Almost 3 year old cries all night

[FlyingHighFlyingLow]

My little one turns 3 in a couple of months. Never been a good sleeper - never slept longer that 20 mins before 4 months (CMPA), never more than 2 hours after that (eventually found to have severe obstructive sleep apnea). Since tonsils and adenoids removed earlier in the year slept much better - down to 3ish wakes a night. Usually calm when they wake and easily settled.

But for some god forsaken reason the past 4 nights in a row they have woken up every single 20 minutes screaming. When I say screaming I mean blue murder. Nothing calms them, they scream for 30+ minutes every single time. We ask if they're in pain, hungry, thristy, hot, cold. Always says no. We ask them what's wrong, all they say is they're tired. But they're the one waking up the neighbours screaming blue murder 10+ times a night! They're absolutely inconsolable and we can find no reason for it. All that helps is putting YouTube on some bedtime stories until they go to sleep again but not really sustainable.

We're completely wrecked and neighbours are complaining on both sides. Anyone have any ideas?

where do they sleep and who else is in the bed or room with them?

Just to add - in addition to asking their temp is fine on thermometer, bum is always clean/dry, we have tried gently patting them down to see if they react with pain anywhere and nope. Offers of food/water always refused.

Cosleep between me and dad.

One of us puts them to bed and then leave them alone until we want to go to bed.

It's not us disturbing them, it starts straight after they go to sleep while they're alone in the room and happens just as frequently until we go to bed and stays that frequency overnight.

Last night I just went to bed at 7 with them because I'm knackered after nights of this (and 4 months pregnant). Didn't stop it happening or make it happen earlier/later.

They just scream and roll and kick and headbutt.

He went to bed at 7 and has been screaming the past 40 mins.

i have 3 questions.
How is their behaviour in the daytime? Are they still napping? And why the Co sleeping?

Acid reflux?
My son went through a period of this and I think in the end it was acid reflux.

That does sound intense, I really feel for you. Our situation isn’t as extreme, but we’re getting multiple tearful/screamy wakeups due to nightmares, which is a common milestone around this age. Could that be contributing to things? Hope it doesn’t continue for too much longer.

Does he remember waking, OP? Or does it seem like he is actually awake when he wakes up crying? Poor little guy and poor you&partner too, sounds really hard for all of you.

As its been going on a few days maybe a trip to the GP to.rule out anything medical.

Some children do suffer from night terrors and can wake up screaming repeatedly. Mine didn't but one of my friends had a really difficult time with her oldest child from a very early age with night terrors.

You need to go to GP. My money is on ear infection or worms.

Could it be linked to the continuous fireworks going off this week?

Also, I’d say that they would get a much better sleep if they were in their own bed. 3 is a bit old to be co-sleeping, no? I could imagine everyone waking each other up throughout the night and not even realising that they are.

Disturbed by fireworks?
Night terrors?

Thanks, to answer some questions:

Daytime - absolutely fine. Up, full of beans. Usual activities. Somewhat more emotional by bedtime due to lack of sleep but eating normally, drinking, playing etc. Went to football this morning happily, swimming yesterday. No issues - literally asked to go.

Naps - hasn't napped for months. Naps have been offered past couple of days due to lack of sleep at night time (and vain hope we can nap too). Has refused to go to sleep.

Cosleeping - always has since sleep always been bad. But usually 3ish wakes and easy to settle. This is full on blue murder screaming for HOURS.

Has had night terrors before but this seems different. Night terrors you can tell not awake. Looking past not at us etc. Very much seems awake and is communicating while screaming e.g. answering questions. Nightmares maybe but its literally 20 min sleep, 40+ minutes of screaming all night. Crying is already at an hour. DP currently giving me a break as my lip is split from being headbutted. I have bruises on my back from the kicking trying to protect my stomach (4 months pregnant, rhesus negative).

Plan is to call GP tomorrow, just this has happened primarily over the weekend. I can't exactly rock up at A&E and say my toddler has no temp, eating, drinking and acting normal all day, normal nappies etc then screams blue murder at night. GP probably won't be happy about it but I want them to check ears, throat, uti etc.

Fireworks - if it was beginning bit and seemed to happen when one went off I'd be like yes thats it. Doesn't seem associated and like I said continues all night.

Cosleeping waking him up - happens the same if we are in bed with him or if he's alone before we go to bed.

I had something similar once or twice at that age, night terrors, they thought there was something in the room, they actually frightened me they were so certain (although I tried not to show it), I don't think they were actually awake just in a vivid dream that they couldn't wake from. They were terrified without knowing why exactly. A lot of saying it's alright and I'm here you're safe settled it after a while, good luck.

If they have had night terrors before perhaps they are still having the dreams but now waking half remembering them.

Any improvement with a dose of calpol/nurofen? I wouldn’t normally encourage random doling out of meds but if there is then a longer period of sleep that would suggest pain somewhere that is waking them

Has had both tonight and last night in case was in pain but not articulating - no different 😭

Ok so, my son was very similar- barely slept as a baby due to acid reflux then had obstructive sleep apnea and was much improved after adenotonsillectomy.

My son also had an episode like this. We took him to GP, doctor said that if he is waking up crying multiple times, it's likely to be pain or discomfort. I can't actually recall what actually caused it, but I do remember taking the following steps:

• dentist to check teeth
• room thermometer to check night temp
• nappy size up
• loose PJs in case tight around tummy
• calpol

I think he just stopped after a few days.

My older child had awful night terrors at this age. Could be a coincidence but around the time we took her out of nappies overnight it stopped. We used to take her to the loo when we were going to bed, then she was deeply asleep until morning.

Someone said acid reflux, this was also my first thought. We went through something similar some months ago with DS. It looked like what I felt when I was heavily pregnant, I kept waking up at night and was in so much discomfort because of acid reflux, that’s why we thought it might be this. It got much better once we made sure not to give any food or drinks (apart from water) 2 hours before going to sleep. Worth checking with the GP, acid reflux can be really painful and maybe hard to pinpoint for a toddler.

I've had two terrible sleepers, this sounds like an ear infection to me though. Definitely get to the GP if you can to check.