20 months Old - No Sleep/Awakes Every Hour

Gumbo

Guys/Girls,

Appreciate any help, advice or recommendations here.
We have a 20 month old happy boy....until night time.

He will go to sleep at 8pm give or take every night and we get 3, maybe 4 hours of solid sleep from him but then every hour he will wimper and look for bottle.

He takes a few sips and turns around and goes back asleep for another hour! And this happens every hour until 7.30am when we all have to get up for work.
He wakes up in great form and is so bubbly and happy though.
He is itchy at night too, scratches his wrists, head, legs etc and i feel this is irritating him and causing him to wake in the first place.

We have tried every cream and medicine on the market, from Moo Goo, steroid cream, soothercream, cutting out bottles completely and this happens whether he is in his cot alone or in the bed with us.

Our last resort now is to try Dairy Free diet. Has anybody every done this and can give any recommendations on foods, milks etc?

im open to all forms of advice here, as myself and his mammy are about to lose the plot :eek:

Hannibal Smith

its not the washing detergent you're using on the clothes is it?

Gumbo

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

its not the washing detergent you're using on the clothes is it?

should of put that in, we swapped around from tesco, to Aldi to Fairy, the one with the baby on it at present and the problems persist.

Last night we stripped him of his baby grow too to try rule out that.

Gumbo

I dont know if it makes a difference, but he has 16 teeth down and number 17 wont be long. Im told this is quite a lot for his age

pwurple

Did you ask the doctor about the itch? Better to investigate that further before using the scatter-gun approach of restricting random food groups from his diet. Big changes in diet and routine will unsettle him for a while as well.

Can you leave a sippy cup within his reach so he can get his own drink without you waking?

pwurple

kceire wrote: »

I dont know if it makes a difference, but he has 16 teeth down and number 17 wont be long. Im told this is quite a lot for his age

Faster than average, but not particularly unusual. The last few teeth are sore alright, but my smallie is 21 months, with the full baby set of 20 teeth. the last 4 teeth came down without sleeping problems. A good bit of gnawing though.

She is eating like a demon though this week, and woke up at midnight last night asking for a cracker. Growth spurt for her I guess. Could he be hungry?

How long is it going on?

Gumbo

pwurple wrote: »

Did you ask the doctor about the itch? Better to investigate that further before using the scatter-gun approach of restricting random food groups from his diet. Big changes in diet and routine will unsettle him for a while as well.

We asked before and she recommended the steroid cream.

pwurple wrote: »

Can you leave a sippy cup within his reach so he can get his own drink without you waking?

We were planning on trying that tonight tbh.

pwurple wrote: »

Faster than average, but not particularly unusual. The last few teeth are sore alright, but my smallie is 21 months, with the full baby set of 20 teeth. the last 4 teeth came down without sleeping problems. A good bit of gnawing though.

he is chewing his hand off too, constantly for the last few weeks, which in turn leave his hands so dry and red looking

pwurple wrote: »

How long is it going on?

he has slept a full night on 5 occasions since birth, yes we have counted

Gumbo

Just to add :

His skin doesnt flare up red as such, its just very dry.
We use fairy washing powder also, don’t wash him in anything with fragrance like Johnsons, we only use Elave.

Is there anywhere that does testing for food intolerances for kids? Would this be worth looking into?

Frank Black

Stop giving him a bottle every time he wakes up.
He needs to learn to get himself back to sleep without a few comfort sips of a bottle.
You need to break the habit/cycle you are currently in or it will just continue.

goldenhoarde

my lad (3 1/2 now) has ichy and dry skin since he was a few months old and we use aveeno cream on him and it's great We get it in boots the pump dispenser one and when it flairs this usually sorts it in a few days

Gumbo

black francis wrote: »

Stop giving him a bottle every time he wakes up.
He needs to learn to get himself back to sleep without a few comfort sips of a bottle.
You need to break the habit/cycle you are currently in or it will just continue.

