19 month old - sudden night waking

[Pipsicle]

Hi

My 19 month old has thankfully always been a truly great sleeper doing 7 - 7 apart from when she is teething.

Around Xmas she was definitely teething and would administer cuddles and Calpol night when needed but we dont think she is massively now. However she seems suddenly really unsettled, sometimes crying 5 mins after we have put her down at 7, or around 9 and generally between 2-3am ish but there is no set pattern and last week she slept as she used to.

When she does wake, she cries and seems really wide awake when we go in to her and can be awake for anything up to 1hr and a half. Hubbie and I dont think we should give her Calpol night as we are not convinced she is teething. Last night as she woke at 9pm, we went in and out to her, not picking her up and increasing the amount of time of crying before we went in and she did sleep better although was awake at 6.15am.

We cant understand it, she loves her bed, chilling in her bed and sleeping.

Any ideas anyone????

Is she well apart from this? Could there be a chance she has ear ache or similar? Has she had a recent cold? Perhaps try a calpol night and see if it helps, if it does she is most probably in pain of some sort. Their big back teeth can push for ages, even months before they pop up.

hi Blue

She is very much herself during the day. I think Hubbie and I are just concerned that the sedative effect of calpol night makes her sleep when in fact she may just be being a monkey. However she definitely did a teething poo earlier - her bottom was so red!

I am not sure calpol is always a sedative, it seems to send my DD into a whirlwind... now Mediced is a totally different matter!

I think teeth and ears are worse at night, something to do with having to be horizontal and not having any distractions.

Is she eating OK?

Yes fine - in fact yesterday and today she ate like a demon!! However she has been rubbing her ear and saying ears so cant decide if she has an infection or teething badly. no temperature and totally herself. She in fact slept through last night without a whimper.

Can she suck through a straw or is she drinking bottles OK? DD has issues sucking and swallowing when she has a sore ear.

my dd started this at the same age.

Took us ages to work out but she was frightened of the dark. We started leaving the landing light on and she settled back into routine.

Could it be that??

We have a nightlite if that helps - I must admit she may be more unsettled if I forgot to put it on, just a little glowing thing.

My DD started a very similar pattern at 20 months having been a very good sleeper for almost a year. I bought the 'taming toddlers' book (greene) and have had a nightmare couple of weeks of controlled crying but we seem to have regained our nights.

We still have the very occasional need to settle her when she wakes, by lying her back down and firmly leaving the room but she usually stays quiet after that.

sucking fine and no complaints about ear yesterday or today - must be when her teeth hurt. She seems to be back to her old sleeping patterns (fingers crossed) after doing some controlled crying the other night.