2 year old suddenly not sleeping?!

[Mumof3boysxo]

My 2 year old who has slept through the night, settled himself since he was about 4 months old suddenly hates bed/naptime.

He cries when you mention nap or bedtime. He screams when I put him down, if I stand outside the door and say shh mummy’s here he’ll settle quite quickly but obviously when he wakes in the night having to do this is not ideal as it can be every 10 mins or so I’m having to keep getting up and shushing him, I have 2 other children (6&3) that I need to be able to function for 🥴

I’m also worried I’m creating bad habits having to stand outside the door but I have no idea what else to do. If I leave him to cry he is still crying over an hour later so I don’t think that’s an option. I suppose what I’m looking for is some reassurance it’ll end and that I’m not creating bad habits for the future.

Could you try a baby monitor that you can talk to him through? And reassure him on that. The more you can reassure the more confident at sleeping he'll be. He may have molars coming through as well and tooth pain always seems worse when you're trying to sleep so might be a negative association there. Can you try some ibuprofen before bed and see if it helps to give you a clue if it's ear or tooth pain?

Thanks for the suggestions!

I didn’t think of the baby monitor, I can give that a go. I’ll try anything. I did wonder if teething but it’s just weird how it’s as soon as bed is mentioned, even during the day for his nap. He is being extra clingy with me in general so I am thinking it’s some sort of separation anxiety but I don’t know how to reassure him during the night without creating any bad habits going forward. Just so weird how they go from being brilliant sleepers to all of a sudden not.