Traumatized after hospital stay

EnJ2005

Hi Everyone

My son is 17 months old and was admitted for one night on Jan 19th for what they say is asthma. Unfortunately the whole hopsital stay was traumatic for him. From nurses interrupting his sleep to nurses taking vital signs and to top it off they stuck him many times trying to find an IV site. 

He is better now, but his sleep patterns have completely changed. Before the hospital stay I had no trouble with putting him to sleep at night and for the most part he was sleeping through the night. However now he cries bloody murder when I put him to bed and he wakes up several times during the night crying. Im thinking he might be having nightmares. But its almost three weeks now. 

When will this get better. He also seems to have developed a temper.

Any advice please

bncmommy

I don't have any advice but I just wanted to say I'm sorry that you're going through this. I'm sure over time, things will get better. Hang in there!

saraboston

Maybe a different bedtime routine would help some. What are you doing now?

smerka

My 17 month old is doing the same thing and hasn't been to the hospital.  I really hope it's a stage.

EnJ2005

LoisLane23- I'm not blaming the hospital. Im a registered nurse and understand they are doing their job. But Im just pointing out the reasons why he had a traumatic hospital stay. It was very hard on the little guy

SuperThat1006

I'm so sorry you and your son have gone through this.

I haven't experienced anything like this, but my advice to you would be to forget technical advice and just comfort him. He had a very scary experience and probably just needs reassurance.

Once the edge wears off, if you need to do some sort of sleep training, look into it then. For now, though, he probably just needs his mommy (or daddy).

J+MS

LoisLane23:

I'm sorry your son is having sleeping troubles, but I sincerely hope you are not blaming the hospital for doing their job. They are required to check vitals and provide treatment, even throughout the night.

it didn't sound to ms like she was blaming anyone.

argonne

I really don't have any advice.  I'm just sorry you and your son are going through this.  Hoping it's one of those things that settles out over time.

AmericanInOz

I understand

my dd spent a week in the hospital when she was 14 months old and it was quite traumatic for her too

she has a bunny that she used to only have for sleep time, but ever since the hospital stay she now carries it with her 24/7 for comfort any time she needs it (she's 19 months old now)

does he accept any sort of comforter like that? might be good for him to cuddle up to it in the night when he wakes and is scared/upset

I think all you can really do though is keep a consistent bedtime routine and eventually he'll settle back into it

good luck

SpiderSpray

I'm so sorry you guys are going through this. When my son had a tough illness, at home, it was at its worst at night, which caused him to associate going to bed with pain/sickness. He would scream like he was on fire when we just started walking him into his room at night - it was heartbreaking.

Honestly the only thing we could do was to show him he was safe and okay. If that meant I had to comfort him for 30 solid minutes to calm down before bed time, that's what we did. I was hyper-sensitive to him in regards to this fear, and it all but vanished in about a week. We would make a point to play in his room during the day more, too, to show that it was not a scary thing. I know I might get flamed for this advice, but if you truly feel he went through a traumatic event, what about sleeping in his room one or two nights? Even if you have to sleep on the floor, the instant comfort will quickly break the scary assocation that night time = pain and fear. I know at least for ds, he didn't become dependent on the comfort I was providing and was back to being my awesome little sleeper very soon.

 Lots of luck headed your way - I know it's so tough, but it sounds like you're already halfway there just by being so tuned in to what he needs. 

mrsjengle

My DD spent 8 days in the hospital when she was 7 months old. Obvisouly her sleep patterns have changed since then, but we experienced the same thing. We just toughed it out until she returned to "normal" although there were some changes like how much snuggling she needed.

Draba123

We're going through the same thing right now.  We brought DS to the ER two weeks ago around midnight for croup (he also has asthma so croup is doubly scary for us).  He was released at around 5am and he hasn't slept well since that night and acts like he's terrified if we set him down in his crib and try to leave the room.  I'm hoping that he gets back to normal soon because he has always been an awesome sleeper.