 | Wow! It's great to read what everyone has said about these. It was so helpful to me that I thought I should bring it back to the forefront again. Alana is 3 and 1/2, and has been doing this for a couple of years--waking up hysterical, hitting herself in the face, throwing herself around, calling for family members then rejecting them when they come to her, rubbing her feet together until the skin on the tops is rubbed off.
I noticed this happens more often if she has sweets anytime in the evening, and she usually doesn't get much of these. Also, if she's overly tired when she goes to sleep, it's more likely to happen. She does appear to be awake, but it seems we can't reach her to soothe or help her. What I mostly do for her is keep her from hurting herself by holding her feet away from each other, and keeping her from pulling her hair, hitting herself or banging her head on things. I talk gently to her and once in a while this helps after a long time. If I leave her alone a bit she seems to wake herself up enough to allow me to hold her after that.
She's normally a mama's girl and very sweet and loving. She is my fourth child, and although my 2 boys have ADHD and OCD, I don't see many behavior problems with her. I always figured she would just grow out of these fits, as I have seen so many issues come and go with my other kids. This does tend to disrupt their sleep though, which is a problem since they are school age.
I have learned through the years that the best way for parents to deal with almost any problem that comes up is lovingly and with compassion. We should put this on as our auto-response mode. Kids do much better that way, and grow into being loving, intelligent beings, well adjusted and well-liked. |
PREVIOUS DISCUSSION