I know there have been a lot of requests for help with sleep issues so I hate to post another one but I've read through the others and none seem to help. My daughter will be 21 months on Nov 15th and has always been a good sleeper. She has had no problems sleeping through the night unless she was sick or teething. She just got over an ear infection and as soon as we finished the antibiotics she has refused to sleep. She will scream as loud as she can until she tires of that and then cries after that as soon as we lay her down for bed. We let her cry but go to check on her every so often so she knows that we haven't left her. Once she falls asleep (we put her down around 7 and it usually takes her 30-60 mins to fall asleep-normally she wouldn't wake up til 630 or 7am) she will sleep until sometime around 1am and then she starts waking up. Usually it is two or three times a night. We will go in to comfort her and rock her a bit but as soon as we put her down she screams and cries again. Even in the middle of the night it takes her about a half hour to get back to sleep. This has been going on for about a week. This morning she woke up and her voice was hoarse from screaming so much. We have given her motrin or tylenol and that doesn't seem to help her sleep any better. ( I think she is teething again...her bottom molars are coming in.) There have been no changes to her schedule or our life-everything is the same routine we have had. She goes to see her doctor next week as a follow up on her ear infection so I plan on asking him about it. That is still a week away and we are not sure what to do to help her sleep...and I somehow doubt her doctor will be much help. Any suggestions/thoughts would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you.
Thank you to everyone who gave me advise! We went to the doctor and her ear infection is completely gone (thankfully-as we had been fighting the same one that never completely went away for a couple months.) The doctor said he could not find anything that would cause her any pain and wondered if Zyrtec was to blame as we had just started her on it every night (for allergies and possible mild asthma) when the sleeping problems started. So we are going to play around with the timing of the dose and see if that help her sleep (even though one of the side effects is drowsiness!) Hopefully that helps because I am reluctant to take her off the medicine since this is the first time since she was about 12 months that her lungs have sounded completely clear-she usually always has a mild wheezing sound. We have decided to let her cry it out at night as it worked for her when she was younger and learning to sleep on her own in her crib. The last two nights have gone ok. She didn't cry for as long last night as the night before. We will see. We offered her her mattress on the floor as one mom suggested to see if she wanted to try a toddler bed but she asked to sleep in her crib and didn't want anything to do with it. I am sure she will let us know when she is ready. Thanks again for all your help!
Take her back to the dr now. She might have a problem in her ear canals that cause pressure to build when she is lying down.
Her ear infection is probably not cleared up. Ears hurt much worse when lying down. Don't wait until next week. Bring her back to the Dr now.
hello,
I had a similar problem with my son. He was having bad dreams. I realized that i had to monitor what he was watching on tv, or movies. Some Disney movies gave them to him. My ped said that they go through lite and heavier sleep cycles and if they have a bad dream during the lite then they will wake up and not want to go back to sleep.
Hope this help,
J.
I have been going through something similar with my 22 month old son. For no reason (or at least we cant figure it out) whatsoever, our son was waking up at night and would fall back to sleep as long as we were standing in his room, but once we crept out, he would wake up again. It seems to be happening to all the other moms I know too and the only thing that has worked for me was to let him cry it out. Last week we stopped going in there to calm him down at all hours of the morning. The first nite, he cried for close to an hour and then the next nite, it was for 20 minutes and since then, he makes a few peeps and falls back to sleep. It might not work for you to let her cry it out, but it seems to be working for us. Dont get me wrong, it breaks my heart to hear him cry and I feel bad for not calming him down, but after 2 months of getting up every nite with him, we were at our wits end.
Hope you find the solution that works for all of you.
I have done for my three boys and my hird one is gettin his molars and it epxlains why he woke up in the middle of the night last night. What is good and harmless and no junk in it is Teething (comes in tablets or gel) which is homeopathic and it is natural. I prefer the tablets because I am never sure if I get it on their gums or right in the spot because they don' like it when fingers get in their mouth, but who does?
How frustrating for you, and your daughter too! I would call the doctor and mention this because it is possible her ears either didn't clear up or there's a new infection (coming from a mom who is awaiting scheduling for a 2nd set of tubes in 22 month old, and 1st set of tubes in 9 month old). Molars can be really tough too, and I find with my 22 month old, tylenol does nothing for his pain.
The other thing is maybe consider a new sleeping arrangement as a possibility...My son slept increasingly worse between 18 and 21 months. Nothing specific, just took him 45 minutes to wind down once we put him in his crib, and then he would be up by 4:30 a.m. or earlier for the rest of the day, banging the walls of his crib like he was crashing the house down. He got really overtired but we couldn't get him to sleep, no matter what we did (and we tried EVERYthing before trying this). We moved him to a toddler bed about 7 weeks ago, as our absolute final attempt at sleep (we have a night waking 9 month old too). He goes to sleep instantly when we leave the room, he is sleeping until 6 or even 7am without waking, and he's VERY happy. Many parents told me I would regret this and he would be getting up all the time and he was too young. Well, he still hasn't gotten out of the bed on his own accord! And if he did, we would put a gate in front of his bedroom door and work on training him to stay in his bed during the night.
Good luck!!
I am going through ear infection after ear infection with my 14 month old twin boy. As soon as he finishes the antibiotics another one comes back. He is a great sleeper and the only way I know he has one is when he won't sleep in his crib - lying flat!! We are having tubes put in on Tuesday. I can't stand him being on medicine all season.
Check with your ear doctor (ENT not pediatrician) maybe her infection is coming back soon after.
Good Luck
J.
