18 month old still wakes up screaming at night

[BreakingMe]

At my wits end with my 18 month olds sleep. He's never been a good sleeper, but im wondering if this level of poor sleep is usual at this age?

Hes always up before 6am. He wakes multiple times every night, often takes a couple minutes of pats and a quick dummy hunt to re settle but a couple times a week hes awake over an hour, just continually screaming.

He started doing it well over a year ago and we have no idea what causes the screaming. Comforting does nothing and painkillers don't seem to help. He used to stop eventually if we wandered round the house with him, now he only accepts being held by my partner and it takes an evening pram walk and a bottle of milk to settle. Which im aware is becoming a bad habit and probably just encouraging him to keep do it.

Any suggestions on what we can try or just some reassurance that it isn't just us would be wonderful x

Is he possibly too hot or too cold? Uncomfortable in some way? Is the room too dark or is he seeing shadows or things that scare him? Have you tried a night light. Leaving the door slightly ajar, keeping the window open? I would try different things to see if they help.

Hi, I didn't want to read and run as theres nothing worse than this.
My 2yo has always been a terrible sleeper and though as she got closer to 2 she started sleeping longer with fewer wakes, she still wakes up crying and can be inconsolable. I did find that around 18/20 months she went through a bit of a sleep regression and became harder to get down or started having split nights like yours, it lasted about 4/5 weeks and then settled back down and the split nights stopped. It can be teething, growing pains, developmental leaps or god knows what else - you kill yourself trying to figure it out but really, all you can do is provide the conditions for good sleep and hope that they eventually figure it out. I found that knocking off the dummy in the daytime helped as did cutting the nap down radically to build sleep pressure and I put bedtime back by 10 mins increasing at intervals until we found a new routine that worked. Best of luck to you

I would take him into your bed

My first thought was temperature, or the dark scaring him. Is he definitely warm enough? Don't overheat him but take note of his temp when he wakes like that.

@JellyBabiesmunch Room is 18-20 degrees, have a grow egg which works as a night light. Door is slightly ajar, have tried leaving hallway light on and tried it off. Window is always slightly open in the summer, windows shut now but vents open unless its particularly cold/windy/rainy.

I had a child with this. We never really got to the bottom of it, but think it was a sensitivity to a certain food. When we took the food out of DC's diet, it stopped. Prior to stopping, it took painkillers, cuddling, warm milk and a specific video that DC loved to calm her down. The whole process took about an hour and a half.

The GP just said night terrors, but we instinctively knew it wasn't that.

@Bloopbloopbleep thank you, helps to know its not just me! Nap is currently only an hour as thats all he can manage and he goes down for the night well just can't get him to stay asleep!

Just a note - I found my daughter sleeps really well in the summer and generally sleeps looooads better if her room is around 22°. It genuinely may be something to consider! It sounds mental but she has a 1.5 tog bag and a warm room.and it really helps!

@Unexpectedlysinglemum unfortunately not an option for me. I have some health issues that mean occasional strong painkiller use which would be unsafe and I feel sometimes bed sharing and sometimes refusing would send mixed messages and cause more problems. Partner can't bed share as they have sleep apnea, which also makes it unsafe.

@ClawsandEffect Thats interesting, I had wondered about food intolerance but i haven't found a connection yet, I'll keep looking thank you! Night terrors was the only thing i found that fitted the symptoms, apart from he was too young when they started.

@Bloopbloopbleep he had actually been sleeping slightly better a couple months ago, so I might try cranking the heating up and a thinner bag! He's in a 2.5tog in an 18-20 room at the minute. Thanks for the tip!

I’d try giving a really plain boring dinner for a bit to try to work out if it’s a food sensitivity. Porridge and a banana maybe. I would also leave a dim night light on, make sure he has a minimum of 10 dummies in the cot (any less than this and we had problems with him not being able to find one) and consider if the room is too cold- 18 degrees is reasonably fresh and I find the grobag charts err on the side of chilly and my 2 always needed an extra layer on top of whatever they recommend in order to sleep through.

It wasn't until it got to the stage where DC started getting a rash and once vomited the food up (heavy on the intolerant food) that we put 2 and 2 together. I think it was giving them a stomach ache, which woke them up screaming. And then although the painkillers and the milk helped, they needed calming down again.

I have this with my 2 year old and I just pull him into bed with me, stops the waking and screaming for the most part

My 13 month old is as you describe. Except would never take a dummy and will never go back to sleep by being patted in bed, we have to pick them up and comfort every time. If they've slept a few hours that means me breastfeeding them, if it's less DH cuddles them out of sight of me otherwise they scream to be breastfed. And my baby's screaming fits a few times a week are usually around 2hrs.

We do suspect that sometimes it might be related to tummy pain. As they had quite bad reflux as a small baby which they didn't outgrow til they were 6 months. And I've noticed if he eats legumes at dinner time he always has an awful screamy night after and passes lots of wind which I assume is related.

Anyway no advice but totally in the trenches with you, we are so utterly broken from the sleep deprivation.