15 month old screaming at night, inconsolable

[elbowloh]

Hi our 15 month old has always been a terrible sleepers, whether its for naps or at night, but is now getting even worse.

He literally hates sleep. We have has a routine that we use every night, but as soon as he knows he is going to bed he starts crying (same for naps). He has always just fought and fought against sleeping. The only way to get him to sleep is to hold him and sing him to sleep. All the controlled crying advice is no good because he is never calm enough for a moment to leave him at all. He's either screaming his head off or asleep.

We could just about cope with this, but now he is waking up screaming at night. It can pretty much be anytime between 10.00 and 02.00 but he'll just wake up screaming his head off again, tears rolling down his face and often arching his back and pushing away and it will take us half an hour to just stop him screaming and can be 2 or 3 hours before we can get him to sleep again.

We thought he was teething and tried baby calpol , but that doesn't seem to make any difference. He seems to be well fed, so we don't think he's hungry. We just don't know what to do.

Your baby doesn't hate sleep. It's just he's never learnt how to go to sleep on his own so when he wakes up on his own, he's frightened and doesn't know what to do (because he's never learnt what to do).

There are broadly two paths you can take from here:

• Decide that it's time to teach your child to sleep independently
• Decide that your child needs you to go to sleep, so don't leave him to sleep independently and bring him into your bed.

The second is called cosleeping. The first involves many different methods but with the ultimate aim of teaching baby to go from fully awake to fully asleep in the cot (not in your arms). This need not mean leaving baby uncomforted. But will involve crying, probably lots.

@FATEdestiny

Your baby doesn't hate sleep. It's just he's never learnt how to go to sleep on his own so when he wakes up on his own, he's frightened and doesn't know what to do (because he's never learnt what to do).

There are broadly two paths you can take from here:

• Decide that it's time to teach your child to sleep independently
• Decide that your child needs you to go to sleep, so don't leave him to sleep independently and bring him into your bed.

The second is called cosleeping. The first involves many different methods but with the ultimate aim of teaching baby to go from fully awake to fully asleep in the cot (not in your arms). This need not mean leaving baby uncomforted. But will involve crying, probably lots.

Thanks, but did learn to sleep ok his own as he used to sleep in his cot on his own, albeit with a bit of crying first, but then he seemed to get it. However, now he has developed this screaming.

Ah, I didn't get that from your first post. It read as though you'd always held and sang baby to sleep. My misunderstanding.

In that case, what used to happen for baby to get to sleep? When did that change?