We tried that, went a week of not given it to him but he still woke crying and itching. just trying to get to the source of the waking up which i believe is the itching.

goldenhoarde wrote: »

my lad has ichy skin and we use aveeno cream on him and it's great We get it in boots the pump dispenser on and when it flairs this usually sorts it in a few days

thanks, i will pass this on but at this stage i think the creams are just masking the source

Gee_G

My little man has a touch of eczema on his face and like that, just dry all the time and only flares up sometimes. We have used everything too! He won't sleep if his skin is not moisturised properly, he will wake up constantly rubbing at his face, especially with the heating on etc it drives him mad. I use his hydrocortisone(sp?) Cream during the day when he needs it but I find the only thing that works at bedtime is vaseliNe. It seems to be the only thing that will not absorb. Stops him iTching and he sleeps!

newbie2

Hey OP,

Bad luck - I feel your pain. My son is 9 months but had/has all the symptoms you describe - bar the itching, but he does have very dry skin. We've used to Aveeno bath oil/cream to great success and we also smother him in silcocks Base (sp). We' don't really emjoy lashing on the Hydro-cortisone (sp) as it's a steroid and not good for kids IMO.

He had a terrible habit of waking every hour too and looking for a feed/comfort.

Over the last couple of months he was waking up and balling because we stopped feeding/lifting him. we decided to try the 'cry it out' method. Google it. It worked a treat and for the last week he's been sleeping from 8.00pm until 7.00am. Gift. It's a bit disturbing listiening to your child cry for ten minutes at a time - but it's well worth it. Good Luck

FWIW - our daughter slept from 5 weeks from 8.00pm until 8.00am. And still does, so maybe your next child will do that....;)

Gee_G

newbie2 wrote: »

Hey OP,

Bad luck - I feel your pain. My son is 9 months but had/has all the symptoms you describe - bar the itching, but he does have very dry skin. We've used to Aveeno bath oil/cream to great success and we also smother him in silcocks Base (sp). We' don't really emjoy lashing on the Hydro-cortisone (sp) as it's a steroid and not good for kids IMO.

He had a terrible habit of waking every hour too and looking for a feed/comfort.

Over the last couple of months he was waking up and balling because we stopped feeding/lifting him. we decided to try the 'cry it out' method. Google it. It worked a treat and for the last week he's been sleeping from 8.00pm until 7.00am. Gift. It's a bit disturbing listiening to your child cry for ten minutes at a time - but it's well worth it. Good Luck

FWIW - our daughter slept from 5 weeks from 8.00pm until 8.00am. And still does, so maybe your next child will do that....;)

I feel the same too about the hydrocortisone.try to only use it when his face flares up as I said. I Think their little face and skin is too delicate for it but unfortunately,its the only thing that clears it completely!

pwurple

On the itching thing, mine has excema, and we found it cleared up completely when we went on holiday, and was back with a bang when we came home. The only thing I could think of was that we had wool carpet, but holiday place was tiled. I replaced the carpet in her room, and it made a small difference (couldn't afford to do the whole house). Not saying it's the same for yours.. but it could be something like that?

I was going to say, repeatedly batter that doctors door down until you find something that works, or get referred to a dermatologist... but jaysus... 5 mights sleep in 20 months. Waking every hour... It does sound like he doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep when he comes into natural light sleep, and expects you every time. That must be exhausting, I don't know how you are functioning. Can you get a few nights break? Any family around to take over for a few nights so you can get your head back together?

LegacyUser

pwurple wrote: »

jaysus... 5 mights sleep in 20 months. Waking every hour... It does sound like he doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep when he comes into natural light sleep, and expects you every time. That must be exhausting, I don't know how you are functioning. Can you get a few nights break? Any family around to take over for a few nights so you can get your head back together?

Hold on...shouldn't their concern be for their child who cannot sleep a few hours without waking up itching??

You are recommending they "take a few nights break"??

This child does not need to learn to "put himself back to sleep" - he needs to be cured from this itching.

OP go to a dermatologist, the best you can afford. It is not normal for a child to scratch themselves constantly. Something is wrong.

