What if your 11-month-old wakes up screaming at night? The baby in the Q&A recently started this behavior and we try to sort out why.
A lot of parents have added their thoughts or similar experiences too.
Mom’s Question:
My daughter just turned 11 months. Lately she has been waking up in the middle of night SCREAMING. Even when I pick her up, she is still screaming. She has screamed so loud and hard that I have considered taking her to the hospital. She already takes pepcid, mylanta and motrin before bed, and she has been waking up for 6 months or so.
She has slept through the night without making a peep on many occasions, but wakes up more often than not. Since she has been doing this for so many months, we have tried to sleep train her and let her cry it out, which has worked, but then a few nights later or so, she is back to screaming. I wouldn’t be so bothered by it if she just woke up and went back to sleep, but she even cries in my arms or in my bed. I’ve seen her fall asleep on me and wake up screaming.
She has a bedtime routine, and goes to sleep in her crib on her own, awake, each night. She also goes to sleep on her own for naps. I have taken her to the doctor about 8 times, convinced she had an ear infection after these types of nights and she never has anything wrong with her. She is already on a special formula (alimentum) although at 10 months she was switched to a sensitive similac formula to try to get her ready for milk. I would normally think it was a change in formula that is affecting her, but she acted this way on alimentum as well.
I truly believe there is something bothering her and I nor the doctors can figure it out. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Possible Reasons When 11-Month Old Baby Wakes up Screaming or Crying at Night
You seem to be having a tough time, and your daughter too! A few possible reasons that come to my mind.
Acid reflux
I assume your daughter been checked for reflux considering her medication? Acid reflux could be a reason why she wakes up crying, i.e. if stomach acids are giving her heartburn. Usually babies tend to grow out of reflux at around 1 year old, but not all do.
Try elevating the crib some 30 degrees to see it it helps.
It may also be that you should definitely discuss the medicaton with her doctor, since it it might need adjustment as she grows.
You can read more about acid reflux here.
Night terrors or nightmares
While night terror usually occurs for babies older than 1 year, may be that could be something your daughter has. If your baby seems to still be asleep or at least doesn’t recognize you and is very hard to console, it could be night terror. One of our kids had that for a couple of months at around 1,5 years old. It is quite scary, but the child is not awake and doesn’t remember the episode in the morning.
If you think it might be night terror, don’t try to wake her up. Just be there for her, talk to her gently, snuggle her and wait for the terror to pass. If it comes on very regular times at night, you can try waking her up about 15 minutes before every night for a week to break the “habit”. This might make the terror go away.
If your baby does wake and responds to you while screaming, she might be having nightmares rather than night terrors. Nightmares happen to all children (and adults). Try minimizing any TV (even if it is just the TV being on while she is playing next to it) in the evening and a calm, cosy evening time to see if it helps.
Read more about night terrors and nightmares here.
Food Allergy or Intolerance
A third possible reason could be some food allergy, if , for example, your baby seems to have tummy pain and is very gassy or constipated. If you ahve recently introduced some new types of food, reverse that and see if it helps.
Teething
At her age, she could also be teething, and thus in pain. Read about safe teething remedies here.
Reaction to her Medication
You mention that your baby gets Motrin before bed. I don’t know why this is, of course, but one known side effect of Infant Motrin is tummy issues and abdominal pain. You can check out Motrin side effects here. (externa link, opens in new window.)
Those were a few ideas. But I’m not a doctor and as a MOM I think you’re doing the right thing by not giving up. Talk to another doctor for a second opinion! Also read here about another baby that screams at night.
I wish you good luck!
Paula
Update: This question has generated a lot of comments and discussions. Join in below! :-)
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My 11 month old son has been keeping up all times through out the night , he used to sleep through the night or just wake up here and there but lately he’s been waking up just screaming so loud everyone in my house wakes up , he sounds as if someone’s hurting him or scaring him , I try patting his back and rocking him and giving him a bottle but he’d rather just cry and scream and I’m starting to become sleep deprived I have no idea what to do but it makes me cry because I’m not entirely sure how to help him idk if I should tell his doctor or try figuring it out
I am having an issue with my daughter sleeping and this has been going on since she was born. At first it was colic due to a milk protein allergy so she was switched to a formula for that and still up most of the night screaming for hours. Now she is 15 months and can’t drink any milk we tried regular and after a couple of days of her screaming all night she refused to drink it and her face was broke out and red so we tried soy milk and the same thing happened. I even tried almond milk and she still screamed all night with her stomach hurting and her doctor at that time said she don’t need milk to live and just don’t give it to her instead give her juice.
