16 Month Old with New Sleep Issues

I recommend the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weisbluth, MD worked wonders for us!
Also she may be going through separation anxiety from you or she could be teething! So the book will help you understand how to deal with separation anxiety. As far as it being possible teething buy Hyland's teething tablets in the baby aisle at CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Stop and Shop, Shaw's etc.
They are safer than Tylenol or what not so if it is not a teething issue you don't have to worry about giving them to her, but if it is teething you will know because the tablets work GREAT! and she will calm right down and go to sleep.

I'm with Liz, probally teething..... Take your very clean finger and run it along her gum lines and see if you can feel a tooth poking through the gum? Is she drooling a lot ?

BTW, Your question reads 16yr old with sleep issues!! You might want to switch it to read 16 MONTH old with sleep issues.. I just say cause I was confused at first...

Good luck!!

TEETHING!! my son did this at this exact age. He is 19 months now. Try tylenol or motrin for infants. It should pass soon. good luck. you might not even see the teeth at first because they are trying to push through the skin.

Could be teething. If she doesn't com eout of the screaming, it could be night terrors.

I think it's great that you are still nursing, but a 16 month old should be able to make it through the night without nursing. She shouldn't be hungry, and using nursing just to comfort her is going to prevent her from self-soothing and also from getting the full night's sleep that she needs.

You'll get lots of suggestions about cry it out, don't cry it out - but there are some great books. Whatever you try, do it consistently and thoroughly - don't give up after 2 nights and try something else.

Good luck!

Stop picking her up and/or nursing her! Trust me, this is the issue...
I had a similar problem with my son when he was about 7 months old. I am also breastfeeding, so when he'd cry at night I would nurse him and he'd fall right back to sleep. It was the easiest solution. But what started to happen was he was waking up more and more, until it got to be about 5 or 6 times per night before I finally made a choice to stop this insanity. He was waking up JUST BECAUSE HE KNEW I'D NURSE HIM. They're very smart, these wee creatures.
So, I had to put my foot down, and within 2 days, he was sleeping 7pm-4am, nursing and then back to sleep until 7am, and hes been doing that now for 3 months, no problems. I stopped picking him up, stopped nursing him at night, because its not out of hunger, its for comfort, at this age. I did a modified version of the Ferber method, which is NOT "cry it out", look into it. I never wanted to do Ferber either because I thought it was "cry it out".
It seems counter-intuitive but the short term relief of picking him up or nursing him was just making it worse in the long run, because it created the expectation that I would do so.

First, I want to give you a pat on the back for continuing to nurse your daughter. Nursing a toddler has its own set of challenges, very different from the ones a mom faces with an infant. This is one of them, and probably won't be the last. (I nursed both my kids until 3 years, will probably do the same with the one due in Feb.) This is very likely some sort of phase, either teething or an upcoming developmental milestone, or possibly even a growth spurt. If you don't want to night wean at this time, I say go ahead and nurse her if it helps. You might want to send dad in to soothe her sometimes, so she's not dependent on nursing to go to sleep, and possibly stop nursing just before she drifts off, for the same reason. Until I made the decision that I wasn't going to nurse them at night anymore, I basically nursed whenever they wanted at night. We also slept in a family bed, so it was very easy and I was almost always able to soothe them before the crying got too bad, sometimes with just a snuggle, sometimes nursing. And yes, they both sleep in their own beds now. If/when you do want to night wean, definitely have a discussion with your daughter at bedtime and tell her point blank that you're not going to nurse at night anymore -- one of the great things about starting this process with a toddler is that they do understand a lot of what you tell them, and therefore the process is a bit easier and they know what to expect. Only a bit though. Expect a couple of nights of heavy crying before she accepts that you mean it. I always let them have a bottle/sippy cup of water available throughout the night (a cup of water at bedside when they're older) in case they get thirsty.

I had exact same issue with my daughter at that age. I did exactly what you are doing b/c she needs you if she is crying and screaming! My goal was to just make the wakings as short as possible, no matter what. So we nursed too. Maybe it was teething, I never really knew. Phase was short lived. At that age I also started telling her when she was going to sleep that "I'll be just in the next room" or "I'm helping Daddy clean the dishes" etc. so that when she woke up she'd have an idea of where I was so it wasn't so scary for her. I also assured her that I could hear her. Just an idea. If you are trying to not nurse at night, I'd say maybe wait to accomplish that task and just handle this night screaming issue first. It'd be a lot to do tackle both issues at once.

It may be teething as others have suggested or she may be gearing up for a new developmental skill. My DD went through a phase like that at that age and then another when she was little older too, where she was up every 1.5 hours! So painful! I nursed her back down each time. She did NOT continue the habit after the 2-3 weeks phase, she just went back to her normal schedule of sleeping. I personally see nothing wrong with using what works and nursing back to sleep works for DD. It did NOT create a permanent habit. There's nothing wrong with comfort nursing. DD is 26 mos now and it is not an issue and hasn't been for some time.

Have you read No Cry Sleep Solution or I think there is also No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers by Elizabeth Pantley? She has a lot of suggestions for getting kids to sleep and stay asleep that don't involve CIO. I have found though that even once they are sleeping as you'd like them too, they do go through these phases when they've got things going on.