Anyone who has a child that has night terrors knows the struggle is real! I remember when it all started we sat there while Kai was crying and absolutely inconsolable and thrashing about and we had no idea what to do. So of course we did what everyone does when you are at a loss of ideas... turned to google. When all the suggestions we found on Google either failed or were rejected for not being in alignment with us we were once again at a loss of what to do so I turned to my moms groups! The wise ones who tend to have an answer for just about everything!
To my surprise there weren't a lot of responses but the few that I did get were wonderfully helpful! So I am here to pass on all this useful knowledge!
First cosleeping, but of course this wasn't new to us as we have coslept since he was born. Sleeping next to us and being able to feel us through the night is soothing thus lowering the possibility of having one of those terrible night terrors.
Second, clothes and or blankets. So since Kai absolutely refuses to be under any blanket when he's sleeping we decided clothes were the answer. So every night we put him in a nice soft fresh pair of jam jams.
Third is to give him something that smells like me for him to cuddle while he sleeps, but just like his distaste for blankets he also doesn't like to snuggle things while he sleeps so I figured I would dab on some pine oil around his chest just before bed time. Pine is my signature scent. I pretty much want to smell like Christmas all the time lol.
My fourth tip came right from one of our fellow steemians and one of my dear friends @artemislives which was magnesium spray. Oh and not only did she give me the tip but she so generously gifted us a couple bottles from her sensational Thai naturals product line! Now every night before bed along with our pine dabs we spray a few sprays of magnesium on his back and massage it in... side note he really LOVES his massages too which could also be helping.
Ok so before starting all this we were having about 2 night terrors a night and they would last a solid 15-30 minutes followed by a terrified little boy who so desperately didn't want to fall back asleep the rest of the night which meant lots of nursing and bouncing. Eeeeek!
We started doing all these things pretty much at the same time and have found a drastic change! He now only has a night terror maybe once a week! AND those nights are usually nights where we have forgotten to do one of the above steps leaving me to conclude that we found the magical recipe to end night terrors! A big thanx to all the mamas who helped us all have better nights!