How long do you leave DCcrying for?

[sleepdodger]

We have entered a hellish phase where DS has begone from finally starting to sleep grouch regularly at 1yo to now at 16mo refusing to go to bed without a mega meltdown seriously sad tears for the last week
When we eventually cave in due to nature of cries being more distraught than naughty or trying it on he's brought downstairs where he all smiles and waves
He was fine at my mums fri pm so I do feel as though there is nothing actually wrong and more now in habit of just not wanting to go to sleep
So, tonight in in on own and trying to break habit
It's 20.03 and he's been crying at different levels since 19.38
I had months and months of no sleep and it very nearly tipped me into a very dark place so I am very keen if this is just a tantrum phase to break the habit
But I'm struggling and wanting to go up...
-how long would you leave him for,

• what would you recommend to do to break this

Routine is snack bath story milk bed at 730, usually had been doing 11-12 hrs straight Thanka

whats his daytime routine? wakeup time, nap time(s) & length? This may be relevant to why he's not settling well at night, so its best to rule it out, as if routine is the issue, no amount of sleep training will help.

Of course if you feel he is trying to pull a fast one & get back downstairs then sleep training is the way forward. How long you wait depends on the approach you are taking. IMO CIO is pretty unfair - he won't understand why you aren't coming & he is likely to get very distressed, so you could use the checking method (CC), where you wait 2 minutes, then go in, then wait 5 mins, then 10mins & so on. I'm too soft for CC so I'd probably do something more like Walk in walk out, so if he's distressed you go in, soothe him & then when he's calm you leave, if he's upset you go back in & so on, I feel its a little more responsive, but of course depends on what you can handle!xx