Coping with pain at nighttime that even nursing won't fix?

[Spirit_of_Fire]

I have a little guy who just turned two. For the most part, he's breastfeeding on demand, even at night. For the past two nights in a row my husband and I have been up until 3am (mostly me) trying to console him back to sleep when he wakes up crying and screaming.

Usually, I am able to nurse him back to sleep without fail. For the past two nights this hasn't worked. Now, this makes me think either that he has an ear infection (of which he has had recently) or that he's teething. I think it's his teeth since I see not indication that his ear ache has returned.

He's able to nurse just fine during the day, without complaint, but at night - he will nurse for a short time, give up, and resort to screaming. This means that he'll scream himself to sleep, sleep for 15 mins and wake up, try to nurse or avoid nursing when I ask him if he wants it, and then resort to screaming and crying himself back to sleep. The cycle goes on for hours! I've tried to offer him water, pain medication, even offered him my video/camera recorder which he loves to play with. Still, he screams, tenses his body, and calls out momma - dadda - and oww.

I don't know what else to do and it breaks my heart that even nursing, which seems to fix everything for him, is not working at night time. What do I do when the magic medicine won't fix it?

I don't want him to go through this again tonight, but I don't know what else to do.

Please help!

K

[tavamom]

I would follow your instincts on the cause.  If he just recently recovered from an ear infection, it could be back.  He could also be teething, but if that was the case, it would seem more likely that he'd be upset in the day as well.  His ears could be hurting him more at night because he is reclined.  Since he's saying that he is in pain, that's likely the cause.  I'd treat him like he has an infection and help him sleep with his head a little higher as well, to see if drainage is a factor.  

[tessie]

Poor boy. I'd be tempted to give him pain meds before you put him to bed and see if that helps? If he's still waking then maybe another cause? Possibly night terrors or bad dreams? My DD started having very vivid dreams and occasional night terrors at around that age.

[Mom2M]

If it isn't her ears, it definitely could be teething, especially if the molars are still coming in, my 16 month old had a horrendous time with them!
Also, another problem she has had off and on is gas. I tried giving her Little Tummies before bed and it was really good for her, She's also an all night, on demand nurser. I think when the issue is stomach pain for her, the more she nurses, the more frustrated she is because her tummy still hurts. Plus, the more milk she has might cause it to hurt even more from adding to her stomach fluid? I don't know for sure.
If she wakes up again doing the screaming, I give it to her again. It says no more than 12 times every 24 hours so I take that as ok every 2 hours. I hate giving meds but I hate it worse when she is in pain
I know how hard it is!