Please help! 14 month old screaming all night!

[Anonymous]

The subject line pretty much says it all. For the past 10 days, my 14 month old has woken up at random intervals with blood curdling screams. He can and will scream for more than an hour without getting anywhere near putting himself to sleep. Sometimes I've been able to get him back to sleep after a couple of hours, other times he will doze in my arms but wake up shrieking as soon as I make a move to put him back in his crib. Had him checked for an ear infection late last week but he was clear. Last night he woke at 1am, even though he'd had Benadryl at 7pm (per ped's suggestion) and basically never went back to sleep in his crib - on my last attempt at 530am (his usual wakeup time) he jumped up grinning and so I just gave up.

THe only changes in his normal routine lately have been more whole milk (we have taken our time transitioning him since he only recently went off reflux meds and we didn't want to mess with his digestion any more than usual) and a transition to a new room at daycare, which has kicked off sudden separation anxiety (he used to be happier at daycare than at home.) But he's generally happy most of the day, except for the fact that he's increasingly exhausted, and he's had tons of exposure to cow's milk by now (including the fact that his formula Nestle GoodStart is milk-based.) Anyone else go through something similar? Any other suggestions for causes or remedies? I'm literally going out of my mind with hours of screaming.

[Anonymous]

Is he teething? That is all I can really think of. DD has been doing the same thing. First it was ear infection. Now, it is definitely her teeth. A little Tylenol helps before bed.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, that is rough. How does he do when he goes to bed? Are you able to put him down awake and he can settle himself to sleep? And what are you doing when he wakes up in the night? My 14 mo had issues in the middle of the night until we did some sleep training--but we had been rocking/nursing to sleep, and once we stopped that, our middle-of-the night wakings went away. Our problems started with a few illnesses, insomnia/hyperactivity that accompanied a course of oral steroids and albuterol nebulizer. and a lot of rocking/comforting that went with that. Good luck, and hang in there!

[Anonymous]

What's the status of his molars--my DD is 13 months and getting her molars and eye teeth and we see each other every two hours at night. Ugh. I feel your pain.

[Anonymous]

My money's on teething molars. My 17-month-old daughter has been teething 4 molars at once for a few months now and it seems a lot more painful for her than the previous teeth. (molars are bigger and have more edges that have to emerge instead of 1, so they hurt more.) She's woken us up plenty of times, screaming bloody murder. May also be gassy from the dietary changes?

We alternate Tylenol and advil on the bad nights. Doesn't stop her from waking up in the middle of the night when the meds wear off, but they help her get back to sleep for the rest of the night.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP - I could write your post, except I have a 14-month-old daughter! i think it has something to do with the daycare transition and separation anxiety because we noticed this behavior at night coincided around the same week that DD started transitioning into the Toddler room at her daycare. She used to love going to "school," but now sobs when we leave. She used to be a fantastic sleeper at night, but now wakes up wailing/screaming/standing and will not settle down. She will sleep in our arms (out cold!), but then wake and start wailing the second we put stand up and move toward the crib. It's like having an infant all over again!

I would agree that it's teething, except our DD is a very slow teether (only has two bottom teeth still), so there's no way she is getting molars. We also had her checked for ear infections, etc.

So....we are not having much luck, other than really trying to tire her out when she gets home from daycare. If she doesn't nap well at school we don't let her sleep in the evening and keep her up until bedtime. We also make sure she gets a nice warm bottle before bed (we resorted back to a comfort-bottle at night), and this has helped a bit.

i'm sorry you're going through this too!

[Anonymous]

OP here - I was all prepared to believe it was molar teething, since he seems to get teeth in batches of 4 and the last batch came about a month or six weeks ago.

