Hello
Our DS1, who's 2 in Jan, used to be a brilliant sleeper. However for the last 4 weeks he has been screaming as soon as we leave the room after putting him down. He sleeps with a comforter and will throw it out as soon as we leave the room. He then proceeds to stand in his cot and cry until we go back in. As soon as we give him his comforter back he will lie down in the position he sleeps in, but then straight back up and throws comforter once we leave again.
At first we tried controlled crying which didn't seem to work, he even fell asleep standing up 1 night as he was so knackered. It shows how strong willed he is that he won't sleep without us there. We ended up resorting to sitting in his room next to his cot until he drifted off, but he would have multiple wake ups during the night where we would have to sit there until he drifts off again. Sometimes it could take up to an hour. Occasionally when we go back in, he goes from crying to smiley and being silly straight away.
As we see both struggling with sleep, we decided for the last few weeks that if he wakes up after midnight then he will sleep in our bed with us. He usually settles very quickly this way. However we are worried about creating a bad habit and that he won't go back to sleeping through and settling by himself, which he did from 6 months old until now.
It's starting to really effect him during the day as we just can't seem to get him to nap in his cot, he will either fall asleep on us or in the car if we are out. He has also become very fussy with food and not eating much at all, especially dinner times.
We have read various articles and tried many different things, but it feels like we are all out of ideas on what to do next.
It's worth noting when he first started this phase he was getting upset at bath time and during his bedtime routine, which he never used to, but is now back to normal there. After milk and a story he will even go up to his cot and try to climb in and will then cuddle his comforter once we put him in. So we don't think its any kinda of fear of his cot.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!