There's no worse feeling than not being able to comfort your child whent they're in pain. Most days, my hugs and kisses are plenty enough to get him through. But last night, I was at a loss.
It's happened before. He wakes up in the middle of the night screaming bloody hell like someone's cutting him to pieces. It started about a year ago, and at first, we thought they were night tremors. We started becoming more conscious about not letting him watch anything that could potentially give him any "bad dreams". We tried getting him to sleep earlier after a long, warm bath. Some days, it seemed like it worked. But every once in a while, the screaming would come back.
He doesn't even seem awake when he does it. He just screams and screams and screams. It wasn't a scream for attention, he was screaming because of pain. I've thought about running him to the Emergency room a few times, just because I didn't know how else to help him.
For the past six months or so, he's finally been able to point at what's hurting him... and every time, he points at his legs... both legs. Sometimes, the knees. Other times, his shins. Most times, it's all over. I thought maybe he just lays on them wrong (he moves around a lot) and gets a "charlie horse" or his legs fall asleep. Massaging it helps very little, and he would scream for at least half and hour if not longer until he finally gets tired. The next morning, everything is back to normal. We can't even ask him when he's lucid about where the pain was, because he doesn't even remember he'd been up for hours crying the night before.
So it happened again last night. At 11pm. 12am. 3am. 4am. Mike and I took turns trying to comfort him but nothing seemed to work. He lays there and kicks, sits up and cries with his eyes closed, lay back down to do the some cycle over. I finally gave him some tylenol around midnight, which helped him (all of us, really) get a little more sleep before the next episode.
I've been told that they're probably "growing pains". A simple google search for "toddler leg pains" reigned hundreds of threads from same worried moms with the same problems. They all suggest warm baths before bed, massage with bengay, warm blankets, more bananas. But I'm not one to take chances when it comes to my son's health, so I'm taking him to his pediatrician on Friday.
I hope we find something that works soon though. I can't stand just watching him cry himself back to sleep.
It's happened before. He wakes up in the middle of the night screaming bloody hell like someone's cutting him to pieces. It started about a year ago, and at first, we thought they were night tremors. We started becoming more conscious about not letting him watch anything that could potentially give him any "bad dreams". We tried getting him to sleep earlier after a long, warm bath. Some days, it seemed like it worked. But every once in a while, the screaming would come back.
He doesn't even seem awake when he does it. He just screams and screams and screams. It wasn't a scream for attention, he was screaming because of pain. I've thought about running him to the Emergency room a few times, just because I didn't know how else to help him.
For the past six months or so, he's finally been able to point at what's hurting him... and every time, he points at his legs... both legs. Sometimes, the knees. Other times, his shins. Most times, it's all over. I thought maybe he just lays on them wrong (he moves around a lot) and gets a "charlie horse" or his legs fall asleep. Massaging it helps very little, and he would scream for at least half and hour if not longer until he finally gets tired. The next morning, everything is back to normal. We can't even ask him when he's lucid about where the pain was, because he doesn't even remember he'd been up for hours crying the night before.
So it happened again last night. At 11pm. 12am. 3am. 4am. Mike and I took turns trying to comfort him but nothing seemed to work. He lays there and kicks, sits up and cries with his eyes closed, lay back down to do the some cycle over. I finally gave him some tylenol around midnight, which helped him (all of us, really) get a little more sleep before the next episode.
I've been told that they're probably "growing pains". A simple google search for "toddler leg pains" reigned hundreds of threads from same worried moms with the same problems. They all suggest warm baths before bed, massage with bengay, warm blankets, more bananas. But I'm not one to take chances when it comes to my son's health, so I'm taking him to his pediatrician on Friday.
I hope we find something that works soon though. I can't stand just watching him cry himself back to sleep.
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