Can infants have nightmares? It's pretty unbelievable (I mean, what can they possibly be dreaming of at that age?), but I think they can. Ever since birth, there have been times when baby K would cry out in the middle of the night, but when we went to check on her, she'd appear to be sound asleep. I went to my trusty source http://www.babycenter.com/ (one of my favorite websites since becoming a parent), and it confirmed my belief that babies (well, they mention toddlers as opposed to babies) can have nightmares.
Two nights ago, I kept hearing baby K cry through the baby monitor. This went on for a pretty long time. M went to check on her but when he came back, the crying continued and M said that she was asleep. It took all the willpower I had to keep from going into my little girl's room, taking her out of the crib, and cradling her until the cries were silenced.
On the drive to work yesterday, it kept bothering me that baby K didn't sleep well the night before. Then I thought back to the article I read on babycenter.com, and one of the contributing factors it mentioned was stress. So I'm sitting there thinking, "she's 15 months old. She plays all day, gets fed, gets changed, takes naps... what can she possibly be stressed about?" Then it struck me... dinner time! Earlier that evening, we had a lot of trouble feeding baby K. We made beef stew for her with butternut squash (which we thought she would like) and other vegetables, but she refused to eat any of it. It got so bad that M and I were practically forcing food down her throat... not that it worked since baby K wouldn't even open her mouth for us. Baby K was in hysterics and we eventually gave up and took her out of her high chair with barely anything in her stomach. I think that's what caused baby K's nightmare.
To test out my theory, I was a lot more forgiving during dinner time last night. M wasn't home yet, so I was on my own. Again, baby K refused to eat the (this time leftover) stew. In addition to the normal tactics (like putting a few pieces of food on her tray table, eating it myself), I also let her play with one of her spoons as she pretended to feed herself. This allowed me to get in a few bites of butternut squash, but she stopped after the fourth or fifth spoonful. Surprisingly, she didn't even want the beef. I didn't try to force her to eat this time, but proceeded to giving her a jar of fruit (which she naturally took without any problems). Result: I am happy to say that my little girl did not have any nightmares last night! (Or at least I didn't hear her cry in the middle of the night.)
Lesson learned: Do not force my child to eat.
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