18 month old always tired, and tantrums in middle of night.....?!?

[LittleMy34]

Wondering if anyone else has had the same experience. My DS is 18 months old and very lively, happy little boy. Lately though he's been waking in the night and getting really upset almost as soon as he wakes up, getting into pretty much a tantrum and he needs ages to calm down.

Hand in hand with this, he's at nursery three and a half days a week and on the days at home, he's so tired he falls asleep in his lunch by 12 noon. So quite often he misses lunch and has it when he wakes up, which isn't ideal.

Anyone else's DC doing this tantrum waking thing? Is there any way of making nursery less tiring for him? Does he need vitamin supplements/trace elements (my mum's favourite theory)? Will he just grow out of it?

Any help/advice/shared experiences welcomed

My

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I'm not sure if it any help, but i found dd1 would be like this if she hadn't had enough sleep during the day.

She would need at least 2hrs sleep of an afternoon other wise she just couldn't sleep as she was over tired.

thanks - i don't think he gets enough sleep at nursery, but have no idea how to change that? they put him down for his afternoon nap, but he doesn't sleep as long as he does at home, it's too noisy and exciting.

Yes, we had this too. Does he have somewhere quiet to sleep at nursery? If not, could you put him to bed early as possible on nursery days? And the day after? Early bed is the only solution I've ever found for overtiredness.

it's tricky, because we pick him up at 5.45pm, so by the time we've done tea and bath and bed, it's at least 7.30pm and most nights more like 8pm. DH doesn't like to be hurried so he always ends up going to bed late when he's doing bath and bed, I'm always the one trying to get him into bed at a reasonable hour!

the nursery have a separate sleep room, but it only has a curtain instead of a door so it's not exactly silent. but he loves it there and he does sleep, just not for hours.

it used to be easier when i finished work at 4pm, but now i do longer hours it seems like it's too much for him. With any luck I'll be shortening my hours in January though, so maybe we just have to stick it out.

I don't have the answers, but my DD 16months old is exactly like this (see all my previous desperate threads)

We did a bit of putdown/walkin/walk out baby whisperer stuff. It has had a little bit of an effect.

Took her to a children's acuouncture clinic on Tuesday (they use little magnets instead of needles), but too early yet to know if it has ahd an effect.

Good luck, I've had 6 pigging months of it

My ds was the same when he was at nursery 3 days per week - just wouldn't sleep as much as he would at home and then the nights were much more disturbed. Like others have suggested an earlier bedtime does help. Could your ds eat his tea at nursery? Then if you make sure all his bath and bed stuff is ready the night before when you get home you can take him straight up to do his bath and then straight onto bed. Ok you don't get to spend much time with him on nursery days but I always figured it was better than spending time with him in the middle of the night.

Think we might have to try something like that - nursery do a tea at 3.30 but he needs something at home, but we can be a bit more rigorous about getting him into bed at a reasonable hour and see if it helps.

And from Jan, fingers crossed, I'll be finishing at 5pm instead of 5.30 which will help.

thanks for the advice!