2 year old depressred?

[jkar]

My very happy and energetic 2 year old had a run with food poisoning of some sort that involved a catheter, cbc, enemas, and an xray of her stomach and ultrasound. She was very unhappy and during this episode learned how to climb out of her crib and screamed anytime we tried to put her in it.  Once she was feeling better, the Dr. told us that we need to train her to sleep in a bed as now that she was climbing, it is dangerous for her to be in the crib.  We followed his advice and put a twin mattress on the floor with Sesame Street sheets, made a big deal out of her "big girl bed" and so forth.  The dr. told us that once we put her to sleep, her door is to remain open and ours is to be closed. She can come out, scream and bang on our door but we are not to open it.  She falls asleep beautifully on the bed but now wakes up and cries, screams and bangs on our door.  This usually lasts 5-10 minutes but as you can imagine, is heart-wrenching and hard to handle as a parent.  Once she is done crying she will sleep either on the floor outside our room or on her bed for another 2-3 hours and is awake by 7am.  Her days are miserable, she is groggy, lethargic and easy to cry, she isnt eating well and when we go out for activities, she wants to be held and puts her head down on our shoulders.  This is not our baby and we are concerned that she is "depressed" and we have no idea what to do for her.  The dr. told us to wait it out a few more days but as a mother, who is also 5 months pregnant, I am petrified that something is wrong. My happy baby is gone and this is eating me alive.  Could this be because I am pregnant?
Any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

I wish the doctor had not advised the switch to the bed. She is likely not getting sufficient sleep and this is influencing her overall wellbeing. Read Richard Ferber's book titled Solve Your Child's Sleep Problem and follow his guidance about how best to manage the sleep disturbance.