My daughter has nightmares at the age of 2?

Question

My 2 yr old daughter has been having trouble sleeping. My pediatrician said it's nothing to worry about. She has been a different child since she had surgery in march. She had tubes put in her ears and her tonsils and adnoids removed. She was sleeping in her crib after she came home. She started waking up in the middle of the night screaming "i want my mommy" and "No let me go" the only way i could calm her down was to lay next to her in my bed or hold her til she fell back asleep. I've watched her sleep and some nights she sleeps like a log and other's she is kicking and she is fighting and crying in her sleep the doctor told me that they had to physically hold her down when they put her to sleep so the last thing she saw was them holding her down and putting the mask over her face. How do i help the nightmares to stop? How can i help her sleep through the night? she sleeps with me while we stay at my mom's but when we are at home she sleeps in her own bed. please help?

Answer 1

i know this is so tough .. well what comes to my mind is that you can bring a doctor play set and just put them without opening them in the living room .. she will ask you what are those and you will tell her that those are things that doctors use to remove germs and illness from babies body ... after that .. now when she open it tell her about each piece and what dose the doctor do with it .. what you are trying to do is to make her familiar with the idea of hospital and doctors and such things .. maybe later you should take her for a visit to the hospital just take her on a tour and tell her that those people hurts and that doctors treat them .. and she was sick too but the doctor take the sickness away of her body .. try to find the doctor that mad her surgery and try to go there and thank him ... he of course will be nice with her " i advice also if you can get her a present and ask the doctor to give it to her " this way her fear of the whole thing will go away and with it hopefully all of her nightmares  

Answer 2

Aw, I hate hearing about kids who have night terrors so young.  Do they normally occur within the 3rd hour of her going to sleep?  I know some pedi's will recommend waking the child slightly around the time they would normally have these night terrors.  They also say the child is still sleeping and you should wake them or restrict them from moving as they may hurt themselves more...I would definitely voice your concern to her pediatrician to see what they suggest.  

Answer 3

about an hour or two before she goes to sleep have it be calm down time. turn the lights out or on low not to much playing or wrestling (i have a son and he like to wrestle i dont know if little girls do too)

maybe watch some tv or listen to the radio or read take her a bath and lay her down.

i notice that when my husband and my son wrestle before bed he gets bad dreams or if he is playing and the lights are all on and the tv is going. but if i start to have "calm down time" before bed i notice he sleeps better.

it also happened with my son when he started daycare it was a hard time for him and he would have bad dreams. so it could be somthing thats changing too just help her with the transition.

i hope this helped