Letting 10 month old cry a bit.. killing me

[arses]

My 10 month old had just started to sleep through then got a cold and another tooth.

That was about two weeks ago, but now he is crying upstairs where I have left him. I never leave him but he was just so overwraught in my arms, whacking me in the face and kicking back and pushing out of my arms that I just didn't see how it was helping for me to be holding him. I don't know what he wants anymore, so I had to walk away because I do not want to hold him while feeling frustrated.

I feel as though he has been crying forever but it's been, oh, ten minutes? Every 3 minutes or so he stops and makes his calming-now sound and then starts again.

I'm going back up in one minute but this is just torture. I don't know what to do with him. He went to bed at 7 and woke an hour later, has been awake now since 8. We've fed, changed, cuddled, rocked, given him a spoon of Nurofen in desperation and still he is screaming, screaming, screaming.

Every few weeks it calms down for a few nights and then it seems to start up worse than before. He is in his own room now, he no longer feeds to sleep, he has no sleep aid, a bedtime routine set-in-stone, eats and drinks plenty throughout the day but doesn't sleep too much. WHY won't he calm???

when DD (8 months) is coldy/teethy she will sometimes go mental like this at night - thrashing/flailing and nothing but nothing helps.

if rocking / cuddling / settling in cot won't work we take her into our room for 5/10/15 minutes and the change of scene usually calms her down - a few funny faces or a little quiet play with a hairbrush, nothing too overexciting, still low lights and whispers.

if we stop trying to settle her for a little bit she does seem to forget why she's been so het up. then we re-settle as normal.

hope he calmed down last night and you got some sleep. it is hard when they push away and you're only trying to help.

Agree with Valbona's point about taking a break from trying to settle her. You could try doing something unexpected and fun (produce a toy, pull a funny face, juggle etc..)

My DD doesn't have sleep problems fortunately, but at other times when she's upset for no apparent reason, I've often found that shushing and cuddling make her worse and what she needs is a total distraction to make her snap out of it and return to normal.

Sounds like be wants to sleep but is frustrated and can't switch off.
My DD had the odd sleep glitch after illnesses.sometimes when I got home from work (11pm)she'd be downstairs with the baby sitter and all smiles!
Hope you get a better night tonight.I just think be consistent with what you're doing,sounds like you're doing the right things.