WI/WO hasn't worked for us. Every time I leave the room, he stands up right away and works himself up into a frenzy and screams. At that point, nothing calms him down unless I pick him up. As soon as I even take a step back from his crib, he stands up. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?
Nope that's pretty normal for WI/WO. If you do WI/WO and then eventually pick him up, then he's not going to get anything from WI/WO and your picking up becomes a prop.
WI/WO Method
Follow your bedtime routine being certain that your child has sufficiently wound down from the day. When wind down is completed, lay your child down, tuck them in and use a phrase they can associate with it's sleep time such as "time to go night-night you can find your blankie/pacifier/suck your thumb/etc. to help you fall asleep." Leave the room. Stand outside of your child's door and assess the situation. It's important to distinguish between different types of cries and identify when your child is truly upset and when they may be settling themselves. Remain outside the room if your child is making fussy-type cries or noises. If crying is starting then stopping, hang back and wait. If crying escalates go in to resettle your child. Repeat your phrase "time to go night-night you can find your blankie/pacifier/suck your thumb/etc. to help you fall asleep" and leave again. Comforting should be brief and you should avoid picking up your child.
Upon leaving the room again, wait outside the door and reassess the situation. The amount of time you wait is determined by how your child is reacting inside. The key is to hang back enough to give your child space to fall asleep independently, but to respond to truly upset cries.
So the idea is to only go in if he is doing 'I need you' cries, not 'I want mummy's attention' cries. If you need to go in, you keep it short brief and just repeat the phrase.
This is for a kid who already knows how to sleep independently but has fallen off the wagon a bit due to development, illness, teeth, what have you.
Your LO is still learning to live without the night feeds, he got used to something he enjoyed, it became a sleep association and now he has to manage sleep on his own. It's hard for him. But you do still need to be firm and show him that you have faith that he can do it on his own. And that will take less intervention and less picking up.
He's young to be on 1 nap, but it's not unheard of. But that A time post-nap is really long. He could be having OT NW as well. You may want to try to alternate 1 and 2 nap days until he grows into his A times a bit more.
Since your LO is under the age of 12 mths (but just) - you may want to start with a gentler version of WI/WO as described here:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=62612.0Tracy recommends that WI/WO be reserved for LO's over the age of 12 mths. But you can combine the gentler version with other methods and gradually work up to WI/WO when LO is 12 mths or older.
