BIG sleep issue - can change in routine cause it?

As title suggests my Moo is having a huge sleep problem at the moment. It doesn't happen every night but when it happens it's extremely stressful.
In the last 2 weeks he has either screamed hysterically when going to bed or woken up in the night maybe 5 times. He goes for hours and nothing helps. I've tried rocking, singing, patting, play, water, snack, letting him go for 10 mins, co sleeping, climbing into his cot with him, whatever distraction I can think of. You name it, I've tried it. When I say nothing helps I mean literally he screams and cries no matter what I'm doing. I think he eventually just gets exhausted and that's why he falls back to sleep, not because I've actually done whatever it is that he needs/wants.
He has woken in the night and cried for 3 hours. Last night he didn't fall asleep until 10:30 pm after I tried putting him to bed at 7pm, I even took him for a drive. He didn't fall asleep but it did stop him crying as he LOVES car rides! Then he woke at 4am and cried for about 90 mins.
The only thing I've noticed that on each of these nights, he hasn't had a bath. He usually has dinner then has either a bath or shower before some quiet play and his bedtime routine. Not saying everytime he had a shower instead of a bath he has done this. But the times he has cried like this, he had a shower.
Can a child be so into their routine that it can cause this kind of upset? Am I clutching at straws?

Should add that he is currently in the process of weaning. He will only want a BF before bed maybe every 3 nights. I don't know if these are the nights he gets upset - but I did try feeding last night when he was crying the first time and he refused it.

We had this sort of issue with DS1 when he was the same age. It turned out to be related to his diet - he is cows milk and soy protein intolerant, and has salicylate sensitivity. Change in diet equaled different, happier child.

Do you think it could be something like that? Or do you feel it's more environmental? I feel your pain, DS would literally scream for hours on end, arching his back, thrashing around at times. It was miserable and heartbreaking :(

Good point, I will definitely keep an eye on his diet in case it is related. He could very well be in pain from the way he is screaming with his eyes squeezed shut :(

Do you have a family history of food allergies/intolerances? Keep in mind too that lots of kids are set off by additives.

I remember once seeing a blind girl being interviewed on Insight, and she was saying that she has showers in the morning because they wake her up, and baths at night because they calm her down. I've been thinking about this a lot lately because I've noticed that while DD has discovered a real love for showers, they do seem to give her a lot more energy! I guess maybe it's something to do with the spray of the water everywhere or something. Could your DS be getting overstimulated, and then overtired?

Another thought I had was, could he be in pain from teething? DD has had a few nights where she's just inconsolable from what we figure is teething pain - we give her a frozen teething toy to play with. Even if it's not teething, sometimes just the suddenness of the cold in her hands seems to be enough to distract her - we've literally had her go from screaming to a curious little 'ooh!' as soon as we give it to her - and then we can work on getting her back to sleep.

Good luck, I hope you can manage to figure it out soon :)

Not too sure, will have to ask mum! I know I couldn't eat certain 'colours' or 'numbers' as a kid.

Dharma - Yeah I originally thought teeth but Panadol/Nurofen/Brauers remedies don't stop him. Thanks darl.

DS1 definitely settles for bed much better when he has a bath (which is almost every night ;) he just misses the odd one if we're out etc) but the screaming stuff was in no way related to that. Completely different issue. Maybe try keeping a food and behaviour diary and see what you come up with. Feel free to ask any questions, should you have some :)

Thanks Janie. Yeah it's most likely just a coincidence in regards to the bath/shower thing!