19 month old moaning all night... still!

[Sage_SS]

Oh man!!! My son is 19 months old and wakes up at night still. It wouldn't bother me, we just bring him into bed with us, but he moans ALL the rest of the night, demanding my hand! If I take my hand away, he'll sit up and point at my hand. And he moans and moans and moans. I can make him stop if I jolt him (poke him in the belly, or pst at him) but he'll just start again right away.
He's our fourth child, none of our others did this and its exhausting!! What the heck is goin on?

[springmum]

Food sensitivities? teeth?

(putting ds to sleep, sorry so short...)

[Sage_SS]

he was a bit preemie, but he's been doing this all his life. We thought he would grow out of it, but he hasn't. Its not a sad moaning, we think maybe the vibration it causes in his chest is calming to him. I dunno, we can only guess.

[fizgig]

This is totally not a flippant answer but is this what he's doing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vkaVksYxMs

My son moans in the car and I was worried forever about it but I've finally decided he is just doing some "chanting" to calm himself down. Now I just joke that he is my little buddhist. I would look into food intolerances and such but if he seems comfortable he might just be soothing?

[Village Mama]

My son, who is now 9, used to do this as a baby. It was so odd! He didn't sleep well and woke very frequently. I don't know entirely what it was caused by, but he turned out to have some pretty severe food sensitivities ( gluten, casien intolerance) as well as some sensory processing problems( you could look into sensory processing disorder and see if any other behaviors look similar)... the needing the hand close to him really sounds familiar! He only does it now if he is sick, or getting sick. It is so exausting to deal with sick kids and hearing moaning with every single breath!

[Ruthla]

It's perfectly appropriate to set some limits about what you will and won't do for him. If the moaning is keeping you up all night, and he seems capable of sleeping quietly, then you might want to give him a choice between snuggling quietly or moaning in his own room (assuming you have a space for him to do that.) OTOH, if you don't think he's really capable of sleeping without the moaning, then this might be unfair to him, and you might do better with earplugs.