DD (11 months) has cried almost all night for the past two nights

[iwouldgoouttonight]

We can't work out what's wrong. She is her normal self during the day - normal appetite, normal nappies, drinking her milk, smiling, playing, going down for naps as normal. But as soon as we put her into her cot at night she starts writhing around crying.

We've been rocking her to sleep but as soon as we put her down she cries again almost as though she's in pain. We've tried calpol in case it was her teeth or she has a tummy ache, but it didn't make any difference so we're assuming she's not in pain (especially as she's fine all day). Me and DP have had to do shifts during the night sitting with her because she just won't settle for longer than about an hour.

Any ideas??

Me again! You may find she's coming down with a cold and it's a sore throat, so no symptoms really. And in a day or so the rest of the symptoms like a runny nose will begin. LO's can be clingy and need cuddles when ill as you probably know all about, with 2 LOs.

I find it becomes a vicious cycle and once they're overtired they do not sleep properly and keep waking distressed. It's so hard, especially if your 3 year old is being tricky too, as your tolerance level is lower from the exhaustion. Been there done that and got the T shirt. You could try popping her in the bed with you if absolutely desperate for sleep if she'd settle then.

I always end up re-training my LO's after being ill, as they've got into bad habits again, but you have to trust your instincts here and maybe take to doctor in case it's an ear infection or something, if she was a good sleeper before, it maybe something like that?

Looking forward to seeing more advice for you here. Have some chocolate

Thanks for your advice and sympathy (and on my other thread too!). She's asleep in bed now, although keeps crying out every so often but seems to be settling herself. I'm expecting to be up in the night again but hopefully (touch wood) it won't be as bad as the last two nights! She has been dribbling LOADS today and sounds hoarse when she cries so I'm thinking its either teething and/or a sore throat. Its just strange that she's fine and happy in the day and naps ok but has trouble sleeping at nighttime.

I've had quite a lot of chocolate today!

Snap. Though in our case it's a clear case of teething. May be a combination of coming down with an illness and teething in your case. I find trying to BF DS2 usually sorts out why he's awake - if he turns his head away he's definitely in teething pain (boy is normally a milk monster). Nurofen more effective for teething pain than Calpol (helps with the inflammation) - anbesol (can get it from your pharmacy) is an antiseptic and anaesthetic that totally numbs teething pain -and Nelsons teethas camomile sachets are good too. Good luck!

DS2 was like this for a while a couple of months back. It turned out he was brewing a cold and lying on his back was forcing all the mucus and gunk to the back of his throat, which in turn made him sick. it took us a few days to figure this out! We raised the cot so he was lying at a slight angle and that seemed to help him. A friend had a similar problem and ended up putting her DD to sleep in her pushchair so she was upright - bit more drastic but it worked for her!

Thought she was getting over it but last night was even worse! I don't understand it, she wakes up crying about every hour so we pick her up and then she is happy and wants to play! But if we put her down she cries as though in pain again.

Me and DP are a mess this morning after both being up half the night taking it in turns trying to rock her back to sleep.

She is dribbling so much it must be to do with her teeth, but it does seem odd that once we're with her she's fine, you'd think teething pain would be during the day as well.

I hope this doesn't last too much longer - I'm at work and can't concentrate for tiredness!

I always found mine suffered more from their teeth overnight. Unfortunately this situation can't continue like this. I'm not sure how old she is, unless it's mentioned on another thread? But providing she's over 3 months (IMO) perhaps once she's been well fed, has a clean nappy and has had some teething gel and you also know she is tired you need to start doing a little sleep training with a method that you feel comfortable with? Do a good bedtime routine as well and then try a sleep training method? As if she was ill I think other symptoms would have reared their heads by now. It's tricky as if they feel rotten from teeth they do want lots of cuddles but I think for your sanity you need to teach her to settle herself.

Or you could cheat and have her in your bed overnight if you can't face sleep training as you're already exhausted.

And again I suddenly see the "11 months" on title after posting. Yeah sleep training I reckon.

We're going through a similar thing with DS and I think it's molars coming. Our dentist told me it's worse when they lie down because the blood causes added pressure. Not sure why nights are worse but this seems common to most babies.

DS is most comfortable sleeping in my arms so I'm just going with it and hoping it won't last long. I'd second the Neurofen and Anbesol suggestions though.

teaandcakeplease why is having your baby in bed with you "cheating"?!

"cheating" was a tongue in cheek joke. Sorry if I offended. I think it's only as I got the impression iwouldgoouttonight prefers her baby in its own cot/crib. As did I to be fair, but lots of people like co-sleeping that I know

Apology gracefully accepted! I am a little tired and snappy...

Sounds typical of earache. Please, please get her ears checked. Little children if this age are very prone to ear infections when they have a cold, or any time really, due to short/tiny middle ear structure. When they are upright there is no pain, but as soon as they are horizontal they are in agony.

Prop up the cot to relieve the pressure, and get someone to look in her ears.

Have to bump this.

I think 3Littlefrogs is right and also I did briefly mention it maybe ears back in my first post too. It can?t hurt to take them to the GPs, especially as they were a good sleeper before. I hadn?t heard half of that stuff about ears before, so go for it, take them to the GP

And if it turns out all is OK, then you can plan your plan b

Thanks again, well I've had a total of three hours sleep last night. You're right it can't carry on! [exhausted emoticon] I've had to come into work today so my mum is looking after her as I didn't want to send her to nursery as she never sleeps as well there and I think she'll need to catch up on her sleep. I'll take her to the doctors tomorrow morning to check out her ears.

