Co-sleeping 2-year-old waking screaming at night

[nesomja]

My ds aged 26 months has just started waking screaming several times a night having mostly been a pretty good sleeper up to now. It is happening about every two hours and he always asks for his bedtime routine again - i.e. (breast) milk and books. I have resisted this but the screaming then continued for 40 minutes and so I have now ended up reading books at 3 am :(. Once I start reading he usually settles down and goes back to sleep although he often is very unsettled for about the next hour.

He sounds to me like he is in pain but is unable to tell us where. We are co-sleeping so this isn't a bid to get into our bed. We have never left him to cry and up to now it has worked fine - but now I really don't know what to do. My dh has suggested he might have heartburn as he himself often wakes up at night in pain - but I'm not sure what to do for a toddler with heartburn!?!

Has anyone else had this experience and what did you do? I have even considered controlled crying but all of my maternal instincts are telling me he's in pain as that's what the cry sounds like - but I don't know why or what to do. During the day time he is fine.

Maybe camomile tea in his bath before bed and for you if he doesn't take a bottle at all, heartburn can be caused by eating fruit after a meal. So better to have his fruit when really hungry. HTH

Could it be teething? If it sounds like he's in pain, don't ignore that instinct. Try the usual calpol and/or something for indigestion/heartburn (milk of magnesia?) if that doesn't help, then try your GP.

night terrors maybe?

my DD used to have them.

Have tried calpol to no effect - hadn't thought of milk of magnesia, will think about getting some of that. Also the fruit idea might be helpful, thank you. He does eat fruit after supper. My experience with GPs is that they are fairly dismissive of this kind of problem but maybe it's worth a try if it continues - we are all exhausted :(.

It might be worth speaking to a pharmacist about what it could be and what might help. I don't actually know the age you can use milk of magnesia from so you will have to ask them that anyway. They might be able to suggest something.

Some children do go through a sleep regression around 2.5 - 3 years, which might be affecting it. See here here and [[http://www.askmoxie.org/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html here].

I'd go with your instincts on him sounding like he's in pain. It might be worth looking at diet - some children do suffer from reflux. Perhaps try changing what he eats for dinner and see if it has any effect.

Sorry, I can't count - just realised he's 26 months, not 2.6 years. So it's unlikely to be the sleep regression then.

Might be worth a quick trip to GP to get ears checked. I didn't realise how painful teething really was until very tough 8 year old sat sobbing on sofa when he was cutting a molar. Made me feel awful at lack of sympathy when mine were babies.

night terrors v common.

they usually last for about 6 mos or so and then disappear.

awful, but reasonably short-lived.

worth checking for ear infection though - hormone levels at night mean that kids don't feel the pain during the day. (and this age most prone to ear infections... as well as night terrors...)

i'd bet night terrors though.

with ours -
dd1 - didn't happen
ds1? recurrent ear infections
dd2? night terrors