a kid, most of my sleepwalking episodes were when I was so tired that I couldn't wake up, but had to go to the bathroom or something. My mom also suspected that they were related to my asthma meds, which messed with my sleep something awful. Here's hoping for a more peaceful night tonight.

:-(

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

I hadn't actually thought of a humidifier but that's a great idea. Especially since the heater destroys any moisture in the air (TMI--I wake up with a nosebleed every morning in the winter).

Warm mist, you say? I will look into that.

We use a vaporizer for decongestion and it works really really well. Has little pads that insert in front of a fan.

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

I always feel that people who say things like that can't possibly have any kids, even thought I know it's not true. And since I take meds to relieve my symptoms when I'm sick, it seems so unfair that I can't make him more comfortable.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

we used a mentholatum (Vick's) plaster for my boys, covered by a piece of flannel. Sometimes, just a little dab of vick's under the nose. Here's an article about home remedies: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977234935

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Her pediatrician actually has two kids under the age of ten, which is kind of nice. (For example, when she was a newborn he referred us to the lactation consultant his wife used.)

I feel the same way about meds. I think he'd tell me that I am free to use as many of them as I want because they're proven to work in adults like me. Sigh.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

This (http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-1247628-3694257?ASIN=B000ILFPVA&AFID=Froogle&LNM=B000ILFPVA|Vicks_Warm_Mist_Humidifier__V745A&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=B000ILFPVA&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001) is what we have.

And now I will stop spamming you with comments.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

That's what my Mom did for me growing up. Works very well!

N.

[erbie.livejournal.com]

I've heard from several mamas that putting it on the soles of the feet helps relieve a cough. Don't know why it works, but I plan to try it next time one of the kids has a cough.

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

No, no, please! Any parenting help is welcome. :) I've marked the humidifier and plan on snagging one when we are next at target. Anything to help the babe sleep better.

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

I have bad dreams/nightmares when I'm too hot and my heart is beating hard already. It's like my brain says, "hey, you wanna sweat? I'll give you something to sweat about."

It makes sense that if she had cold medicine in her, which was helping her sleep, that she'd have trouble waking up out of a nightmare.

The best thing anybody did for me about bad dreams was teach me that they were just in my head and I could, even when asleep, control them. Defeat the monster or open a chasm in front of it that it would fall into, for example. I know nothing of child development so I don't know if she's too young to take ahold of that concept and use it, but if she starts remembering bad dreams you might try some version of that she can understand.

Watching a child have a night terror/nightmare has to be really hard on momma. Hugs to you.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Alex (and poor you, too - it sounsd as if *nobody* is getting much sleep right now). I can empathize with her - I get a grownup version of that same kind of reaction when I take Nyquil, which is to say everything but the crying, and godawful fever dreams to boot.

I suspect this goes against all modern pediatric advice, but my mother used to give us a tablespoon of honey mixed with lemon juice and bourbon when we were sick and unable to sleep. As she used to tell it, it worked remarkably well (I suspect the booze is just enough to act as a light sedative without all the weird-making effects of more powerful drugs).

[kate_nepveu]

. . . at least she doesn't remember any of it?

Yeah.

Man, that must have be awful.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Poor you -- she doesn't remember! I had night terrors until I bought this condo and I think they stopped here because it's when I finally told my father I was an atheist. I used to wake up from the night terrors standing at the lightswitch, having just turned on the light to make sure the monsters weren't there.

I woke up twice last night coughing and had water from the bottle by the bed. I'm chronically dehydrated and sometimes I don't get enough fluid in the day to get through the night. You're probably careful she stays hydrated.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sounds like night terrors. Delia used to get them whenever she was feverish. They can be very scary and distressing to watch, and you feel so frustrated because you can't seem to comfort your child.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

My mom always rubbed it on my chest, then covered it with a kleenex so it wouldn't get on my nightgown.