9 month old regressing after illness - reassurance please!

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My dd has been ill for 6 days over the last 2 weeks - first an upper respiratory tract infection which left her trembling with hhigh fever and then with a vomiting bug which was doing the rounds.

Although she is well over both illnesses, we are finding that her development is moving backwards!

Previously she was an ok sleeper, waking only once or twice between 7 and 7 for a feed (she is bf) and going right back into the cot with no problems. Now she is waking upwards of 5 times a night, waking again as soon as she is put down and taking up to an hour to go back to sleep.

Previously she was a great eater. We are doing BLW and she was on 3 good meals a day. Now, she isn't as interested in solids - for breakfast she had a half of a piece of toast (!) and for lunch a bit of avocado and a slice of cheddar.

Here are my fears -

1. her appetite never quite comes back and her growth slows right down or stops. I am v v sensitive about this as she is between 2nd and 9th centile anyway
2. I have to up her milk feeds as a result to keep her from starving thus reinforcing the not eating solid food.
3. I am forced to co-sleep again in a bid to help dh and dd get some sleep, never sharing a bed with my dh and only getting hazy minutes of sleep a night. (I have nothing against co-sleeping but it did not work well for me!)

I am sure I am being irrational but please reassure me! Especially abou the sleeping thing! We tried to do cc last night (we did it successfully with her when she was 5 months old) and she was flailing and wailing like a thing possessed. Took years off my life, never again.

Help!

i found it took my ds a good few weeks to settle back into normal routine as illness had left them unsettled it kind of becomes the new routine but they do settle down again

just go in sshh its sleep time then leave they tend to need a bit more reassurance as they have so much fuss when they are unwell

it will get better

thats very usual. Skills regress after an illness for toddlers.
dd had Norwalk at 8 months old and was in hospital on a drip for 2 weeks. It took 6 months to get her eating back to normal and the docs threatenned us with a G-tube as she was so little. DD is still off the bottom of the charts at 4.
Just take it gently and in her own time even if its a bit bothersome. Forcing will lead to more problems.

Thanks. I don't want to push her but I just worry + want to do what's best for her.

Happened to us too. We'd only just got ds sleeping (almost through) the night (down to one wake) at 8 months, then it all went horribly pear shaped. He was ill (gastroenteritis) followed by a nasty cold for about a fortnight, and this was followed by a) regression to milk only b) waking upto 5 times during the night and c) extreme clinginess resulting in having to withdraw him from nursery - although that could just have been timing too as thats when separation anxiety can start.

As previous posters have said, dd will return to the place she was in, it just takes extreme patience and unfortunately for everyone, more sleepless nights. We had to start pretty much from scratch and it was much harder to do the sleep training second time around (I did a sort of fluffy version of cc/pupd which meant staying in the room but with my back to him, and only turning to put him back down in his cot, no eye contact)
He got back into the eating thing first - appetite like his mum methinks, then the sleep thing came (he still sometimes wakes once, but only needs a pat and sometimes a dummy to send him off). That took till he was about 10 months. Yesterday he started at (a different)nursery again (he turned 1 at the weekend) after two months settling in period (twice a week - took a long time!)
We got there, but I'm dreading it happening again!