HELP!!

Hello all.

My son is turning 17 months old soon. He has historically been a pretty decent sleeper, meaning he could fall asleep independently and sleep throughout the night without any wakes (most nights).

For the past month, he has become VERY clingy in the daytime and constantly wants to be held or he cries and throws a fit. He also has been fixated on his paci all through out the day and cries if he doesn’t have it (he used to not be obsessed with the paci).

Unfortunately, his sleep has also gone completely down hill since around the same time the clingy behavior started. He can no longer put himself to sleep (we have to hold him for an hour to put him to bed), and he’s been waking consistently around 1:30am and we have to hold him to sleep for up to 3 hours a night. We are fighting the urge to bring him to our bed, as we know that will likely create a bad long term habit. His sleep at daycare has also gotten worse. He’s gone from 2 hour naps to 45 min naps. The daycare provider also says that he screams bloody murder being put down and many times she has to put him down asleep in a crib that is completely in the light.

What the is happening? It’s been almost 6 weeks of this now (he’s not teething). Is this normal separation anxiety? If so, is there anything we can do to help him with the anxiety and with his sleep? At what point do we need to try sleep training?

Some notes for context: - we never did a “formal” sleep training. We did a gentle do-it-yourself method around 10 months and it seemed to work well. - his schedule has been the same since dropping to 1 nap many months ago. 7am wake, 1pm nap, and 7:30pm bed. - his screaming has gotten to another level, and he wails his body around the crib