My 18 month old does not sleep - suggestions welcomed!

[Nottodaythankyou123]

Hi Everyone

Just looking for suggestions / advice - my 18 month old has always been a pretty poor sleeper, but the last few months wakes up near 6/7 times a night, and has now started screaming non stop, not wanting to be picked up and soothed but just screaming. She’s still bf, and I do find she wakes a lot for boob but this is different - it’s not a night terror as she knows you’re there, but will just scream and scream and scream until eventually she tires enough you can rock her or feed her.

It also wakes my eldest up (also not a great sleeper) and my partner does not cope well on no sleep and just tells her off (helpful!) - I feel like there’s something wrong as it’s just so extreme. Basically I just wondered if anyone had any suggestions or advice before I lose my mind from sleep deprivation 🫠

Have you been to your GP or health visitor?

Are you certain they are not night terrors? My dc used to have them and would recognize us during these eg screaming at us to go away, and wouldn’t be comforted by us. They also would eventually calm down after 10 mins or so and then accept being rocked or cuddled back to sleep, so it sounds very similar. I would probably suggest reading up on the different ways to lessen night terrors and see if any of the strategies might help?

HV was top of my list for tomorrow as it’s got significantly worse over the weekend and I was praying it was just a phase!

I guess it could be! The only reason I thought not was that my eldest used to get them quite regularly and her eyes would be really glazed over and she had no concept we were even in the room with her, so I just assumed that was standard but maybe not!

My daughter was like this and she has a dual diagnosis of autism and ADHD. Not saying this is the case here, but I’ve been there and in fact it was horrific for 5 years until she was prescribed melatonin.

Also just to say that the difference between my first and second child was marked - my second is two and stirs once in the night occasionally for breast milk. With my first, I was up all night with her and it’s the reason we have a huge age gap 😆

Ahh I see! My DC often “knew” we were there as would scream at us 🤦🏻‍♀️ but it was definitely night terrors. They had no recollection of any of it in the morning!

Funny you should say that (well not funny but you know what I mean!) as nursery had raised some concerns about her speech albeit that was some time ago and it has improved a lot, but I have sometimes wondered. She’s a pretty happy go lucky child but her tantrums when she has them are intense and now the sleeping. It’s throwing me a bit!