Difficult toddler - hard to get to sleep

[irishmum]

Hi

I have a 10 month old baby girl, who is a really good content child.  up until the last couple of weeks she was going to bed by herself and rarely waking in the night.  Now it is a different story!  I am finding it so hard to get her to bed and if she does  go down by herself she will waken through the night and if her dad goes to her she will scream and scream until i get there or until she is in our bed.  I really don't want to have her in the habit of sleeping with us as she has had the independence of sleeping by herself in her own room since she was 3 months old.  Again, if i go to her in the night i have to sit with her for up to an hour or MORE to try get her to sleep and this carries on through the night.

She would normally have a morning nap but the same applies.

I am really at my wits end and would really love a decent sleep with out having to resort to giving her calpol or dozol to get her down.

I would be delighted for some suggestions.

[Duckie]

Given her age I'm wondering if it is separation anxiety?  I remember Andrew going through something similar at that age.  Does she have a lovey?  Andrew had (and still has  ) his Lala (a koala bear) that he has slept with for as long as I can remember.

Compounding the situation is the fact that if she isn't napping, she's probably overtired as well.

[isaac'smom]

I would try to be consistent (I know, easier said than done when it's 3:30 in the morning and you just want to go back to bed! ). If you don't want her back in your bed, don't cave in and let her come to your bed (unless that's what you want, but it sounds like you don't want to start that again). She'll eventually get the idea. I found that as long as I was consistent... just went in ds' room, laid him back down, walked out, waited and listened, he eventually realized, 'okay, Mommy's not going to come in and cuddle me/rock me/take me to her bed'. I know that 'just be patient' isn't an instant solution...I remember wanting a magic solution when I was in your boat, but trust me, if you're patient and consistent it will work.

Since you're having these problems at nap time too and, as the previous poster said, she's probably overtired, I would start trying to improve the nap and then things might fall into place.

Could it be teeth?