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I had the same problem with my oldest daughter. She's 17 now. Wow I feel old! When she would cry I would jump up every time and run to her room. It caused huge problems with me and my husband. I started waiting longer and longer between times that I would go in. She would start crying and I waited one minute and cracked the door and said "You're fine, I love you" and waited another minute and did the same thing. The next night it was two minutes and so on. She would wear herself out and go back to sleep. When we got to the seven to ten minute intervals she would throw up. I would go in, wipe her off (there was no point in trying to keep clothes on her at night when she threw up), take the sheet off, wipe the mattress off, put another sheet on and lay her down (she'd get right back up). I left the dim night light on during this time and didn't turn on the room light, it seemed to make her more determined to keep me in there. I told her I loved her and everything was okay and left the room and we were back to the seven to ten minute interval. She eventually would run into the dry heaves, which is mean, but it means no mess to clean up between popping my head in. I would bathe her in the morning because bathing her at night just seemed to wake her up more (not that she could get more awake than screaming at the top of her lungs). You might try switching milk for water and gradually reducing that as well. I know it just breaks your heart to hear him cry, it did mine too, but you can't keep doing this to yourself! I would set a timer with a second hand (17 years ago) and watch the seconds tick by. It seemed to help me not feel like I was having to wait so long. I also would sit on the floor outside her room ( she didn't know this) and when we got to the fifteen and twenty minute intervals I would read while I waited. It didn't last much past that. If she did wake up and cry days or weeks after that I would wait ten minutes and poke my head in to tell her she was fine and she would go back to sleep. Seems like I always had to be careful not to start her habit again. I hope this helps!

daisy
Another day, another dog hair. . .

Since kids are so smart, you should train him to realize that you will not come to his rescue everytimes he cries. But first of all you have to get rid of the milk right before bed beacuse this is allowing him to throw up. The safest way to do this is to lay him down at the appropriate time(without the milk); it will take some time for him to get use to this, but start giving it to him 2-3hrs before its time for bed. Anyways, lay him down, kiss him goodnite then leave the room. Before he gets to the point that he is so loud the neighbors can hear, then pick him up hug him and kiss him good nite, then leave. You may have to do this several times a night, or even sit with him in the room or hold his hand or something, but he has to lay down. Maybe after he is use to that you could only stand by the door without having to touch him at all. Eventually, you should gradually remove yourself out of the room.Hopefully he will need less and less attention to fall asleep on his own.