Anyone had to deal with a child sleepwalking?

Karen - posted on 06/14/2009

My two girls (6 & 3) both sleep walk...I have talked about it with their doctors as I was concerned about their safety around our stairs and was told that when sleep walking their behaviour, etc is the same as if they were awake. I go with the assumption that when they wake during the night that they are sleep walking and speak in a quiet voice (I find mine sometimes get up to go to the bathroom and seem to become disoriented) and attempt to determine if there is a reason for their wandering, comfort them and guide them back to bed. Just like in adults a stressful event or something they are anxious about can cause them to sleep walk, the next day you may want to talk with her to see if there is anything that she is nervous about (ie. school).

Lynne - posted on 06/14/2009

My daughter walked in her sleep when she was young, and we we most afraid that she would hurt herself. We bought an inexpensive alarm that hung on her door knob. We turned it on after we tucked her in and left her room.If mthe door knob was touched, the alarm would sound. This would wake her up just enough so that she would climb right back into bed. It was also loud enough to awaken us if we were asleep.

I believe that these are intended for extra security for people in hotel rooms.

Kayla - posted on 06/14/2009

My step daughter does alot. she actually almost went down the stairs in the middle of the night once and I heard her running into walls and stuff. I grabbed her at the second stair and turned her back to her room and guided her there. and I shut her bedroom door behind her. {it was open before} I had to put a child saftey on it cause sleep walking she can't get it open. she's almost 9 now.

Jadine - posted on 06/14/2009

My name is Jadine my daughter Mya 6 has been sleeping walking when she started walking i am also a sleep walker there's always a rotine in the walking mine i'd always walk outside My daughter always walks around my room and the bathroom she does it about everyother night!! We have 3 locks on our door and an alarm system just in case she walks or leaves the house you should never wake a sleep walker but guild them to there room there's nothing to change the sleep walking but just watch them to see what they do!!

Becky - posted on 06/14/2009

both of my stepkids sleepwalk. they only do it about once every few months and usually within a few days of eachother. They both try to carry on conversations with us so it makes it difficult for us to recognize that they are sleepwalking sometimes. We usually just agree with whatever they are saying and tell them that maybe they should go back to bed and we will figure it out in the morning. They usually do as they are told and go back to their bedrooms and go back to sleep. Sometimes the next day I ask them about things they said and they never remember.