I'm not against co-sleeping at all, but we've tried it and she won't settle in our bed either and it means nobody gets any sleep. Last night we took it in turns sitting downstairs with her so she didn't wake DS and at least it meant we both got a bit of sleep as we did shifts. We did try leaving her in her cot rather than picking her up and just sitting stroking her head but she just carried on crying and we could hear DS stirring so thought its best sleep sitting up rather than have them both up all night!

She was happy and fine this morning again though apart from a hoarse voice and being very dribbly. She only has four teeth so far and they all came through without any problem - would her molars come through this soon?

If I didn't have so much work to do I'd try and have a sleep under my desk!

try nurofen for teething much more affective also night light if her room is really dark i also found a little toy of some sort in cot worked wonders

also could you make up a little bed next to her cot instead of holding her lay on the floor so she can see you and just make soothing noises rather than picking her up

my ds went through this got so used to us picking him up wouldn't settle we had to get sleep therapist who suggested being beside the cot and not fussing speaking etc he would soon settle again the quicker he settled we had top move further away gradually until able to leave the room but we did find nurofen worked so much better for teeth

also we propped pillow under head of mattress this seemed to settle better too clearer breathing maybe he was getting spooked when choking little bit laying down

have some soft music playing also in back ground maybe the noise and night light may soothe

also i was told to stop rocking ds to sleep to lay him in cot and sit beside the cot to my side so not full contact but enough to comfort and let him fall asleep alone his inability to settle himself was one main factor first few nights was tough but after that he was settling ok on his own

You know I?ve been thinking about your little ones night waking a bit more since both my messages on your thread. Both my LO?s are taking nice big naps today, so I think I?ve got too much time on my hands. Not for long though as I?m hunting for a part time job, so I may not have any free time soon, although not having the greatest success so far on looking and applying.

I hope you don?t mind all these messages from me, as I?ve replied on a few of your threads now. But hopefully as you?ve got to know my quirkiness in previous messages, you?re understanding where I?m coming from. Feel free to take it or leave it

You?re probably almost as tired as when your baby was a new born and have no emotional reserves for handling daytime problems. And with working as well you must be feeling shattered.

Last time one of my babies had sleep problems I was sharp with the rest of the family and got angry if my poor husband was even 10 minutes late home from work. I needed to make a change. I think what convinced me was that as long as I was with my son he cried anyway, walking, rocking, singing ? none of these quietened him anymore now older, the only thing that stopped him crying was nonstop nursing. I figured if I was going to be miserable anyway, he might as well be learning something positive by learning to go to sleep. Also this sleep in my arms was twilight sleep really and not good quality deep sleep. The disturbed sleep was producing more wakeful, irritable and active behaviour and he?d become far more active in his sleep as he was so chronically fatigued. His motor was always running at a high speed awake or asleep - I found with my little one. I also knew that I couldn?t operate this way every time teeth came through, as it can last for weeks the teething, as long as I knew he?d had some pain relief from teething gel, I could feel at peace that he couldn?t be in pain anymore. So I decided to do some sleep training. Once he was getting into a good routine for naps in the day and sleeping better at night he was so much happier and so was I.

He never liked sharing a bed with me anyway and it didn?t settle him to sleep. I also had a fear of how difficult it would be to get him to sleep in his own cot when older if he was always used to sleeping in my bed. I think sleep was also too important to me, as I can?t cope on no sleep. So I much preferred my LO?s to sleep in their own cots - but it?s horses for courses and as I said in a previous post on here, lots of people do do co sleeping and if that helps settle your baby, perhaps that?s the better option right now for you.

There is so much advice out there on the web and on this website for different methods of sleep training and at the end of the day it?s your baby and you need to do whatever you feel is right for your baby, as every baby is different. So I won?t tell you which method worked for me. You can take or leave the above but I really wanted to tell you about it all. There was a book that I found particularly helpful for advice but there are millions of them out there. So I just thought I?d type you this to digest and you can decide after reading it and hopefully all the other really helpful posts on here about what you think is best.

I?ll try to resist diving in more as I only have 2 children afterall so I?m no expert and someone else?s idea maybe far better! Sorry for the long long post!

Thanks again for all advice. Will definitely try propping bed up a bit tonight, have just been out and bought some anbesol so will try that plus neurofen. Will also try leaving her for a bit as at about 5am this morning she cried out and me and DP were both waiting for each other to get up! But then she managed to settle herself. So maybe we rush in too soon. Its jsut that the last few nights if we do leave her she has got more worked up and made herself sick so I don't want to do that again.

I don't think I'll try sleep training until we've ruled out any illness, but once she's over this will definitely have to try to get her back into a better routine at night. She used to be such a good sleeper (ah, those were the days!)

How are things going now?

Hi,
I didnt see your message and just posted exactly the same thing about my 11 month old daughter. She is waking between 4 and 7 times a night and just wont be settled unless we give her some warm milk and rock her back to sleep. She has always been quite bad at night but now she´s terrible. Wierd thing is she is fine in the day. She just doesnt seem to want / need to sleep. How are you getting on? Is there some magic answer? I just cant see how my daughter could be teething or in pain as she has no symptoms during the day. Anyway you have my full sympathy as its just truly awful isnt it!!! Let me know if things have improved!!