Can anyone give me some ideas on how to help a toddler with sleeping difficulties? Jacob developed some sleeping problems when he was 6.5 months old and we had a stay in a Mother & Baby Unit that practised gentle settling techniques and through that, we had some success and I feel like we've got a fair bit of knowledge when it comes to settling/soothing techniques. None of which is helping us now though, let me assure you! LOL

A few weeks ago, Jacob was unwell and since then, his sleep has been awful (not to mention the tantrums!). He's having 1 sleep a day which is around 2 hours on average (sometimes more, sometimes less). He normally goes to sleep by 7.30. He has decided that he won't go to sleep at this time any more though and will scream the house down. He has been getting himself really distressed at both his day and night time sleeps - screeching, screaming, crying hysterics, whenever you leave the room.

I was starting to think perhaps he didn't need a day time sleep any more, but he certainly does as he gets way too cranky otherwise and I don't think he'd last the day out.

I just don't understand why he's getting himself so worked up at sleep time. He hasn't done this since he was 9 months old - it is like he has lost all ability to self-settle and has regressed significantly on that front. He will wake frequently during the night (although some nights only once or twice which is a blessing) but this is really tiring for us all. Not having him go to bed until 9pm or after (and this is after spending perhaps an hour or more trying to settle him) means no "us" time either (relationship-wise). He will happily chat and play in his cot when he's put to bed - provided you stay in the room with him. If you leave, then all hell breaks loose.

Any ideas?? Furthermore, over the past week, regardless of the time he goes to sleep of an evening, he still wakes at the same time. Prior to this week, if he went down later, he would sleep in longer (there were days when he'd still be in bed at 9.30 am), but I attributed some of this to illness and recuperating (some nights he slept for 14 hours whilst unwell and recovering).