Sleeping and Weeping Problems

Are you positive that she doesn't have an ear infection? My older son has never had one, but the only way we could tell that our younger son had one is when we put him to bed he would cry. Our pediatrician told us that when you lie a child with an ear infection flat, it increases the pressure in his or her ears, which is painful and why they cry after being put to bed. When your raise her head back up again (ie when you are holding her), it decreases the pressure, which allows her to sleep again comfortably. Maybe this is why she cries every time you lie her back down again? I'm sure you're pretty familiar with her symptoms that are specific to an ear infection being that she's had them quite often, but I just thought I would pass on what happened to us. Hope it helps!

Try a Chiropractor...I cant tell you why it worked but the best thing i could of done.

Hi K.-

I know exactally what you are going through... I have children about the same ages as your. My son who is now 19months old was the same way as your 17month old. He also, has had trouble with illness like asthma and RSV and pnemonia since he was an infant. I learned real quick that his sleep problems at night were pretty much my fault. I am a single mom and I have a hard time hearing my baby cry so I go to him. I used to be able to look at the clock and know exactally when he'd be waking up. He used to always wake up about 3 times a night at the same times. Because he used to be sick and stuff he used to nap more during the day and was getting too much sleep then. Also, he found that if he cried I'd hold him till he was back to sleep. I talked to my doctor about 3 months ago about his sleep habits and she gave me the best advice ever. She had me shorten his naps during the day and to just let him cry at night. I followed this advice, gave him a blanket and a stuffed animal to cuddle with at night. It really helped shortening up his naps and daycare follows the schedule too and I usually try and give him a bath before bed and a little snack and we cuddle and read a book and stuff and I put him to bed no matter what at the same time every night while he is still awake and turn his night light on and say goodnight and leave the room. At first he cried a lot, but now he sleeps perfect from 8pm to 7am. No problems anymore. It took about a week of hearing him wake up and cry but each night the crying was less and less. It was hard, but I did it and now I get sleep at night and he is happier and has more energy and less crabby cause he is getting better sleep. DOn't know if this will help you but I hope so. I wish you luck, I know what its like.

Hmm, its tough to say what might help your daughter. I suspect that many of her sleep problems do have to do with her repeated ear infections. Of course I'm sure you know that it is terribly painful for little ones to sleep with ear infections and so she probably hasn't had much opportunity to get her sleep sorted out, especially while contending with other transitions like moving, etc.

This may just be a tough phase that she is going through. Whenever my son has sleep problems, we try to tighten up the routine and do everything really consistently for a week or so. We're fairly patient with nighttime wake-ups during a transition time and try to do a reasonable amount of comforting until we're back into a routine. It is definitely frustrating to deal with sleep problems in an older child, though, because it seems like they should have the hang of sleeping by now.

I would try not to bring her back to bed too often if you don't want her to get used to sleeping there. I know its so tempting because you're just exhausted, but I'd try to stay in her room and just pick up and snuggle and then put her back in her crib and leave (and repeat as needed). It will probably be an exhausting few weeks, but it will be better than months of her sleeping with you.

Good luck - these sleep problems are really challenging.

Both my daughter have different needs regarding sleep and they both now 5 yrs and 2 yrs needed much more attention in the first 2 years as in having difficulty getting to sleep on their own and staying in bed all night. After our 2nd who is a much better all night sleeper than our first was, I have come to really believe that when they cry and seek you out repeatedly, there is a real need to confort them and we found it much better to allow them to either be in bed with us, or to lay in their beds with them to get them sleeping soundly again. The cry it out method just did not work and my insticts told me they truly needed me to feel secure. You may wantto consider a twin bed in the 17 mthold room to help the tranisiton.

This is also the time that they start having nightmares. My son has nightmares and night terrors. The night terrors are crying and screaming despite anything you do and it will seem like they're are still out of it. There isn't much you can do for them. They usually go away on their own or at least become less frequent.