Sleep problems after illness: any ideas?

[rubyblueslippers]

My 13 month old son is recovering from a nasty bout of swine flu, poor little boy. He has got into the habit of being rocked to sleep as he was so ill we couldn't bear to leave him in his cot.

Anyway, he has now got into the habit of refusing to be put down in his cot and only sleeping on my partner. He clings with arms and legs, like a little monkey, and will not be put down. My partner has been stuck on the sofa for hours with him clinging to his chest.

This has happened for several nights and has meant no sleep for any of us. We have brought him in with us but again he will only sleep on my partner and having 30 pounds of baby on your chest is not a recipe for a good night's sleep!!

Any ideas what to do when he is better? Sleep training? Before he was ill he was not great at being out down anyway and needed rocking to sleep (same for naps.)

Any advice appreciated. I need to go to work now but I'll check back later.

Hi rubyblueslippers, was just looking for advice on similar sleep after illness problem and found your post. sorry to see you didn't get any responses. how did you get on, hope things are much better for you all. any tips on breaking the sleep pattern post illness?

Poor little fella - hope he gets better really soon.

Has he always self settled in the past and has he been a good sleeper? In my experience a good self settler will naturally tend back towards that again. My 6 mo DS has contended with illness, teething and clingy growth spurts - and most recently a horrible cough - and i've had him in our bed with us to get him through the night comfortably. When he's feeling better he just goes for longer periods without waking and needing us. Or when he does wake he becomes gradually more effective at self settling if we place a comforter in his hand. When we're sure he's feeling better we don't go to him unless he's crying.

Don't even think about sleep training until he is completely over this - you may find you don't even need to resort to those measures because he'll manage it on his own.

I've had constant illness problems and generally have found that unless it's a long illness we went back to normal fairly quickly. Had to do a bit of training from time to time and hated it. Now going for gradual withdrawal option as my ds gets ill so often and I can't cope with anything more hardcore. He has come into our bed no trouble and gone back to his cot.

It's the worst aspect of it all - sleep training seems pretty temporary resolution!