: Baby screaming every night with fit in his mouth My 6 month old baby has been doing this 3 nights in a row. He suddenly wakes up screaming. Holding him doesn't help, he keeps moving his header right and left, ignoring me.

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Though my experience with it started when my daughter was around 3, what you are experiencing sounds about the same. It could be night terrors. We call it "lights on but nobody home". My daughter will wake up screaming for mommy and won't recognize myself or my husband, and thrashing or pushing things away in the air. Now we found pretty much our trigger and that is her having to go to the bathroom. What we think is happening is she is partially awakened by the need to go, but doesn't fully come awake so is still in that spot between REM and awake. The brain is still kind of dreaming. We can usually guide her to the bathroom and get her to go and she wakes up more fully. If she says she doesn't have to go to the bathroom and is still out of it I can sing to her and that helps a bit. Then we try the bathroom again. I think the cold of the seat probably helps bring her out. It still terrifying all the same and possibly hereditary as I still experience similar episodes from time to time and I was a sleepwalker as a child.

So my suggestions are 1. as always if you are really concerned talk to your pediatrician or ask you pediatrician if he/she know of anyone who you can talk to about your child's sleep episodes. This should be first step as they can rule out things like ear infection, colic, food/environment allergy or infant seizures for example (not a complete list just examples of things that could cause similar reactions). 2. Try to find a trigger. You say he perks up with the bottle, perhaps a warm(or cool to cold) bottle and some gentle talking/singing to him to bring him around more. Change his diaper and clothing or just strip him down to his diaper for the rest of the night, use cooler wipes or warmer wipes one might "wake" him up. Talk to him and sing gently to him. As long as he isn't in physical danger, it is a scary time but may not be much to be done for it. He will probably grow out of it but if not continue to push your pediatric staff to help you find an answer, be it sleep study or finding a more sympathetic ear.