Should I try to "fix" this or go with the flow?

[MidgetGem]

DD 17 months. Never been a good sleeper, seems to be a very light sleeper, easily disturbed and I still have to hold her hand until she drops off in her cot. We thought we had turned a corner after Xmas when we had about 2 weeks of her sleeping through!! Then she got a chest infection and was in hospital (about three weeks ago) she has also cut her top two first molars at the same time. Since then her sleeping has gone seriously downhill from not very good to terrible! she is taking ages to settle on a night, sometimes I have to give her extra milk to get her off, and she is waking 2 /3 times a night really inconsolable but quite startled like she doesn't want to be awake, she is usually awake for an hour at a time and usually ends up in with us. She doesn't seem to be sleeping deeply or soundly as she used too.
Anyhow, what I am wondering is do we go with flow, continue to bring her in with us, give her milk if that pacifys her or will we be making more problems in the long run. I was thinking about putting a matteress on her floor and trying to sooth her in cot without picking her out over next few nights..or has anyone experienced this found that it is a phase and will just pass? any thoughts or experience? x

I would try to fix it in a gentle way and if it doesn't work then just go with the flow for a while.

Do you use a cot mobile or lightshow type thing before she goes to sleep? I found they over stimulated DS too much and he would only ever half drop of with them. I found playing a CD of nature, wave and rain sounds was much more calming. I attached it to his cot and taught him how to press play if he woke up in the night.

Does she have a comforter or have you tried to give her a dummy? The best way to make a comforter is to stuff a muslin down your bra for a few hours so it gets your smell on it and you could also spray it with your perfume if you usually wear it. The bonus of them having a muslin as a comforter is they are easily replaced if they get lost.

Have you got blackout blind and blackout curtains. You really need to use both cos if you only use one light still gets in round the edges.

Also does she have a nightlight? You can get ones which fade out over time.

Have you tried offering water first, then juice if she refuses that and then finally milk?

Can you leave a couple of beakers/bottles of milk/juice/water in her cot for her to find herself when she wakes up and needs to go back to sleep.

Hi nappyaddict thank you for your reply, I like all of your ideas. She has a dummy and a comforter and black out blinds and curtains!! c
Good idea about the nightlight, CD and bottles. I wonder if she would drift off on her own if she had a little nightlight on and some noise like the CD you mention. I think I should maybe start at getting her to be able to go to sleep without mammy coaxing her to sleep at bedtime first. She stayed at my mams last night so me and DH could stock up on sleep for the week and she was still awake 1 until 3.
Im going to put some of the ideas into practice tonight and see how we get on. Thank you for taking time to reply.

I'd go about fixing it gently too. Can't offer any more suggestions though