Child health question?

My nephew is eight years old and is in the third grade. He's a happy little boy, at least that's what I thought. Lately, his parents are noticing that he wakes up in the middle of the night, sits up, and start crying? I don't know what is going on. Nothing at home for him has changed. At school however, his grades has dropped dramatically, and he is normally a bright child making above average marks. His parents think he is going through a phase and will get over it soon, but I think this might have something to do with bullying at school? Last week he got detention for bullying a little boy, and that to me was pretty odd, because he has never done that before. What I think is that he gets bully at school and gets in trouble when he tries to defend himself. But I'm not sure, because he won't tell me. Can someone please help me? How do I get him to confess? Or is this behavior even has to do with his school? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.Child health question?The fact that his grades have dropped off dramatically is an indication there is something going on at the school between him and maybe a group of others. The other kids are probably threatening him if he tells on them, and so he's repressing this, thus the reason why he's waking up at night crying. Try taking him to a happy place like McDonald's for instance, and when you're eating, ask him if there is anything he would like to share with you about what's happening at school. Tell him that you won't tell anyone if he doesn't want you to, but that you really would like to help him. He needs to know he has someone he can trust to talk to without the fear of it getting back to the school system, because if it does and they talk with the other kids they will make it harder on your nephew. This is the kind of relationship I have with my grandchildren. A lot of times children won't talk to their parents about things, but will talk to another family member.Child health question?someone needs to talk to his teacher to find out what is going on at school.the only way they will talk to you is if you act like the mother. they might ask for you to come in for a meeting so be careful.Child health question?You are probably right about the school bully thing. Often teachers see something happening and make their conclusion about what went on immediately, without consulting the children involved. Automatically believing what they see or what one child says. The waking up in the middle of the night thing however is probably just nightmares. A lot of kids go through phases where they have a lot of nightmares, it may have something to do with the bullying, or it could just be something like a food he eats.