14 month old in broken sleep horror! mum says

[stellarmum]

OK, dd has never been what I would call a brilliant sleeper, i. e. 7 till 7 was very rare, but generally up until about 3 weeks ago would sleep 7 till around midnight and then through till 7 or 8. We would usually dream feed her at midnight to avoid being woken up.

HOWEVER (deep breath!) she got the flu about three weeks ago, bad tummy etc, began to wake up in night with diarrhioa (sp?) that made her bottom really sore, only took an ounce of milk at a time as poorly... and now she's better but her sleeping is awful!

She's awake 2 or 3 times a night, won't take her milk at suppertime and instead finishes it off in bits during the night... last night she woke at 3 and then read books till gone 4, with me half asleep next to her... she seems to think she's hungry but I can't see how, her appetite has come back and she's eating well in the day.

I don't want to do CC... Any ideas??

Sorry, turned into a ramble!!

We have this sort of problem every time ds is unwell. He's never been a fab sleeper, but always terrible when ill (naturally). When he's better I think he has to relearn that he mustn't wake up in the night and come and find us.
It takes a bit of time and a bit of strictness on our behalf, but not cc, which I've never been able to do with either of mine. Just have to keep saying no milk, no playing, sleep now etc and it seems to work. Bit of a nightmare really but try and be consistent and set the boundaries before it develops into a regular sleep habit (I speak from bitter experience!)
Hope your dd is settled soon.