HOWEVER, I called my ped's advice nurse after posting her to plead for any advice she might have and she unexpectedly offered me an appointment. Honestly I figured it was a waste of time but it turns out the little monster actually does have an ear infection. Last week, the ped who saw him only did a timpanogram and never actually examined my son's ears. I am not happy about this, except that I do recognize my son was in very happy charming form at that moment and I was perfectly persuaded that the normal timpangogram meant that it wasn't an ear infection. The ped even joked about it, saying I know you were probably hoping it was something treatable as opposed to teething, nightmares, etc and asked sort of humourously if I believed him (of course I said yes, as I did).

Today we saw a different ped in the practice who examined him closely and noted that one of his ear drums wasn't visible due to a big chunk of wax (yuk, sorry.) She removed it and found a raging ear infection. I'm posting just as a PSA to other parents - I learned a lesson to always make sure the peds examine the baby him/herself! We've been down the ear infection route lots before and I was told the timpanogram was very reliable, but evidently it doesn't work well with waxy ears. Sometimes I feel like a PITA bringing in one of my kids when they're not desperately ill, but I've had a bit of a wakeup call with this experience.

To the PP with a 14 month old daughter going thru separation anxiety, is there any chance that you use a DC-based daycare with a half day tomorrow? I'm curious only because my son was moved up to the toddler room with another little girl! Either way, good luck to you and all the fussy 14 month olds!

[Anonymous]

I was going to guess molars as well.

It could also be a mix of molars + digestive issues with whole milk...even though formula is milk based, whole milk is still generally harder on their systems than formula.

[Anonymous]

Its been a month - has it gotten any better for any of you?

My 16 month old son is doing the exact same thing. His 4 molars are almost completely in, so I don't think its that. He did this a few weeks ago and it turned out at his 15 mo well baby check that he had a raging ear infection. I just took him to the dr again on Tues for croup. She said his ear healed fine (the eardrum had ruptured) but as it was a little red she gave us more antibiotics just in case. And now he's screaming at night again. Absolutely all out bloody murder. And going in to his room just makes it worse because he thinks its play time and cries harder when we leave. Rocking him back to sleep is possible but he always wakes and starts screaming again when we put him in the crib.

Help! Did the phase pass for you all?

[Anonymous]

My DS just started doing this (10 months) and I am wondering whether it's an ear infection either. He's not pulling on his ears or anything, but the sleep is disruptive.

To all the PP's -- were there other signs of ear infection?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Our 14 month old daughter is going through the same stage. I was convinced it was her molars coming in. Took her to our ped, she said they are not that bad yet and probably not the cause for her screams at night. Even though our ped told us once her teeth didnt look that bad and two days later we had a set of brand new teeth, so not always they can see everything....Her ears looked good. Sometimes I think its behavioral stage we are going through, sometimes I feel there is something we are missing and she is in pain of some sort. We dont go to day care, Im a stay at home mom so its no separation anxiety issue. I do know that at this age stranger anxiety is at its peek but its not relevant to us. So, Im at a loss just like most moms for a good answer, just hoping this will pass too.

[Anonymous]

my 13 month old is doing the EXACT same thing. I took her to the emergency room after 5 days of her not asleeping AT ALL. come to find out she has a bladder infection...........4 of the 7 days on the meds and she is still screaming bloody murder. thankfully we go to the family docs in 4 days....i going to ask for a full exam because this is just getting rediculous!

[Anonymous]

It's nothing physical but rather separation anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it passes in a month or so just make sure you don't try to let them cry it out as it will only make the issue worse. My oldest wouldn't even nap on her own without waking up screaming. Both of my children were back to sleeping through the night within a month to a month and a half. Still those were the worst periods we went through with them (they are now 4 and 7).

[Anonymous]

That sounds like reflux/gas to me. We've had that too. We either gave reflux meds or mylicon. Whole milk is very hard for reflux. Try switching to 1 or 2% and see if that makes a difference. We ended up doing toddler formula as milk caused serious issues. Google toddler reflux diet and there are lists of foods to stay away from.

Benadryl makes my child hyper and is a nightmare for getting him to sleep.