19 wk baby suddenly srarted screaming for hours when put to bed

[PetaO]

So ds has been a great sleeper from pretty early on, normally going down very easily f or regular naps and at night sleeping from half 8, dreamfeed at half ten, and waking up once around 4 for food.
But the last 4 days have been a nightmare! when we put him down to sleep he will scream for over an hour. He's inconsolable by my DH and I can only calm him down by picking him up and shushing him for a while. But then if I put him back down he screams again. It's do confusing as he's fed, calm and happy until we put him in his cot. He's been sleeping happily in it for 2 months now and we've not started doing anything different. He's also fine and happy during the day, having good regular feeds, etc. Not sure what to do...any help would be most welcome.

Oh sadly can't offer any advice but watching with interest as I could have written your post word for word. The only difference is that my ds is 17 weeks. Let's hope someone has a suggestion/solution!

Anyone? Help!

Could it be 4 month sleep regression, and/or teething? Babies can get hard to settle apparently because of the developmental leap at around 20 weeks.

My baby takes an hour to settle, wakes every 2hrs and will be fully awake between 3.30 and 5 :( But she's never been a great sleeper.

Oh pickledlily, that sounds awful! And thanks for the sympathy koolforcats! Hope there's been a change with you. I had thought teething as he's been drooling for England, but he has no temperature and doesn't seem to want anything to chew. It probably is a developmental leap, he was better last night when I bathed him, dressed him and the gave him a big feed in his room (darkened). He was still grizzly, but nowhere near as bad. He slept from 8.30 till 7am, with a dreamfeed at 11pm so I'm very lucky. We'll try it the same way tonight.

Perhaps the key with us is to calm him down as much as possible and help him see being in his room doesn't always mean he has to go to sleep, which perhaps makes him panic... Will let you know!

But if anyone's has anymore ideas please let us know!

Just a stab in the dark but could it be silent reflux?
It can start at any age when they're babies and they tend to get most upset when lay flat. So bedtime can be the worst time.

Any idea how u can diagnose silent reflux and what you do about it?

So reflux is when the valve to the oesophagus is weak and allows the stomach content to come back up ie baby being sick after a feed. It is a problem if baby loses/fails to gain weight or its uncomfortable. Sometimes the stomach acids come up but the baby isn't sick but swallows it again (silent reflux) but is in a great deal of discomfort from the acid, esp when on their back. There's a good thread that talks about the symptoms, I'll try to find it.

What can help? Keeping baby upright, smaller more frequent feeds and medication from the GP, amongst other things.

Hope this helps.

Sorry, thought I was on another thread (stupid phone, I can't read the whole thread)! So...

If it's reflux, I'd expect your baby to be screaming just about EVERY time they are put down, not just at bedtime (IME).

Yep, 2 hourly feeds aren't the best. I'm counting down the days to week 20.

Ok, here it is... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/1024071-Support-thread-for-all-parents-with-reflux-babies?pg=1

My DD's silent reflux symptoms are:

• chucks up curdled milk about an hour after a feed
• has 'wet' burbs and hiccups
• screams when placed on her back or hunched up (eg car seat)
• constantly looks like she's chewing the cud
• struggles to sleep, but sleeps wonderfully when lying across me on her stomach (head higher than body, body at 30 degrees like a plane taking off).

Thanks pickledlily, I'll check that out. He slept through from 9on-7am last night, but he's been down for 4 naps today (heading up to bed with him when he's been up for 2 hours and is obv sleepy) and he's cried himself to sleep each time.
Don't know what the answer is, and obv sleeping through the night is great, but its quite traumatic having him scream that much when I put him down.

I'm not sure about reflux as he's fine when put down on his playmat or changing mat, or on our bed. Ah well, will keep at it

Classic 4month sleep regression. Nothing to do but ride it out afaik...

I know I may jinx the whole thing by writing this, but - we seem to have turned a corner! He's back to waking at 5am and then up for the day at 8ish! He doesn't scream when he's put to bed and we are making a slight progress in naptimes, although a couple of times we've had to take for a walk to get him to sleep (perhaps all my baby weight will drop off!).
So it seems it was a sleep regression accompanied by a massive growth spurt (feeding every 1.5 hours) and we may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel....
Good luck to the rest of you, have faith! (and tea)