Night Terrors

When I was a wee lad I used to have very terrible nightmares. My dad to remedy this gave me an Indian dream catcher. He told me that it would capture all of my bad dreams and leave me only with good dreams. Now seeing as how I was 5 or 6, I believed him completely, and quite frankly it's worked wonders! I never had a problem with nightmares again, and was able to sleep peacefully. Even though  I know there is nothing magical about that dream catcher, I've always had it hanging above my bed, just to remember that experience with my own dad. Now that I'm a father I look towards some of the things that my father did for us, and how I can apply them to my own child.

Lately our son has been having night terrors, or at least what we can assume is night terrors. He usually is such a good sleeper, he goes to sleep easy, and sleeps all night long much to the relief of his parents. But in more recent weeks, he has been waking up an hour after going to sleep absolutely hysterical. He usually sits up and just cries and cries, and when we get him he acts more relieved to be out of his room, than not having to go to sleep. We know and have heard that children around his age can start experiencing night terrrors, and we don't know how to help him, aside from picking him up, comforting him, and putting him back to bed. Some nights its gotten to the point where he's had to come into bed with us, and anyone who has had a 6 month old in bed with them knows that it isn't a pleasant experience.

So that leaves us with what to do? We don't know what to do for him for night terrors, we are most likely going to keep doing what we're doing and hope that he grows out of it eventually. One thing I know for sure is that when he gets old enough to talk and understand certain concepts, I'm going to pass on that old dream catcher and let him know that as long as he has it, no bad dreams will come. It makes me happy to know that I can start that tradition, and pass on that dream catcher that I've treasured so much. To anyone thats reading, let me know what experiences you've had with children and night terrors, and what solutions you have come up with.