11 mo suddenly screaming at bedtime...help!

[CakeInMyFace]

Hi
My 11.5 month old DD has suddenly developed a screaming habit at bedtime. It's come out of nowhere - she's had the same bedtime routine since she was about 8 weeks, and has always slept well, and gone down no problems.

Now each night as soon as she goes into her cot, she stands up and screams and cries 'mama' - my dh can't do anything, she just pushes him away. The minute I go in she holds her arms up and grabs on to me as if her life depended on it. She then gets very happy and smiley. The minute I put her back to bed it starts all over again. It's horrible screaming too - loud and hysterical sounding. I don't know what's wrong or what to do. All I do know is that it's exhausting and not sure how to handle it as I've not had to deal with this kind of thing before.

Has anyone else had this, and does anyone have any advice? I love our cuddles but I don't want this to happen every night otherwise I'll be housebound forevermore!

Separation anxiety by the sounds of it.

We handled this by sitting next to the cot whilst dd2 fell asleep, shhing and patting and slowly moving further and further away until we were sitting outside the door. We also do bedtimes on a strict rotation, one night me, one night DH, it is amazing how quickly they can feel that one parent is "routine" and play up for the other.

They regress with sleep quite often I'm afraid, DD2 is 3.4 and just coming to the end of her latest regression.

Hi Loony
Thanks for the excellent advice. I''ll give this a try tonight instead of just leaving the room like I have been doing and going back in every few minutes.

Hope it works, let me know how you get on.

we had something similar with my DS who is now 5. This is how i handled it. I spent a couple of weeks sorting it out...night 1 sit right next to cot, patting him ocassionally, etc but no picking up and no real engagement in attention, night 2 the same, night 3 similar but just a metre or so away from cot, and then every couple of nights move further away from cot and offer less vocal reassurance so that by the end of a few weeks you are right by the door, having made no conversation or spoken at all and no stroking, patting etc. By this time i just sat on the floor at the door with my back to him. After this he would go to bed on his own and settle himself and 4 years later will often take himself off to bed when he is tired!
Good luck!

Well I made a real mess of things last night with DD - while I was in her room she just wanted to play! After an hour, I crept out and which was a disaster - lots of screaming and had to start all over again.

I'm guessing this is defnitely one that requires lots of patience! May keep her up a little later tonight as she didn't seem tired last night when bedtime came around. Will stick with it though!

Another suggestion is that she could be less tired at bedtime due to getting older and maybe needing a little less sleep in the daytime? Has she cut down naturally on her naps recently or still having the same as she's always done.