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Original poster

Toddler waking in the night, throwing a tantrum - anyone else?

31 replies

MrsBloomingTroll · 14/03/2011 21:20

I'm hoping that my DD1 is just going through a phase or is a bit under-the-weather at the moment, but does anyone else have this with their toddler?

(She is 2.7 BTW.)

1 night in 3 (roughly) she sleeps through, no problem. Happy Mummy Smile

1 night in 3 she wakes once around 2am, goes straight back to sleep once I go to her, or sometimes without me (we leave her a couple of minutes).

1 night in 3 she wakes around 2am, shouts for me and then, when I go in to her, screams "I DON'T WAAAANT MUUUUUMMMMMY!" and has a full-on hissy fit, kicking and screaming, throwing toys out of her cot, etc. I then exit the room and she shouts for me to come back, we repeat a couple of times, then she finally calms down and goes to sleep. But she has woken the entire household in the meantime.

I'd say this has been happening for the past few weeks.

She has generally been a crap sleeper at the best of times, but better since the new year when we made some changes to her routine, so this is a bit of a setback (especially as I'm pregnant again and knackered).

Anyone else?

OP posts:
Readytoburst · 16/04/2011 21:26

This thread is reassuring!! My 3 year old has turned into the devil! She coped unbelieveably well when Dd2 came along 9 weeks ago (or so we thought). Three weeks ago she started waking and calling out in the night (she never gets out of bed without me or dh getting her - total godsend!). Sometimes this escalates when I try to leave to the most enormous tantrum ever. She has even woken the neighbours! It had got better with massive bribery and lots of praise etc but dh was away for two days and she welcomed him home with a major kick off last night. Ignoring her seems to be the best thing to do but we worry about the neighbours. She also cries when we leave her at bedtime. That usually lasts for 10-15 minutes. I feel so mean but can't see any other way of breaking it (and having time with dh).

RollerMummy · 28/11/2012 11:05

I have this with my 2 yo in particular, and even the "good" sleeper (3.5yo) has several nights a month where this happens. It probably isn't night terror, as frequent night waking is quite common up to the age of 4 or 5 in children. I did a ToddlerCalm course and learnt quite a lot about normal sleep, so it's been easier to understand why my daughter (2) frequently wakes most nights and usually needs a quick feed to get back to sleep. It's nothing to do with food unless you have an actual intolerance/allergy diagnosis, and nothing you're doing wrong at all. All I can say is that I'm really with you on it, I turn psychotic after a week of one or both of my children waking up all night, but it'll pass- we learnt on my course that they don't have the right hormones for grown-up sleep until they're 4 or 5!

DyeInTheEar · 30/01/2013 06:22

I just googled Toddler Night tantrums and this thread appeared. I'm on my knees with this as have a 6 week old and my DD (2.6yo) has been having terrible tantrums daily and now they've started happening in the night too.

How long do they last - what are your methods of dealing with them? Not sure whether to comfort her, or meet her increasingly crazy demands, or ignore her. So far nothing seems to work and I'm finding her hard to deal with during the day because I've had such little sleep. I'm not sure if this is because of new baby or if she'd be doing this anyway.... she's never been a great sleeper.

Rosa · 30/01/2013 06:58

Oh yes been there done that and its hell. Nothing you can say calms her . You try the cuddles approach and she screams . You try the stern approach and she screams. DH goes and she screams for you. When you go she screams anyway,kicks covers off and then 2 mins later screams she is cold. My dd is now 4 and we might get this once every 3/4 months . In the past when this happened I just kept shh tried cuddling , saying mummy is here but , took her in my bed if she listened to me enough between screams. I used to take her for a pee which sometimes worked . I became to think she was cross as she had woken up and was just cross with everything... I tried just about every trick/ suggestion. Leaving her to scream was not nice for dd1 who shared a room or the nieghbours so gave up on that one. It does pass , I just stuck to the night time routine . She also needs time to settle in a new place when we go anywhere. So generally I stick her in with me.

DyeInTheEar · 30/01/2013 10:45

Rosa ohhhhh thank you for posting - every sentence of your post resonates with me. I read it out to DH and it was like we'd found a support group!

At 4am DD was furious. She half wakes up and I think because she's exhausted is fuming and instead of getting herself back to sleep she responds by being becoming completely hysterical. Nothing I do is right / everything I do is wrong. I picked up her toy monkey and she wanted DH to pick it up / I put her covers on and she wanted to do it / I shut her door & left her to it and she became frighteningly hysterical / I cuddled her which worked but then she started up again 10 mins after I got back to bed and so on. Then DH took over after I shouted and got cross and failed miserably Sad and she eventually wore herself out and slept at 6am.

She nearly broke me when she was a baby as just didn't sleep until she was about 20 months. And now I've got a baby that sleeps she's started this new phase.

Lsparrow264 · 29/08/2025 22:03

Reading in August 2025. As a mum to a 2yo and 5m old. Thought you might appreciate the reminder of 14 years ago haha!

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