Sleep problems with toddler

Stephen P

I'm looking for advice/tips on dealing with sleep problems with a 19 month old toddler. She's been the perfect sleeper from very young until about a month ago.
We put her to bed about 7.30pm. She gets a story in her cot. We leave her then and she starts crying calling me or mama over and over until one of us goes into her. I had a look on Google and got a tip to pick them up and calm them and put them back down, go out of room and if she starts crying wait 5 mins and go back in and repeat. This kinda worked at the start but not so much now. It's like she justs wants to cuddle one of us and be in our arms. She wakes during the night too once or twice and crys for mama or dada. We'be taken her into our bed a couple of nights until she's asleep and then put her back into her cot but I know this is creating a whole new problem which we always said we wouldn't do.
We thought she might be afraid of the dark so got a night light in her room, I don't think this has had much effect. She gets a nap in the middle of the day. It used to be about 2 hours but have reduced it to 1 this week but hasn't made a difference.

Has anyone come across this before? Anything else we can try?

livinsane

It could be just a developmental stage. There was a major study done on infant/child behaviour which resulted in a highly regarded book called The Wonder Weeks. It identifies certain periods in which babies are more likely to be fussy and unsettled but also outlines the developmental changes they are going through at the time. It is pretty bang on, I've found. There is a stage which I've heard people refer to as the "Leap of Doom" which occurs around 17 months after baby's due date (Leap 10 in the book). Maybe give a read online about it. It won't fix how her sleep is affected but might give you an insight into what may be going on in her head.

Stephen P

livinsane wrote: »

It could be just a developmental stage. There was a major study done on infant/child behaviour which resulted in a highly regarded book called The Wonder Weeks. It identifies certain periods in which babies are more likely to be fussy and unsettled but also outlines the developmental changes they are going through at the time. It is pretty bang on, I've found. There is a stage which I've heard people refer to as the "Leap of Doom" which occurs around 17 months after baby's due date (Leap 10 in the book). Maybe give a read online about it. It won't fix how her sleep is affected but might give you an insight into what may be going on in her head.

Thanks for the reply. I'll definitely look into that, cheers. She slept through the night last night so she might be passing the stage now.

LegacyUser

Developmental. Our 2.5 year old hit them all. Sleep is always the first to be affected......
I think your pick up and calm thing is fine, just stick with it for several nights. It takes 3-5 nights for the message to sink home, maybe even up to 10 days, so run with it if you're happy to. She's heading for the terrible twos and I found with my little one (and others) that they don't actually start at 2, more like....20/21 months onwards. I'd leave her with the two hour nap for now too, waking her after 1 hr might actually be making her overtired and resulting in her finding it harder to sleep.(well....that's how it seems to work in this house....)

Stephen P

shesty wrote: »

Developmental. Our 2.5 year old hit them all. Sleep is always the first to be affected......
I think your pick up and calm thing is fine, just stick with it for several nights. It takes 3-5 nights for the message to sink home, maybe even up to 10 days, so run with it if you're happy to. She's heading for the terrible twos and I found with my little one (and others) that they don't actually start at 2, more like....20/21 months onwards. I'd leave her with the two hour nap for now too, waking her after 1 hr might actually be making her overtired and resulting in her finding it harder to sleep.(well....that's how it seems to work in this house....)

She hasn't woke for the last 3 nights so looks like it is developmental. We're dreading the "terrible 2's"

finooola

Hi guys. We're having trouble putting our little lad to bed. He used to go up no bother, we'd read him two stories then say goodnight and leave the room. He's 22 months and suddenly he needs one of us in the room with him until he falls asleep, and he will cry hysterically if we try to leave. And it takes ages! Not coincidentally, this has started since his baby sister has arrived. He's also become obsessed with daddy since the baby came, and won't even let him go to the bathroom. We were thinking someone other than daddy should do bedtime and that might help change things a bit (me or nana/granda) but last time I triexto take him when I asked him to say goodnight to dada he went mad.

Any suggestions? When we were originally getting him into a sleep routine we did the leaving the room for 5 minutes, then 10 etc. and it worked well, but I don't think it would work now with his current age/mood.