DD is 22 months and refuses to have anything to do with the cot. She's been sleeping in the spare room with DH for almost a year. She wakes periodically to check he's there and really panics if she finds herself alone. I can't share the burden for health/medication reasons.
DH commutes to work, 120 round trip. It's a responsible role and he can't afford to make mistakes. He has problems with sleeping anyway and simply can't keep doing this. He's developed an intestinal problem that's worsened by tiredness (it's a fairly serious lifelong condition with painful ulcers).
We know the controlled comforting routine backwards. But our problem is the hysteria. She becomes instantly hysterical. Can't breathe properly, huge twitch in her head, can't stop crying. Utterly unable to calm herself, obviously.
The health visitor was useless. She said controlled comforting works for all babies, regardless of hysteria. If she's sick, clean her up and put her back. I bought the toddler taming book and read that controlled comforting shouldn't be used for hysterical children. But we can't do what the book suggests - returning to the child after a shorter time, before they get hysterical - because DD goes from 0-60 in less than a minute. Yes, she's doing it on purpose to an extent, but that doesn't mean she's able to stop doing it.
We're biting the bullet and going to the experts at Mill Pond. But I'm afraid they'll offer nothing more than the advice mentioned in the paragraph above. and we could have had a weekend away for the fee Can anyone give me any words of advice, either about the sleeping, or about Mill Pond, or about how to make the most of the consultation with Mill Pond? What I'm really afraid of is being told to leave DD in her hysterical state, like the HV advised. And that it will harm her. She's abnormally shy as it is.