1 year old son REFUSES to sleep at night

[beckypic1]

Sorry for the essay!!

This started a week ago, my 1 year old son came down with a 48 hour bug over night.

We put him to bed (in his own room) around 7:30 as per usual after having 2 naps in the day.

Come 2/3am he woke up he has never been a great sleeper and always wake around this time. he doesn't have anything and normally goes back to sleep)
I could hear him crying and I try to leave it 5-10 minutes before going in because sometimes he will stop and settle himself.

I went in to settle him and there was sick EVERYWHERE. all in his cot, all over him. it was horrible and instantly felt awful for leaving him in it trying to get him to settle!

We then went through the night giving him a bath and then another one after he was sick again etc. He did go back to sleep downstairs eventually as he couldn't go back in his cot.

Now since then he REFUSES to sleep at night. He will have naps in his chair downstairs completely fine, no fuss at all. When it comes to night time he is not having any of it.

i have tried putting him in his cot, rocking in my arms downstairs. putting in his chair he has his naps in, lying on the sofa and eve in our bed. He will not have it at all, hes so tired as he rubs his eyes and drifts off but every 1 - 2 minutes he wakes him self back up.

i try all of this after his usual tea, bath, book, bottle.

I personally think he is scared because he has associated being sick and being in that sick with sleep at night time and hes scared if he goes to sleep it will happen again.

Last night after 2 hours of trying i got him to sleep from 21:00-23:00 in his cot. then resettled at midnight then he woke at 2 again.

any ideas of what this could be? hes never been great with sleep but this is awful!!

DS took a while to settle after being ill. I don't think it's an association your DS has, but he just wants comforting for the moment. He's still only little and should be back to normal within a week.

It's tough, but all they want is to know they're ok.

Will he go to sleep in the car? Could you maybe do something different for night time routine (our toddler loves having bath time at grandma's) and then get him in car and transfer him over? Maybe stay in the room yourself for a couple of nights on mattress on floor?

Is it that he doesnt like lying down flat to sleep, but is OK napping semi reclined in his chair (but also wont do this at night?). He might bet getting some refluxy stuff as a result of the vomit virus and that lying down triggers it. You can lift the head of the cot mattress to help with this, but also consider getting a quock check by the GP for reflux and ear issues
He might also be scared of his cot because of the big vomit. Try playing games in his cot when its not nap time, peek a boo, reading books to build back the good associations. He will reset.

But keep plugging away at it, it might take a week to get him sleeping properly again