Help! 12mo having a teething nightmare!

[Nb1984]

Hi there,

My DD was 1 last Friday, about a month ago she cut 3 teeth in a week and it was pretty rough, she is a 'textbook' baby and I have been following the EASY routine with her since about 8 weeks.  She struggled through the nights when she was teething and I was worried I had ruined everything as I was having to rock her off to sleep almost every night.  She was off her solids but all seemed to get back on track.

About a fortnight ago she started EW, she usually sleeps 7-7, so I checked on this website and saw the post about the 10/11mo sleep problems and we changed her naps.  She was napping 1hr30 in the mornings and 1hr and sometimes 1hr15 in the afternoon.  Last Tuesday I cut her morning nap to 1hr 15 and only allowed her an hour in the afternoon, by Thursday morning she slept til 7, yay!

Anyway, we celebrated her birthday on Friday and then come Sunday she was grizzly and had a temperature, that night she woke about 2am and took about an hour to resettle, which is unlike her.

Since Sunday she has been awake for anything up to 4 hours a night, screaming the house down.  She has never been much of a crier so she must be in real agony.

Last night was the worst night waking so far, I was out with friends and me coming home at 10.30pm woke her and she went crazy.  She is refusing any milk apart from her morning bottle of 4oz, and eats no solids.  I tried to offer her milk & she wouldnt take it and I gave her nurofen & calpol and after 3 hours I eventually put her in the car and went for a drive as she was so angry that nothing I could do would settle her.  She eventually went to sleep about 1am as she was exhausted.  Again it is unusual for her to wake at me coming in, usually nothing would stir her from her sleep!

Today she has been so miserabe, and pretty much inconsolable at times, nurofen isnt even taking the edge off.  Today she has drank 4oz of milk at 7am and since then eaten a few hula hoops and half a fish finger!  She refused her bedtime bottle so I put her down and 10 mins later she cried like nothing I have ever heard before, she was hurling herself around so much that I thought I would drop her.  Again, after an hour and a half I took her in the car as neither me or my husband were tolerating her screams and all the face scratching etc any longer.

Sorry for the long post but  literally dont know what to do, am I missing something?  Can this really all be due to teething?  Have I cut her naps too much?  Thank you so much for reading this far, I am desperate!"

[Motmom]

Hi there,
Sorry your are going through such a hard time, and your lo too, it always seems to happen, they are in the perfect routine and then bang....something happens.
My ds #1 was also a text book baby, slept through etc except for when he was ill or teething.
I am always very aware of the link between ears and teeth in little people, does your lo have a temp? do you think it could be connected to ears?? have you taken her to see a doc, just for a general consult, considering it is very out of character?? It is almost a week now so maybe it wouldnt be any harm and in any case it could rule a few things out for you and perhaps doc could offer some other advice??

My DS #1 went on hunger srtike around the time of his 2nd birthday, it was totally linked to teeth, he was in very bad form, ate practically nothing, sleep was all over the place..... there was a lot going on and you wonder to yourself how am I going to fix all these little problems to get things back to how they were before!!

I hope things get sorted for you soon xx

[Nb1984]

I haven't, I felt silly as I did last time & the GP sort of made me feel silly saying 'it's just teeth.'

I had so many ENT issues as a child, grommets twice, glue ear recurrently and perforated ear drum etc so yes I think you might be onto something! She has a temp on Monday & Tuesday but not so much yesterday & today.

Thank you so much for your reply! I am so worried that with all this sending her to sleep by driving that she will forget how to self settle! Did your LO just settle back into routine once teething/illness was out the way?xxx

[Motmom]

Sod your GP, you are doing your best as a mother and for them to make you feel silly or anything other tahn a wonderful mother is plain rude..
I would deff consider ear issues especially if you had them yourself. My mom has had ent issues all her life and so too has one of my brothers, I think this is where I get the obsession with ears from!!
DS did settle back into routine after illness etc, he is now 3 and I now have a 9 month old too, It is soooooooooo horrible when they are sick and you feel like nothing you are doing is rectifying any of the problems!!! its frustrating!! and especially when you think, gosh, is it gonna be like this forever, when in reality we now that theses days of our babies being little are gone all toooo fast!!

I think a trip to your doc would be a good idea, if they make you feel silly,switch to another doc that a friend or family member can recomend, after all, we take our children to doctors because we are concerned not to waste their time, any doctor who is a parent of a small child will understand!! I am sooooooooooooooooooo lucky to have a really supportive family doctor who never minds a visit at any hour !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Best of luck with all xx

[~inbalance~]

I would go to the doctor too.  I could be *just* teeth, but it does sound like she might have an ear infection.  My DS2 was just like this when he had one.  Never hurts to get it checked out.