when good sleepers go bad...

[Soupspoon]

DD is nearly 21 months, and has always been good at settling herself to sleep.

For the last week she has been inconsolable after being put down. We have gone in every 10-15 mins or so, but she doesn't want to fall asleep unless we stay with her and rub her tummy, and we don't want to get caught in a trap whereby she won't sleep unless we're there. Tonight she has been crying on and off for 2 hours.

Help!

Don't have any advice, sorry but wanted to bump this in case anybody can help....

Hi Soupspoon. We had this with DS when he was slightly older. He would grab onto us and beg us to stay or sleep with him and, like you, we didn't want to make a rod for our own backs.

We tried CC (which had always been successful in the past) but it still took hours to get him to go to sleep and it was awful hearing him crying so much when previously he'd gone to sleep all happy. #

Anyway I spoke to a Health Visitor in the end and she suggested bringing his bedtime forward by about half an hour - I don't know why but this did seem to help. He still cried but not for as long.

Shortly afterwards we went on holiday and this broke the habit completely - when we came home he was far less anxious about going to sleep. I also put a bedside lamp in there after holiday which we call his "special light" and he has that on all night every night now but it keeps him calm. Good luck - I know what you're going through.