15 month old screaming and crying before bedtime, makes himself vomit

[avalon]

Our 15 month old son was doing really well with self soothing to fall asleep at night.(Has slept through the night since he was 3 months old)  Past 3 weeks freaking out at bedtime.  Cries as soon as we start his routine, we don't even get the chance to place him in his crib.  He cries so hard he makes himself throw-up.  His molars are coming in and he has some allergies(seasonal).  The allergy medicine seemed to help for a few days but now we are back with the screaming.  We have tried to adjust his naps.  He was taking a 3 hour afternoon nap we have slowly changed this to 1 -1 1/2 hour.  Never lasting past 3pm.  Last night the second time we tried to put him to sleep (first time he screamed in my husbands arms and threw up) he read his books on the floor and then crawled up to a pillow and put himself to sleep. (10 at night)
We used acidental parenting several nights because he was soooo upset.
I could really use some advice.  His whole routine is a mess because he is sleeping real late to make up for the late hour of falling asleep. 

[Florencia]

Is he going down ok for naps? Could you post his regular schedule and a hint on the new one to help us figure things out?

My first guess was teething pain. It can get worse in the late hours of evening. Try some meds for the pain (tylenol, motrin... whatever your ped ok's) 30 mins before bedtime to see if it helps him relax and make less fuss when going down. Also, by all means, try to put him down at his usual bedtime. Try comforting him with some pat/shsh or putting him down, place your hand in his forehead or rub his back to see if that helps him to feel acompanied while drifting off to sleep.

Waiting for your post back and see if we can come up with something!

[avalon]

His is def. teething.  We have tried the motrin, I am thinking that I haven't given to to him early enough to take effect.

His schedule before this was:

woke:  7:45am-8am
Breakfast:  8:15, 8:30
active play from 9-10:30
Lunch 11:30/12:00
Nap:  12:15-3:00
snack:  4:00
play: 4:30-5:30
Dinner 6
Bath 7:15
Bed: 8pm


We have since tried cutting the afternoon nap to an hour&1/2 and bath and sleep a bit earlier.

[avalon]

Sorry forgot to mention.  He goes down forour nanny with no problem, doesn't cry.  He does cry for our Mom's when they babysit, but for only a min. or so.  He only does this for us.  He does have 4-6 oz of milk ..wondering if he has lactose intolerance.  He does fine with yogurt and cheese.

[Florencia]

it looks to me that he was quite the champ sleeper before this strike!!!! maybe he still needs his nap to be long. I'd try, instead of limiting the nap to 1.5 hrs, maybe just put him down later, say 1230 - 1245 (if he wakes at and limit the nap to be 2-2.15 hours long. That should be enough for him to get the rest he needs in the midday but also prevents him for being overtired at night. Since you say he goes down easy for naps and gets super fussy for bedtime, it looks like he might be overtired then. If he wakes from his nap at 230-245 instead of the 130 that you say you're waking him, he might go down easy then.

You mentioned he's having seasonal allergies, which can also lead us to think about lactose intolerance... worth a visit to the ped so he can give you some light on that insight. You can also try posting in the Health/Medical advice forum for info on this. Because yes, if he's having an upset tummy at night, I know first hand (having tacos for dinner for example LOL) that it can prevent you from going down easily...

Good luck this weekend!

[avalon]

Since positing, we had three nights in a row that he went down without much fuss, he is def. in the throngs of seperation anxiety and his molars are coming in.  We altered his dosage of Motrin after speaking with the Ped.  Gave it to him a bit earlier in the evening so it was in his system....made a huge difference.  Also, we use to play Baby Einstein on the DVD for him, it used to settle him, but I think it was actually stimulating him too much.

Thanks for all the advice.  Hopefully this will last!!!!