22 month old screaming all night

[AlanMoore]

My 22 month old has always been a pretty good sleeper but for the last week she has been screaming all night. She goes down ok but then after a couple of hours she starts screaming, thrashing about and is impossible to settle. Last night she did it twice or three times every hour ALL NIGHT, taking 15-20 mins to stop crying each time.

She has a bad cold but GP says her ears etc are fine. Usually if she wakes up a drink of water and a cuddle settles her straight back down. We are exhausted. I am 7 months pregnant. Any ideas? Please tell me it's to do with the cold and she'll get better!

Is it possible she's got her back teeth coming thru they can be very painful? :)

I did wonder that but think it's unlikely as she is quite "behind" with teeth, only just got her canines. I wouldn't expect those last molars to come for ages...though she "teethed" for her first tooth for about 6 months :( I can't cope with months of this, it is literally impossible to sleep through the noise and our house is tiny so she wakes everyone wherever you sleep (DP tried sofa last night to no avail!)

How close to bed time does she eat? Or have some milk? Could it be that she's just going to sleep in a full tummy and she's waking up a bit windy and bloated and achey? :( my dd2 is alot younger but I had to bring forward the bedtime milk as she was very unsettled and thrashing about going to bed full :)

Or maybe she having bad dreams can she say enough to tell you?

If she's got a bad cold, then I would bet my bottom dollar its that. Does calpol/calprofen help? Have you tried elevating her bed, a humidifier/nasal spray/olbas oil etc? She might have a sore throat, so cough mixture might help for about 20 minutes.

We've just had our first full nights sleep in 10 days due to an evil virus in this house. When did she go to the doctors? Assuming a few days ago, I would take her back as she could have developed an infection since you last saw them.

This is also a very common time for nightmares and fear of the dark to start, so a nightlight comes in handy if you haven't got one already.

She's on full whack of baby ibuprofen, baby cough medicine, karvol etc, and we've been putting her in bed with us propped up on pillows which normally gets SOME sleep in the most horrible of colds.

She isn't a big eater and hasn't even been drinking all her milk so I don't think it's tummy ache - she would generally tell us if her tummy hurt too.

She doesn't seem upset when she does finally wake up/calm down - she was chatting to me about how she had a bottle of water at one point after a marathon screaming session. She does tell us if she's scared of something usually so not sure about the bad dreams. She's got a Tomy star which she was pleased to see on in the middle of the night a couple of times!

Maybe she needs to go back to the doctor's but her temperature is fine so I doubt she needs ABs, her cough is nasty but rattling.

She's fine now, running about like a maniac. As she was yesterday afternoon...argh! "Evil virus" is most likely I suppose, hopefully it'll pass VERY soon.

thanks for the replies, I think you lot are more sensible than our HV - if she's on holiday the others are good but ours is a bit dim so I haven't bothered!

Really hope she feels better soon and you can all get some sleep :)

Thanks! She's doing that delightful toddler whining today, would anyone like to borrow her for a couple of hours? :) she is lovely normally!

No thanks I've got a five year old who's the queen of ehinig and arguing :o

No thanks I've got a five year old who's the queen of whining and arguing :o

Mine would worship her! She's refusing Calpol now, ffs...I give up :(

Bribery? Chocolate buttons maybe. Does your head in doesn't it I swear mine would argue black is white just to gave something to argue about . Dd1 went thru a phase of resisting medicine I found giving her the syringe and putting it in her mouth herself worked only then she filled it up with water and squirted it at me

I tried bribing with ice cream but too poorly to care yesterday! However last night was better - she woke crying about once every hour or so but actually WOKE so was consolable (eventually) with hugs and drinks. She ate and drank more today, still not much food but more like her normal fluid intake and she played happily this afternoon for a couple of hours like her normal self, so fingers crossed we are turning the corner.

Bumped into a friend earlier who says her little one has had very similar, must be doing the rounds. It's horrible when they're ill :( get well soon all ill children everywhere.