dd1 (nearly three) crying in the night - help pls

[harpsichordcarrier]

For the last few nights, DD1 has been waking up crying several times a night. She is not always completely awake, but just takes some cuddles to get her back to sleep.
She won't tell us why she is crying, either at he time or in the morning. I don't think she's having bad dreams - she's not normally prone to them, but when in the past she has been scared by them she will tell us "the crocodiles were coming" or whatever. Could she be embarrassed to tell us?
The only thing I can think of is that in the past week she has become entirely potty trained during the day. It has been trouble free and stress free but the only thing I can think of is that she is waking herself up needing to wee.
any help\experience\advice appreciated.
tia
HC

[bakedpotato]

does she have a nightlight?

[harpsichordcarrier]

no she doesn't bakedpotato, she has always slept in the dark. last night we left the radio on to see if that would help. maybe we could try a light.

[collision]

I would put it down to a bad dream myself. This happened to ds for a while and also if he got too hot so I changed the tog on his quilt and he sleeps thru now.

[overdraft]

Worms maybe?

[harpsichordcarrier]

she has always been such a good sleeper. I asked just now if she had a bad dream and she said no it was a nice dream with foxes and badgers and trees...
but I suspect she can't really remember.

[hana]

this sometimes happens to our 4 year old - happened last night, she never really wakes up completely enough to tell me what's wrong, I usually settle her back in bed with a cuddle and some strokes and she's fine. Never remembers it in the morning. This happens maybe once a week? But I've not given it much thought, think a lot of young children wake up crying , they must have bad dreams same as we do. (she has the dimmer light on the lowest point and also shares a room with her little sister)
hth

[harpsichordcarrier]

worms?????
eek.
what would be the symptoms of worms?

[juliab]

My ds3 does the same, HH, and I've been wondering about the wee-ing thing, too (he's also recently potty-trained)
He did actually say 'need wee' last night, so maybe there's something in it...
Don't have a solution, though, I'm afraid- hope someone else has!

[harpsichordcarrier]

that's reassuring hana. just normal then? I was worried it was the potty training.

[collision]

my ds is 4 too

[Feistybird]

This has just recently stopped with my 3yo and as she generally slep on her front with her arms tucked under her, I put it down to pins and needles, as she could/would never tell me what the problem was either!

Very frustrating as she would go fairly instantly back to slepp, while I lay awake for the next hour!

[bakedpotato]

I asked about the nightlight bcs DD also slept in pitch dark until sometime between 2-3 (can't remember when, mists of time).
Suddenly, most uncharacteristically, started fussing at bedtime and crying at night.
Tried nightlight: bam, problem solved
Think it's linked to a developmental leap: imaginations take off around this point, they get scared of the dark

[overdraft]

sometimes if a child has worms they wake at night.Worms are active at night when they come down to lay their eggs.Check dds poos you can sometimes see them.Sorry don't mean to worry you just maybe be a reason

[harpsichordcarrier]

Oh I see them alright overdraft.... will have a look next time.
thanks for all your replies. will try the night light thing and hope it settles down. good to hear it is not uncommon

[Lio]

Have also been reading this thread as ds (2.5) gets this sometimes but crying and crying, needs to be 'snapped' out of it, spoken to very loudly or a video put on before he can 'come to'. We have been assuming it IS bad dreams, but he's not very communicative. Anyway, I shall keep tabs on this and see what happens. Btw, we are FAR from potty training...

[juliab]

Ok, I have found out this - from a sleep expert's book. I'm paraphrasing a bit...
There are a group of sleep disturbances called parasomnias that commonly affect young children for short phases.
These include sleep starts, sleep talking, sleep terrors and confusional arousals.
They are all different kinds of partial awakenings - the child is neither awake or asleep (even though he/she may speak or move about) and cannot remember the episode the next day.
All you can do is reassure and cuddle until they settle back EXCEPT with sleep terrors (where you child looks completely terrified and is probably screaming) when it's best to wait till he/she's calmed down.
Does that help?

[harpsichordcarrier]

thanks juliasb that is really helpful
HC

[juliab]

[harpsichordcarrier]

sorry I don't know where that rogue "s" came from

[juliab]

probably the sleep deprivation

[lucykate]

our dd has spells of doing the same, she's 4. atm she is sleeping with a light on in her room and it does help. i've switched it off once recently and she woke up crying again. we've talked to her about whats upsetting her and eventually she linked it to being scared by wallace & gromit, 'curse of the were rabbit', but this was after she told me she couldn't tell me what she was scared of, i was worried sick about it.

currently the offending dvd is with grandma for safe keeping, which dd is happier about.

i think kids do go through fazes of waking and being upset as its happened a few times in the past too, those times for no apparent reason.