16 month old won’t let me comfort him during the night

[Tiredmummy101]

So my DS won’t let me comfort him during the night and I honestly don’t know why.

He has alway been a terrible sleeper, can count on one hand how many times he has slept longer that 4 hours at a time, but the issue I have been having for the 5-6 months is that when he gets up in the middle of the night, he cries worse when I go into his room to settle him, to the point where he kicks and punches me when I pick him up. Sometime I can give him a bottle of milk and that settles him but I have gotten to the point where I just have to leave him to cry it out because he gets more angry and more upset if I go into to comfort him.

I am honestly worried about this, I am a trainee health visitor so doing a lot of research into child development and leaving a child to cry alone is bad for their overall development, therefore it stresses me out that he won’t let me hold him or comfort him during the night.

I always used to cuddle him to sleep at the beginning of the night, and if he got up then I would go through and give him cuddles until he fell back asleep, sometimes all night so I don’t know where this anger is coming from.

he has always been an independent boy but this is madness.

Has anyone else experienced this, please help? 🙈

Could it be night terrors?

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/night-terrors-in-babies-signs-causes-and-treatment#what-are-they

I thought night terrors too

I thought he was maybe a bit young for that plus the issue isn’t him waking up it the fact he won’t let me touch him during the night but will lie there and scream, he is fully awake

will he accept anyone else? With night terrors they do look awake. Sounds like those to me. I sometimes found a change of scenery worked- eg going outside or for a drive then back to bed.

My DS had night terrors. He looked like he was awake but he wasn’t. If I went in to try to comfort him he would be thrashing and kicking and he’d be up for an hour or more. If I waited at the door to just watch and make sure he was ok he would yell and thrash about for 5 or 10 mins then lie down and fall back to sleep.