It sounds really awful. We tried CIO too because we were desperate and it backfired big time ... DD1 just freaked out anytime she thought we were going to put her in her cot. It was awful.

I am like Trish and can only offer suggestions ... have you thought about a nightlight or leaving the door open. All my kids when they have hit that age have liked having the door open though we did close it when they were smaller. They weren't in the cot anymore by that stage.

The other issue we had was DS1 started having night terrors around 18 months. I don't know if that is what is going on with your DD but that's what we had with DS and it was pretty full on for a few months. We figured out that when he first woke up, he would scream, but he wasn't really awake and us going in to him was just waking him up. We decided to just wait for a couple of minutes and see and he started settling himself.

I don't know if either of those suggestions are any help to you but I thought I would put it out there just in case.

I hope you find something that works for you soon