I have switched doctors 3 times already because i am tired of seeing my baby suffer. I have always thought from day 1 that she has a gastro problem or digestive problem but all doctors say give her gas drops and give her zantac and its not helping she still bloats at night and is up screaming most of the night. She will scream for a couple of hours before she finally goes back to sleep and that is me giving her tylenol but it only lasts for maybe 2 hours and she is back to screaming and curling up so i know its her stomach. She screams even when she lets out a fart like a fart is hurting her to release it and holding her doesn’t even help.
The current doctor we are seeing had an x-ray done to check her colon and she was backed up so she put her on miralax and her poop was so runny and then turned to pure liquid so i took her back and the doctor told me to decrease the laxative to every other day but still my daughter is up all night screaming and she will let out one loud fart and scream horribly after that and only has 1 bowel movement a day and its runny not pure liquid but still runny.
I am now out of options and feel that something is wrong maybe a blockage in the colon and its just going around it (pure liquid stools) or maybe a digestive issue or maybe even a gastro problem? I don’t know but it is getting very scary because my daughter is so small she weighed 17 lbs at 14 months when we went to the current doctor and once she started the laxative she began to eat better and gained up to 18 lbs but she still seems to be in pain and has slowed down on eating. She is now at 16.9 lbs for a 15 month old. Her dad is really small he weighs 110 lbs and is 32 years old so she could be small like he is but with her weight and the pain issue it worries me so much. Is anyone else having an issue like this with stomach pain and low weight? Oh and she was not a preemie she weighed 7 lbs 4.8 oz when she was born so she has barely doubled her weight. Sorry i forgot to include that.
This sounds horrible! Is she completely off milk protein now, as well as soy protein? A lot of children are allergic to soy when they are allergic to milk protein. How about screening for celiac disease? I know that can’t have been a cause of the problems when she was newborn, but it could be part of the problem. Another option I think you should discuss with the doctors if it hasn’t already been ruled out is Hirschsprung’s disease. It is a condition where the nerves are missing from a part of the bowel. This results in constipation, pain, low weight gain, difficulties to pass motion to mention some problems. The condition can be more or less serious and can often be solved through surgery or other treatments. You can read about it here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420299/
Don’t give up! Your daughter deserves a proper diagnosis and help. Keep a diary of what she eats and maybe even catch her behavior while in pain or while passing motion on film and show a pediatrician. Try to get hold of a specialist.
I really wish you good luck. Please come back and let us know about your daughter’s development.
Paula
I will never give up this is my baby and i will not stop until she is better, i took her to the doctor yesterday and her doctor gave her prilosec to take instead of zantac because she thinks it might be really bad acid reflux and prilosec is stronger than zantac but i would think if she farts she would get relief. Instead when she is doing this screaming she gets board straight trying to clinch then when she farts she starts screaming worse like that just killed her to do that and then she starts arching herself and rolling on her belly and she will scream for at least 2 hours before going to bed with tylenol and then a couple hours later shes awake screaming again. Her doctor also sent her for an xray of her colon again to check for a blockage but she just thinks its really bad acid reflux but i insisted we do a scan because i know something is wrong.
Thank you for your concern and trying to help me, and i will keep you updated. I’ll try getting a video with my phone tonight to show the doctor because they see her and she is so happy during the day and just a normal little toddler but then night comes and its totally different. Which is why i was thinking a digestive problem because maybe her food isn’t digesting and then at night all that food is still setting in her stomach causing her pain.
I wish I could help you more. Catching it on video should at least be a help in communicating with the Dr. I wouldn’t have guessed reflux unless she is also throwing up, but the condition can be painful for sure. Will it help if you elevate the head end of her bed? If it is reflux, then that should reduce the pain a bit. Good luck again!
i tried that when she was an infant up to just a couple of months ago. i have a crib wedge which elevates the mattress and she would always move to the end off of it and sleep flat so i finally took it out recently and put a pillow in there and she does the same thing she will move to the end and sleep flat so i thought well thats how she is comfortable. i have really bad acid reflux and i don’t throw up but the acid comes up through my throat and then goes back down so it could be that. I should be getting her results back from the xray sometime today so i will update you when i get that