19mth son must have cuddle or hold hand to go to sleep

[ptm123]

I need some advice.  My 19th mth old was a good sleeper until recently when I went on holiday.  I used to be able to put him down to bed and leave the room and he would go to sleep alone.  However, since I went on holiday 3 wks ago he now either wants a cuddle to fall asleep or for me to hold his hand until he does fall asleep, this can be very time consuming and if he wakes up at night it means that I am loosing out on lots of sleep and am wrecked for work the next day.  How can I get him to go to sleep on his own and to sleep all night?  Our normal nighttime routine is to sit down together, for him to drink his bottle, then we read his books together and I bring him up to bed, give him a cuddle for a few mins and then put him into his cot, but as soon as I go to leave the room he starts to scream.  As soon as he hears me coming up the stairs again the crying stops. My question is should I just leave him to cry it out - until he eventually falls asleep.  When I have done this before he usually sleeps all night.  All replies greatly appreciated.

[MDHmommy]

Hi there PTM!
Sounds to me like he's got a bit of Separation Anxiety from your trip without him.
We don't typically reccomend cry-it-out based solutions here on the site, as that's not a technique that Tracy would have reccommended, for a number of reasons.
If you have left him to cry, it's possible that it may contribute further to his separation anxiety worse. What I'd suggest is having a look at the links that I'll post for you that discuss two techniques: gentle removal (of yourself) and walk in/walk out. You can decide which will work best for your child. Typically gentle removal works pretty well with toddlers who have separation anxiety.
In your case, since it's just at bedtime, not all night long, you might want to try sitting in a chair near the bed, and then moving farther away each night until you're out the door. And then after that, try Wi/Wo if you're still having troubles.

Hope this helps!

[MDHmommy]

Here's the link: https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=80750.0