13mth old stopped sucking fingers after illness and needs to learn how to settle

[actiongirl1978]

Hi there,
My ds is 13mth and since he was 3mths he sucked his fingers and always settled himself to sleep. It was brilliant.

Then a couple of weeks ago he got hand foot and mouth and the blisters on his fingers meant they were too painful to suck.

Since then, he has woken up about 3 hrs after going to bed for between 30 mins and 3 hrs. We settle him, put him down and then he howls until he is sick.

We are of the 'give him 10 mins' school of thought. He has always slept very well and we have an older DD who never needed any sleep help so we are at a loss.

Settling involves a cuddle and sometimes a story. We offer water, but usually he refuses. We don't do milk at night and he would refuse anyway. There is clearly nothing wrong because as soon as he stops crying, he starts to babble and point at things to play with.

How do we cut down the howling time so he settles earlier?

Think we need to do some kind of controlled crying, but really want to avoid the hysterical sick!!

Can anyone suggest anything?

Off to school run now at 8am, will check back later.

TIA!!

How Extraordinary, same thing happened to us at about 14 or 15 months and again a few months later. Such bad luck.

I did cc for initial settling but it was quick and effective and followed s bottle of milk so I know he was sleepy already.

Don't want to do it again though!

Sorry no help but interesting to know of another case where horrible hand foot and mouth ruins things. It happened twice to us, each time needing new sleep training.

OMG really? Glad its not an isolated thing for me then!!!!

He has always been a good sleeper too so am v annoyed, though my husband reckons its better to have the pain now than try and persuade him to stop sucking his fingers when he is 5. (I was still sucking mine at uni, so I have no perspective!)

Yes, going to CC tonight. Just googled the methods but would be very grateful for any CC tips.

Thank you.

You could do gradual withdrawal which is what I am doing. He is ill So So often that I would be doing cc every month or more often.

Trouble is I don't get out of the room before he gets unwell again.

Depends how thick skinned you are feeling. If he cries til he's sick I would use a gentler method like gradual withdrawal. They say that in the millpond book actually.

Oh thanks, I will google that. I would generally leave him to settle, but the crying to the point of sick is a new thing for him and he obviously thinks it works!!!

What cracks us up is the way he almost giggles at us when we take him out of the bedroom! That is stopping tonight. No further than the chair in his room I think!!

I felt so sorry for my ds when his comfort sucking was broken by the hand, foot and mouth. Really cruel.

Good luck!

Thanks!