Toddler suddenly not sleeping

[GraemeKnoxCowan]

My 2.5 year old was always a great sleeper. We had a routine bath then bed which began at 7pm he would go down No bother we could come.out the room and he would be sleeping within 10mins with no issues. This past week it has all changed in that he has his bath and as soon as we go into his room to get changed he starts to scream. The screaming is that loud you would think he is being attacked it's that's bad. He also stands up and is crying that badly he almost makes himself sick. He screams that he wants downstairs and we have now taken to lying at the side of his cot for the best part of an hour until he falls asleep. He now also wakes up every few hours and we need to repeat this routine where not.ally he slept right though till 7am. We haven't changed his routine or anything in his room. Anyone had anything similar and any suggestions that we could try to help? A desperate dad is asking!

Night terrors? Nightmares? Shadows?

I did wonder if this might be the case as it's been so sudden. Not sure what to do to try and ease the anxiety

Any other changes in his environment?

No everything else is the exact same as it has always been. He will play in his room during the day with no problems it's literally as soon as we go in the room and he says his pyjamas he has a meltdown and there is screaming punching everything

Both mine went through the same thing at the same age. We thought it was the long days keeping Dd1 awake but second went through same thing at the same age and she was born at the opposite time of year.
Don't know what caused it but it was just a phase. I remember sitting at the top of the stairs in sight of the cot reading a book every night (I was next to the cot and worked my way out of the room over a period of time).
Not ideal situation but we were back to normal within a couple of weeks.
Both kids excellent sleepers before and after.

Hard to remember as it was 8 years ago but we might also have slept on a mattress next to the cot a couple of nights at first too.
Good luck!

Thanks for this. The book thing is new and he wants us to read to him so the past couple of nights we have done that and after about 45mins he slowly settles so thanks for this advice. We shall persevere