Once you get to the bottom of it, he will sleep no problems. Ignore the "cry it out" mob. It is a repulsive practice.

Gumbo

pwurple wrote: »

On the itching thing, mine has excema, and we found it cleared up completely when we went on holiday, and was back with a bang when we came home. The only thing I could think of was that we had wool carpet, but holiday place was tiled. I replaced the carpet in her room, and it made a small difference (couldn't afford to do the whole house). Not saying it's the same for yours.. but it could be something like that?

Most of the house is tiles/wooden floored, but all the bedrooms have carpet alright, might be something to look at if it doesnt get sorted.

pwurple wrote: »

I was going to say, repeatedly batter that doctors door down until you find something that works, or get referred to a dermatologist... but jaysus... 5 mights sleep in 20 months. Waking every hour... It does sound like he doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep when he comes into natural light sleep, and expects you every time. That must be exhausting, I don't know how you are functioning. Can you get a few nights break? Any family around to take over for a few nights so you can get your head back together?

We are trying he no dairy rule from this morning for a week or so, after that its doctor/food intolerant test tbh.

We rotate most nights and in fairness he gets to stay in his nannies every now and again.

pwurple

I hope it does work. I know dairy and gluten are the current fashionable cause for all things (as candida was in the 70's). but as a mum with a kid with food allergies where we have a resttricted diet for her, please get professional advice rather than doing it on your own. Children are growing and developing so fast at that age, you need to make sure they get what they need from another source if you take something away. You can do long term damage with severe food restrictions if you don't manage the replacements. Thère has been a bump up in numbers of children with rickets in ireland, one of childrens main sources of dietary vit d is milk and cereal.

children develop eating habits so easily at this age too. Try the milk for a week maybe, tops. You don't want tocause a different problem, with a fussy eater on top of the rest.

They have allergy clinics in the major hospitals for children, the allergy nurses are fantastic there and can give you very detailed help.

Gumbo

Just an update to this :

Following our consultation with the specialist in Temple Street one month ago, we are still in the same boat! They recommended emolliant and the bandage wraps but these irritate him worse!

He wakes up scratching and frustrated as he tries to scratch his feet and toes.
The areas of concern seem to have moved to his wrists, knees and toes. which he will bite, scratch in what ever way he can.

His wrists, at times look like he has been trying to take his own lift they are so bad

We are back in Temple Street on Thursday for the one month check and are now looking at blood tests or allergy tests?

We have cleared his room of teddies and changed all his bedding to allergy free linen and we use Fairy Non Bio, but are open to swap the washing powder if required.

Hannibal Smith

The poor kid...hope you get some positive feedback on thurs and the tests give some results they can work with to make him feel better.

dublinlady

The poor pet - hope u get it resolved soon. Allergy testing such a good idea. I was a bit like this as a child and eggs and dairy ( only in my case) were the problem but my parents couldn't fathom it until I was tested. I had bad eczema but I grew out of it by the time I was about ten - both the allergies and the eczema.mbut I did spend a good part of ten years with various creams & bandages etc. I found diprobase cream the best - avail in pharmacies and in a large pump. When ur skin is quite bad any cream will cause increased itchiness for a few days but then should start to relieve it. watch out with the steroids as over using them can cause skin thinning , but very good for a week or two to resolve a flare up every now and again. Cream twice a day when u can, but no less than once a day!
Wishing u a quick remedy!!

Oral Slang

I was the same as a child - terrible bad eczema. Don't know if I was too bad as a baby, but remember tearing the skin off myself as a child. Grew out of it at 12 thankfully.

I empathise with you over the lack of sleep - my daughter who's 18 months goes down between 7 & 8 and usually sleeps 3 or 4 hours straight, but then wakes at least 3 times between 11 and 6.30. I know hers is because I'm still breastfeeding her. Am trying to cut it down at the min, so I can gradually night wean her. The sleep deprivation really does get to you. She slept through a few nights before she hit 6 months, but that was over a year ago, so seems like a very distant memory at this stage.