1 year old standing at cot crying in the middle of the night

[Nellisterr]

My little boy was an amazing sleeper, even settled himself. But two weeks ago he started teething, back teeth, four at the same time so he was waking up screaming in pain in the middle of the night. We think the pain has now passed and he just wakes whinging and standing at the edge of the cot, wide awake! The only thing that will send him to sleep, 3 hours later is some milk. Any ideas why this is happening? Thanks in advance!

My DD is just 16 months - I don't know what was causing it but between 12 and 14 months we had a fair amount of this too - long periods of being wide awake in the middle of the night. Oddly enough, she was teething just as you described, cutting four molars at once. Lots of developmental stuff going on too so possibly just a difficult "leap" phase. Fingers crossed it's not as often now.

That sounds very similar! Some nights, straight through and other nights wide awake! My husband is finding it really hard with the lack of sleep but I'm hoping it's a leap like you said! What did you do when she was awake? Did you try putting her down or feeding etc? We tried being in bed with us, until tired, we tried walk in put down to no avail. It's the strangest thing, some nights he goes down with not a peep and other nights he will have a little cry when put down. Then on some nights he will just lie there comfortably for about 30mins with eyes open and then drifted off! I know he knows how to do it himself!! On the flip side he is such a happy, interactive child right now, he is crawling, pulling himself up and is generally really independent! He is chatting, copying us, keeps trying to say Dexter (our cat). So it does sound like a Developmental thing!

We had this and I think it probably was developmental, brain processing all the new information (it was also a bit creepy as sometimes would be quiet for 20 minutes or so and I'd check the monitor to see them still standing silently ).

I think we just tried to keep things as "night time" and boring as possible and it stopped after a while. One of those things that seems impossible to solve at the time but later just feels like a blip, try not to worry!

What's the daytime routine like? I would go in every 10/15 mins and lay him down, tell him it's sleepy time. Little interaction. He will soon get bored .. or the phase will pass 😁

Thanks for the reply. The problem is that he is crying standing up at the cot bars, unless we pick him up or lay him down and have our hand in his belly! Or pick him up and sit in the rocking chair with him... As soon as we walk out, howling...

Oh modge that image really made me laugh and I agree the silent standing is unnerving at times.
Good luck op !

He is pretty good in the day, sleeps and goes down well for a couple of hours, really happy, crawling round, chomps away at all his food... We tried putting down and walking out and he was like a spring, straight up crying his eyes out. Must have been 40 times, he just got worse. 3 hrs later the only thing that worked is a milk... Hope it's a phase

Hope it's a phase too but I would still leave an interval before going in each time..

I remember DS going through a similar phase at that age - he’s been a brilliant sleeper for a couple of months then seemed to slip right back. He did settle again after a few weeks though, I recall.

Molars are hell on wheels to teethe and there’s a lot going on in their little brains too. It’s all just a phase though. I don’t think we did anything special, from what fuzzy memories I can summon? It just sort of passed. Hope your little one starts sleeping again soon too.

It may be still teeth as we went to caravan an show at NEC today and it was hot in there too and the poor lad was sick twice, might be unwell and teething as his gums look sore! I think it's a combination of all these things! Thanks all for replying and sharing advice, glad I'm not alone on having this with my DS! @HeronLanyon @inthethickofit19It @terryandthechocolateorange @modge @Spudlet