Please help me with my 20 month old tonight

[drsperstemum]

Posting for traffic. My previously good sleeper has suddenly woken tonight at 10pm and gone crazy. Endless screaming , it’s horrendous. When I go in he carries on no matter what I do, cuddle, stroke, talk etc. He can’t possibly be hungry as bad usual large dinner. No temperature. It’s literally been going on 1.5 hours now, never happened before. I have a meeting at 8am and I am so stressed. Nothing is settling him. I can’t cope with this any advice please

Ashamed to say I’ve left the room now in tears and he’s just crying endlessly. I am so sad I know I’m not handling this well

Can you take him for a walk in the pram? Give him a bath? Possibly calpol in case he's in pain? Have you never had a bad night before? Does anything usually settle him? If nothing else works for us we tend to go for a car ride. Only twice we've had to resort to that in the middle of the night but it's worked.
The fact that he's non stop screaming for this long would make me worry he was in pain or unwell. Have you tried offering food just in case?

Try paracetamol? In case its pain related? Often ears when my kids were like that.

i’d pick him up and walk around with him. He may have some reflux from the large meal - have you got any colic drops? Otherwise keep him upright and comforted.

Poor you. I hope he settles soon

Give paracetamol also if they have socks on take them off make sure no thread caught around toes . Can you bring them for a drive the car might settle them ?

Definitely give him some Calpol.

It seems likely that this is due to pain of some kind.

Or is he constipated?

Could it be teething? I’d give him calpol, take him out of his room, change the scenery, maybe out in the pram for a bit.

It could be ear pain. The pressure is awful when lying flat. I would give nurofen.

Change the state, take him outside for some fresh air. Look at the stars, show him the night sky.

Also the obvious: is he in pain? Strip him down, check his nappy, his body.

My wee ones often have night terrors, I usually have to bring them downstairs where it's light, get them a drink and almost reset them. I usually put the TV on and have a cuddle.

My daughter had the odd night like this, woke up screaming her head off its very alarming when it happens it was like she wasn't fully awake when it happened. Nothing I said could console her I was told it was night terrors.

Sending solidarity to you as currently going through the exact same with my 15 month old 🥲

Strip him down, nappy off. A friend’s child did this - turned out that the nappy was digging in him.

If that doesn’t work, give a painkiller in case it is an ear infection.

Stop thinking about the meeting now- but be ready to inform your manager/colleagues that your child is ill and you won’t be able to attend/chair it.

Maybe he’s coming down with something. You know when you feel grotty but don’t have an actual temperature. I would just bring him into your bed and cuddle him to sleep?!

Holding head at angle - earache
Wind
Constipation - massage tummy
Teeth
Check toes and fingers for a hair wrapped round one of them
Night terror
Is he drawing knees up - abdominal pain

Hugs to you both.

Forget the meeting, your son is the most important thing here. Lift him out, walk him around, check him over and give him calpol. Sounds like he's in agony bless him.

Wind? Constipation? Earache? Teeth? Try burping for wind, something tondrink/doing bicycle legs to relieve constipation, letting him suck something to help ear ache or calpol for teeth. Failing that, can you take him for a drive? The vibration of the engine helps shake out trapped wind and the noise/vibration can be very soothing.

Does he seem fully awake? My daughter used to do this occasionally and we ended up thinking that she was actually asleep and maybe having a night terror, shouting her name loudly and talking loudly at her kind of woke her from it. If not this- I’d try calpol, constipation/ wind can be very painful, if he can walk get them going this to help , or if all else fails take for a drive somewhere- kids seem to love movement and fall asleep in the car

Thanks, I have read all these messages. I have given him calpol and milk, he wanted quite a bit of milk. Really strange as he is a big eater and had all his usual dinner and milk. No temperature, if anything it was on the low side despite all the crying

i honestly do not understand it. I can usually tell when he’s not well but this sort of crying is different, it’s like almost angry, annoyed, frustrated crying, and he’s trying to sleep at the same time. Still ongoing now with a short pause after the calpol. I am so stressed

Possible night terrors. Mine always had a temperature with earache/ear infection.

Take him downstairs, dose of calpol, liw lights, soothing music, gentle cuddle.

If he's well in the morning, take him to childcare and suck up the tiredness. You'll power through for one day.

As daft as it sounds, check there's not a hair wrapped around his toe/s. Happened to my Dd once and as luck would have it, I'd read about it on here the day before.

In this case, your job isn't to stop your baby crying, your job is to support them through whatever is happening. If you've got them, pop some earplugs in. Total game changer!

A change of state for your baby is the best way to halt inconsolable crying. If you're indoors, go outdoors, if they're dry, plonk them in the bath. Sometimes their immature nervous systems get stuck and they just can't stop, a change of state gives them a break in the circuitry.

Screaming like that for my kids was always a tummy ache, constipation or wind, or on one occasion an earache.

Will he settle if he gets in bed with you?

Figured worth mentioning as it hasn't been so far -

When my children have had threadworms it looks very similar to night terrors behaviour wise - screaming and writhing around, can't be soothed by me at all. Might be worth taking a quick look just to check for them.

Hope he (and you) are okay and he settles soon

Hopefully it's just one of those things and I don't want to be 'that' poster but do keep an eye for any rashes because a lower than normal temperature coupled with an unusual cry can be a sign of meningitis.

www.meningitis.org/meningitis/check-symptoms/babies