17 month old's sleep gone haywire - any advice ?

[donnie]

our 17 mth old has always been a good sleeper and slept through from an early age. In the last week though she has been waking at around 3am amd crying uncontrollably - but as soon as we go into her she smiles and stops crying. Lat night was much worse and she was crying hard between midnight and 3am and woudln't stop crying even when one of us held her.

She isn't ill - does anyone think it could be nightmares?

she is eating/drinking normally, nothing new or different etc.

there hasn't really been a change to her routine either.

any ideas gratefully received!

dd1 had nightmares from a really young age, they came intermittently but I suspected that she was worried about something, the thing that got rid of them was waking her up just before I went to bed saying i love you and then settling her straight back to sleep, worth a try.

hi donnie,
this is my first time on mumsnet. I have an 18mo DS who has always been a fab sleeper but on occasion wakes up screaming and is inconsolable even when we hold him - I have put this down to teething as his back teeth have not come in yet and he always has his fingers in his mouth. Not much you can do about this except maybe some calpol before bed/when she wakes up.