17 Month Old Waking up Every Night

My son is the same age and has gone through the same thing several times in the past few months. Our issue was he would get cold or he was teething, or thirsty. We have found that it is easier for us to just let him cry, he only does this for 10-15 minutes and then goes back to sleep. If it last longer than that I go in there but that normally does the trick. I will be hard to listen to him but it really will help train him and he is old enough to do so,

I'm literally cutting and pasting an answer I put out here yesterday to the same kind of question:

He's playing a game, and you're losing! :)

My son did this around that age. We eventually got to the point where he was waking up 3-4x/night and wanting to be rocked back to sleep...because we kept doing it.
Finally, after 1 night of waking every 2hrs, at 17mos, we let him CIO. I remember it VIVIDLY. He cried for 23 minutes. After that, he went back to sleep, and we had no more issues...until we moved him to a toddler bed. Whole new ballgame/different story.

He's crying because you'll come in and he wants to hang out with you. That's all. If he's not sick, then he just wants some company. You'll have to nip this in the bud.

There will be many times where you have to re-sleep train them. I'm doing it again right now for the same kiddo I menitoned above. He's 2.5, now and in his own bed. We're back to having to CIO, since he got used to us laying down with him at bedtime after he was sick.
It sucks to do it, but it works every time.

Did your child have a vaccine reaction at 15 months?

I recommend first ensuring the ear infection is truly gone. My daughter went through five months of ear infections then my son went through the same thing!!!! Even if the infection is gone, the fluid could still be there, and when he lays down, calms down and relaxes, the fluid could be bothering him or waking him up.

If you are 100% sure the infection or fluid is gone (I'm a fan of tubes even if no infection but just fluid is there in order to drain the fluid out), I would be rocking him if it were me. But that is just me! I cannot stand to let my children cry for longer than a few minutes. I'm no fan of CIO but know that there are some times where each of my child needs to cry for a few minutes in order to calm themselves down. But I could not do it for an hour...so for me, it would be worth the rocking him to get better sleep, faster. Just my thought! I did this with my daughter until she was 2.5 and now she goes to bed on her own, but still gets up in the middle of the night asking for me to lay with her! So I guess you give and take some...I do not mind laying down with her even in the middle of the night...

Good luck!

Are there some new teeth coming in? Try a dose of Baby Tylenol before bedtime.

My youngest did not sleep through the night on her own until she was 18 months old. Everyone in my household was a zombie from not enough sleep. I am not sure what could be going on. If he is over the ear infection and has no other illnesses or teething issues going on it could be he got used to you coming into his room when we was sick to comfort him. If he has a stuffy nose and gets uncomfortable when he is sleeping that can cause a baby to wake up and cry as well because they don't feel good & they can't breathe. If he is still taking 2 naps a day you might try dropping the second nap or shortening it - it might work.
I can recommend a book that might help, I used it to help get my LO on a sleep/nap schedule. The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.

Go back to basics. What method worked in the first place? Try that again, as if he were a younger baby. And if you think he might be teething or something, dose him on meds before bed and that might help, too.