Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

Does anyone have experience with separation anxiety in toddlers but only bad at night.

DS is almost 2. He is in daycare and definitely has days where he cries when he is dropped off but is fine within a few minutes.

It is nighttime that we are having an issue. He falls asleep no problem but if he wakes he scream bloody murder until we get him. He will not fall back asleep without us there.

I am def a fan of CIO but in this case its not working.....I have tried telling him we are right next door and we aren't leaving but he gets so upset.

Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

I literally JUST went through this. My DD would go to bed fine, but would wake at night and needed me there to fall back asleep.

I entertained it for a few nights, and if there was ever a night she didnt' wake I praised her like crazy. Eventually I stopped going in and she didn't get as crazy. After about a week we are back to normal. I find most things like this are a phase and you just have to power through them.

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

is it possibly night terrors?

Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

A friend of mine just went through this with her 2 yr old. She used the "ferber" method when her DD was a baby, so she tried that again and found that only made things worse. They eventually just had to let her CIO, which is what her pediatrician actually recommended. After about 2-3 nights, she started sleeping again. I think the Dr told her it was just a phase. Actually, another one of our train friends has a 2 yr old son and about a month after my friend went through this with her DD, he went through it with his DS.

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

DD is 18 mo and she started to do this as well with some variation.
Either she wont go to bed fights it like crazy, wakes up screaming until we get her back to sleep or wakes up hysterical like full on freak out.
Im praying its a phase. My friend tells me this is the time that if you can cause bad habits in them.

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

My dd is 18 month and has been like this for 4 months now! It's horrible!!! We've tried CIO it won't work because she is relentless will cry for hours and the rest of us get no sleep. She starts screaming I want mommy, I want daddy, I got poopy, I got a boo boo whatever it takes to make us come running. We have to hold her until she falls back off. Some nights she sleeps until morning and other nights she will get up multiple times. I'm so defeated at this point and hoping she will grow out of it!

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

We go through this in spurts. The first time it start was this summer when DD was 2.5 and she started a separation class. I think the class triggered the nighttime separation anxiety. She had a hard time falling asleep and then staying asleep. DH and I would go in, take turns soothing her, but not giving her what she wanted: to sleep in our bed. After a while though, I had to let her CIO a little. I would tell her I loved her and that she was safe and that we were right across the hall, but she had to sleep. She's in a toddler bed, so I had to put a gate on her door. She'd cry for a few minutes and then she'd be over it and fall back asleep. Then out of nowhere it'd just stop. It started up again this fall when she started a nursery school program (even though she didn't cry when I left her at school), but then got back to normal. Last night, she did it for the first time in a while. Hopefully it's not a new wave of it.

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???

Re: Separation anxiety at night in a toddle???