15 month old will not go off to sleep without screaming

[dafty]

Hi all, This is my first post on this site and I hope someone can help, I feel quite desperate. My 15 month old daughter has always been a nightmare to get off to sleep, she screams and cries for ever, she used to exhaust herself so much that she just eventually fell asleep but now she gets herself so agitated she stands up in her cot and cries and screams till I come back to her. I've tried controlled crying and read nearly every blooming book on sleep that I could find but nothing works. She does manage to sleep ok when she eventually goes off but its getting there that is the problem. I feel quite down at the moment and really need some constructive advice, please help.

Dear Dafty,
I don't have much advice, but your first post and I didn't want it to go unanswered.
When is she crying? when you're there? or are you leaving her?
my dh spent a year (! Iknow) holding the hand of dd while she dropped off, it took about an hour each night. horrific - but she now sleeps like a dream. whereas ds, who didn't have such treatment wakes up every night - every single night... for years.
it's not a great answer.

Hi notimetoshop, thank you so much for your post.She cries when I put her in her cot, my staying with her sometimes seems to get her more upset so I'll leave but then she's up on her feet wandering about her cot crying and eventually screaming, I find it really hard to just let her cry so I do go in quite often to try and settle her again. Took me 2 hours to try and settle her last nite, feel like i'm complaining all the time, haven't got anyone I can really talk to about this so thank you again for replying to me, at least I know I'm not the only one.

We've never been able to leave dd until she is asleep, and she's 2.3 now - I may be a soft old hippy but I'd rather sit with her for half an hour in a dark room with some sleepy music on than listen to her howling in distress.

It's been a slow transition from feeding her to sleep, then cuddling her to sleep, then putting her down awake after cuddles and stroking her back til she falls asleep, then her lying down by herself etc etc.

Now she climbs into be all by herself all I need to do is tuck her in and stay in the room, and that is fine with me.

What is it that your dd wants? to be picked up? to be fed? why not do it?