10 month old suddenly inconsolable all night long, 100% fine during days

[AVC94]

Hi!

We sleep trained our 10 month old around 5 months ago and this took maybe 2 days and have had no 'abnormal' sleep issues since I.e. we've had standard sleep regressions and the rare night where he wakes up for a feed, but nothing consistent.

He had a cold a couple of weeks ago and my husband sat up all night with him, as although he was asleep, he kept spontaneously crying while still asleep and would only settle by a tap/rub on the back. Things went back to normal and he has had a bit of a cold again this week, but is 100% fine during the days. Albeit a bit bunged up and slight cough, he is perfectly happy in himself, napping on schedule etc. However, at bedtime we have been putting him down as normal, he goes straight to sleep and around 30 minutes later he is hysterically crying, inconsolable! The only thing we have found calms him is picking him up and rocking him and not picking him up leads to him screaming to the extent of gagging. The past two nights the screaming has led to him waking himself up and he ends up stirring so much that bedtime has then turned into a nap and he is wide awake for a few hours. We then start the whole routine again I.e. nappy, feed etc., and put him down, but he is just crying all night long (while asleep) and the only thing that calms him is constantly rocking him, non-stop! My husband rocked him for 7 straight hours last night as it was the only thing keeping him calm.

I am considering going back to sleep training to hopefully get him back on track, but don't want to do this if there may be a genuine reason as to why he is so upset. I have considered pain, sleep regression and separation anxiety, but none of those would explain why he is completely fine during the days and suddenly inconsolable at night.

Any advice or similar experiences would be really appreciated.

Is he teething? Have you tried some calpol / nurophen?

I'd suggest you need to sleep train again. It's not unusual to take backward steps at every illness, regression and so on.

@funday we have considered this, but logically know that teething doesn't magically start the second he is alone and then he is pain free and giggling the second I pick him up. Have tried teething gels, Nurofen and Calpol as a just in case and it makes no difference what so ever.

@FATEdestiny I am more than willing to try this, but I feel a little out of my depth. When sleep training previously we have had to do a maximum of 3 x 5 minute stints of calming him/controlled crying at bedtime. Whereas, this is HYSTERICAL, inconsolable screeching from the second we put him down, until about 6am and then he is fine for the day again. He comes across as though he is starving, showing every possible hunger sign, he sees the bottle and will shake with excitement, snatch it off of me, put it to his mouth, throw it and then get even more upset - They say babies can't manipulate you, but this seems exactly like he knows if he drinks it he will fall asleep so he refuses. By about 5am he finally guzzles down a bottle (gulps until he is out of breath so definitely hungry) and conks out. I really feel like I am missing something. He has had the same formula since I stopped breastfeeding and has no problems with it during the day so I don't think he is suddenly opposed to the formula either.