DD has never been brilliant with sleeping, she slept through from early on but getting her to sleep has always been a pain.

Well the past few months she's been ill on and off and her sleep routine has gone out the window. She's had times where she's slept in bed with me cos I was worried about her temperature etc. Or when she's fallen asleep early and got up in the middle of the night.

So the past week I've been trying to get her back to normal and it ain't happening.
She screams - I dont mean cries, I mean SCREAMS. It sounds like someone's killing her and I am getting worried now that I'm going to get reported to SS or something from the noise she makes.
I don't know what to do.

We've gone back to routine. Bath, cup of warm milk, 10 mins on sofa to calm down, bed, bt still SCREAMING.

Tonight I honestly felt like punching a wall.

At this age they do the screaming thing and not just crying thing. You just have to stick to your guns and do sleep training of your choice.Of course it will get worse before it gets better but the results will last a lot longer than a few nights of absolute suffering on your part.Hope you get this sorted. I'm sure the other posters who have done sleep training in the past would have some sleep training tips. Good luck!

A screaming baby is terribly nerve wracking. Ask me about it!

Since she hasn't had her regular bedtime routine for a while, it might take a while for her to get back into it.

Try singing to her, or putting on soft music. You can try this for a few days and see if it gets better, then slowly decrease the time that you sing for her or put on the music.

I know some will tell you to let her 'cry it out', but I wouldn't try it at this point, especially if she did not have a regular sleep routine until recently.

One thing is certain, when you put her in her bed for the night, don't take her out if she screams. Because then she'll learn that screaming helps!

Good Luck!

my 21 month old daughter recently climbed out her cot and hurted herself, so we decided it was time to get her a propper single bed. The first 2 nights were fine, she slept right through, then the novelty wore off and she wanted us to get into the bed with her, but i knew that was not the answer !... so i had to take charge lol.
my new routine is - supper, bottle, bath, story then i say calmly but firmly, "its time to go to sleep now", and with that i turn the light off and walk out and close her door. The first few nights she screamed MUMMY, DADDY for what seemed a life time, and the guilt i felt was terrible. But kids are like sponges, and they learn behaviour easily. I was reading on the net about sleep issues and it was saying that its not a good idea to bring a toddler into bed with you if they wake in the night, because they will not learn to "self settle". I also read about controlled crying, although i felt terribly guilty, i knew she wasn't harming herself in her room, and the good thing is she doesn't get out the bed and try to open the door. So the first night i let her cry for out for us, and when she finally went to sleep, she slept all night and me and my husband enjoy time together. The second night i just repeated the routine and left her to go to sleep, she cried a little less each night, until now she knows when i say " time for sleep " i mean it ...
sorry for writting a book here lol ^^^ .. but i hope i have helped x

Well her routine is

Dinner
Bath
Milk
10 Min TV
Book

DP bought her In The Night Garden CD so going to try that tonight too.

I do try to ignore her and we'll only go in the room when she's calmed down. I just hate the thought of her crying herself to sleep.

i know what u mean, its hard listening to a crying child...
hope ur LO gets settled soon x.x let us know if the CD works x

CD not worked. She's still awake!! YAWN

I'm reading this a few hours (probably) after you left her. So, how did she fall asleep?

I would just stick with it, don't go in after she's calmed down because that's probably going to upset her again after you leave. If she's getting really worked up I would go in and talk to her and rub her back, try and calm her down some, but stick to it, don't give in or it will just make it worse. I'm really not one for CIO with babies but I think toddlers it's completely different, she knows what's going on, you can explain to her more. Talk to her about bedtime coming up while yall are doing her bedtime routine and try and stick with it as close as you can until she gets back into that routine. I hope it gets better QUICK!!!

Well she finally fell asleep at 10:30pm (2 and 1/2 hrs after said bedtime!! grr) partly my fault as I fell asleep on the sofa with her in afternoon and she had a longer nap than she should have.

However, last night was horrendous. I went to bed about 11:30 and finally fell asleep about 12:15am. I put her in our bed for some reason I didn't think she was well. So I got woken up at 1:30am by her being sick EVERYWHERE.
I had to change the bed and put her in the bath, then as I took her out the bath to put back to bed she started being sick again so I had to put her (complete with towel wrapped around her) back in the bath and shower her off.
I then barely slept last night having to grab a towell to her mouth every hour or so cos she was throwing up again.
It was horrible watching it cos she was so upset while she was being sick.

I don't know what to do. She's been in her cot tonight since 7:30am asleep so hopefully we'll have an ok night tonight.