Toddler crying out for hours at night

[xarlenex]

Hello all, looking to see if anyone has any suggestions or perhaps has gone through anything similar. My friend's 22 month old toddler has been a great sleeper from weeks old. Would sleep anywhere from 6-7pm until 7-9am, shes always had a very good bedtime routine, knowing she was doing this on her own she's always put alot of effort into making sure it went right. Winding down time, bath time, straight to bed and shes always fallen asleep herself with white noise and a comforter no issues whatsoever.

Fast forward to roughly 18 months and she's started crying out in her sleep. Perfectly normal sleep regression my friend thought but it's not got any better. She'll still go to sleep fine, she is often the one who will gesture to go up the stairs for bedtime. The crying out tends to start a few hours after she's gone to sleep, it usually goes on for hours. When she stayed with me it went on from 10.30ish until roughly 3-4am. It's not screaming associated with night terrors or anything. It's four or five loud cries, enough to wake everyone then she'll stop, sometimes for a couple mins, others up to 10-15mins, then she'll do it again, but it goes on for HOURS. It's not every night but most nights. During this time she still has her white noise and her comforter, she's tried a nightlight and it doesn't make a difference. She's tried giving her supper incase it was hunger. but again no success. She's tried stopping the white noise once shes asleep but that seemed to make it worse.

I should mention she was a late bloomer physically in meeting her milestones but was assessed by a pediatrician who said she was just a little lazy, she's caught up now and is walking. She doesn't say many words herself but has started trying to copy words more often.

Any suggestions? Sorry for the essay and thanks in advance!

 

[SarahBear]

Has she tried sleeping in the same room? Does that change anything, or still the same?

 

[xarlenex]

Its worse if they share a room, it becomes proper hysterical crying.

 

[jessmke]

Is she getting teeth? My LO's did/do this when they are teething, they wake briefly at night and cry for a minute but by the time I get up to go in to them they are back asleep. Only to repeat the process 30 min later. Maybe it's growing pains? Have they tried giving her any calpol to see if that helps? I'm not a big advocate of medicating babies unnecessarily, but it would be one way to rule pain out as a cause of her crying. She might be going through a ph are where she just need some reassurance/comfort in the night. Do they go in to her when she is crying or just let her cry on/off for hours?

 

[xarlenex]

She has many teeth already, she has tried calpol on occasion incase she's been in pain but it's made no difference. There isn't any form of comfort you can give her that seem to make a difference, she's tried both letting her cry it out and going in, as have I when she's stayed here. Neither makes a difference whatsoever. I feel so helpless for her, she's an exhausted single working mummy who really needs more than 3 hours straight sleep!

 

[VALiz]

Gas pains, reflux, constipation, food allergies?

 

[SarahBear]

She has many teeth already, she has tried calpol on occasion incase she's been in pain but it's made no difference. There isn't any form of comfort you can give her that seem to make a difference, she's tried both letting her cry it out and going in, as have I when she's stayed here. Neither makes a difference whatsoever. I feel so helpless for her, she's an exhausted single working mummy who really needs more than 3 hours straight sleep!

Has she spoken to her pediatrician?

 

[xarlenex]

In the uk the kids are registered to a regular GP, she hasn't spoken to the Dr about it because she thinks she'll be palmed off as it being normal for kids to not sleep through.

How would you figure out if it were a food allergy issue? It's hard to explain because she doesn't appear to be in any sort of actual physical discomfort. She tried lavender oil this week and she's had a couple of nights of success.