Toddler screaming in the night

[lifeistooshort]

Our 2.5 y.o toddler is waking up crying/screaming in the night. Last night he woke up every 20 minutes until 1.30 and woke again at 3 am. He makes so much noise that he wakes everybody up, even DD who could sleep through an orchestra playing in her room. He wakes the baby who then wants to feed etc...We are all knackered.

Has anyone got any similar experience? Any tips?

What do you do when he awakes? Is he is a separate bedroom?

He is in a separate bedroom. We usually go downstairs and try to settle him. Usually we just calm him down and leave. Sometimes give him a bit of water as he tends to have a dry cough (that saometimes wakes him up). The problem I think comes from the fact that he was sick recently and DH had to sleep in his room to keep an eye on him.

It could be that he is scared, if he is alone. Does he have a night light? Favourite teddy?

Generally when they wake up screaming you need to keep everything as calm as possible, don't turn on the light, don't give him lots of eye contact, don't talk lots. Just say the same thing 'mummy's here, go to sleep now' over and over.

I have been thinking of a night light. |But sometimes he screams and he is only half awake

Hello

My eldest used to do this from time to time when chronically overtired - do you think overtiredness could be part of your problem here? Has your DS recently dropped a nap, started preschool or a new activity, anything similar that could mean he is particularly tired? Has the arrival of the new baby really unsettled him? You mentioned too that he has been ill recently so he could just be generally under the weather and struggling to get back to full fitness which won't help either.

The screaming and only being half awake thing definitely sounds like overtiredness could be partly to blame - DS1 still can go through phases of doing this (he's now 6) - never actually wakes properly but cries and moans a lot. I can almost always look back over the past few days and realise that he's overdone things and is just chronically exhausted.

It might be worth trying a slightly earlier bedtime for a while and see if that helps...and if he doesn't nap in the day any more, trying a period of quiet time after lunch if he doesn't already do this. A nightlight could be a good idea, or perhaps a dimmer switch fitted to the main lightswitch so that the room is not totally dark? DS1 developed all sorts of fears of the dark (started to refuse to settle unless we left his door open, that sort of thing) between the ages of 2.5 and 3 and was definitely helped by having a bit of light on.

It might also be worth doing a quick mental checkthrough of what he's eating around bedtime to see if anything else might be a contributing factor - I know it sounds daft but DS adores cheese, and would often ask for a Babybel after tea, and his sleep was definitely more unsettled on nights when he'd had one!

hope this helps

Dietcoke that is brilliant advice thank you. I will definitely try some of the things you mentioned. He has been a bit under the weather for a while. Nothing serious but definitely not 100% and he has got to his stage where he plays when he goes to be rather than go straight to sleep so he might be overtired. Fingers crossed tonight is slightly better