HELP-DOES ANYONE’S CHILD GO TO SLEEP | Autism PDD

Share

I feel your pain.  My little doll see's no need fro sleep. At times day / weeks 4 hours was all she was getting that leaves me with less lol. And the screaming in the night would go on for hours and I was no comfort to her till that time had passed ( very painfull to watch )

We have used melitonin and it has helped but we need to go to trazadon to help her stay asleep for more than 4 hours.

From what I have read the melatonin is out of the system in about four hours - which does not make then stay asleep.

sleepless in MN

Our experience too with melatonin was that it helped Mason fall asleep pretty quickly, but he would wake up again after 3-4 hours.

Hi

my children only sleep three hours a night

one walks round the house toching everything and one flaps and spins while casting spells lol

i have been offered melatonin but im not ready to medicte my kids just yet lol

our kids dont have the built it mechanism normal children have when NT are tired there body in its own way tells them they lie doen and sleep.

ASD children's brain does not send the tired signal to there body so they dont know when to shut off

we have two choices

grin and bare it

or mediacte

lol

shell

 

We have had sleep issues since birth as well...he (4 yr old) always was quiet in his crib or bed and now wakes his brother up...so my dr told me to give him another 1 mg melatonin when he wakes (takes 1 mg at bedtime)...that didn't work...I added Inositol (1) 400 mg tablet, not enough, added another and then another now he takes 1.2 g at night and 2mg melatonin at bedtime and he sleeps all night...it's trial and error to see what works...melatonin is a good start, but some need more...Inositol is a safe alternative and really helps to relax them...My 10 yr old uses it for his OCD and my 4 yr old needs it to sleep!!!

Good Luck!!!My ds's psychiatrist put him on .1 mg of Clonodine from the very beginning and it works like a charm!! I have heard that may of our children's sleep problems can be attributed to
having "infantile" sleep patterns---just another way to say, their
development can be delayed in that area as well.

Most people I know have had good luck with melatonin. I think it's
important for our kids to get sleep--it can really help reduce some other
difficult behaviors.

Good Luck! I hope you all get some much needed and well-deserved sleep
soon

I have a son who wakes up from 1am till 3am thinking it's playtime.  I'm seriously considering melatonin for him.  This behavior just started recently and I'm at a loss.  Last night I just laid there quietly and let him wander around the room.  He went back to sleep at 3am.  What's amazing is that this is my supposedly NT child who does this.  Brendon sleeps 8 hours straight and is on no meds.

I didn't have much luck with melatoini. Ben needs about 9 hours of sleep to avoid the other behavior distubances, Now that he is bigger, He gets Remeron if the Geodon is not enough to stave off the intermittent insomnia. Going back to school is a comman trigger to throw things out of whack. Benjamin is still trying to adjust to not being on my hip like he was all summer. Plus I now have a class on Monday evening. The poor kid had bags under his eyes this morning. Hopefully all of our kiddies will begin to settle down soon into the school routine. I still need to deal with a situation with the aide in his room. Not a good situation. That is not hellping the transition. So many factors to look at. My kids don't sleep. My son who is 2 has ears like a bat. I can't talk or whisper. My voice wakes him up. Almost any noise down stairs. My daughter this year learned not to cry all night after making her a weighted blanket. I too have been debating the melatonin issue. My 4 yr old ASD son sleeps fine, the 2 yr old has never slept for more than 4 hours (he will be 3 soon)  It is hard on everyone, I put him in the room with me as to try not to wake everyone when he gets up screaming. This lack of sleep takes a toll on us all!!!melatonin IS NOT A DRUG, it is a natural herb, available everywhere, not harmful if used per direction or docs orders!Melatonin is not a drug. Our bodies make (?) it naturally. Somtimes it gets wacky and needs help. It has been a miracle for us. Our autistic daughter has always slept fine but we use it to get her to sleep. The rest of us use it to get to sleep and stay asleep. I rarely wake in the night now.Hi!  I just wanted to thank you all for your kind words!  Now that I am reading my original post, I think I was having my own "Tantrum".  LOL!  The melatonin is working to put him to sleep very quickly-however he still wakes up.  I just think its anxiety driven.  I have been wanting to get him a weighted blanket, and I think now is the time.  Thanks everybody!

Melatonin saved us (especially me  lol).  Cammi would stay up late/late and then sometimes get back up at 3 or 4 to play and guess who was the one who had to get up with her even though I work full-time too  - you guessed it -  good ole Mom 

I found out about Melatonin from another mother of an autistic child.  It works wonders and isn't addictive.  It's natural and over-the-counter.  Cammi of course can't swallow pills so I've always pounded into powder and put it in her gatorade.  It's tasteless so she never knows it's in there. 

TRY IT!  Why not start sleeping and resting now?   

I have had sleep problems with both of my kids. My son who is older doesnt really have them anymore but his meds put him to sleep rather quickly. He is on seroquel for his bipolar and now that he also has the aspergers dx's I am wondering now if when he was younger if his problem with sleep wasnt bc of it. He would only sleep 3-4 hours a night. My daughter struggled to sleep through the night took her til she was almost 3 but now she is back to not staying asleep, not being able to fall asleep. Her bedtime is 8pm and normally anymore she dont fall asleep until 11pm and is back up atleast 1-3 times a night then she is back up for the day at 7-8 am. I am tired and exhausted most days which doesnt help my depression at all to say the least. I have tried melatonine on her and did actually did NOTHING didnt help her fall asleep or anything.

My son is 9 years old and still wakes up in the night.  I believe he has sensory-seeking urges even in his sleep.

Here's an article called "helping your child with autism to sleep better" by the highly respected National Autistic Society in the UK.

http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1071&a=3376

Good luck with everything.

If you consider the sleep problem "chronic" just look at www.prisms.org. These kids diagnosed with Smith-Magenis Syndrome have this.  Lots od PDD-NOS kids are being misdiagnosed.Its worth looking at and ruling it out. Lots of people have been surprised though.  We have had several new diagnosed in the past few months. SMS will become as well known as all the other syndromes we hear of..I know it.Gage gets doctor prescribed Melatonin, 3 MG tablets. I do not know if they are different or not, but if I were you I would RUN, not walk, to a bottle and give him 3MGs! It will change your life & his! I didnt even realize that I was basically living with a 5 year old "newborn" getting me up every few hours until melatonin changed everything!We give Jay 1mg of melatonin everyonce in a while when he has a hard time falling asleep. If he wakes up again we give him another mg. The one we get is a liquid form from the store vitamin shoppe. It makes it easy to mix with a little bit of juice and he drinks it with no problems. We have been doing this for about a year now.

Hi i feel your tiredness! my son doesnt sleep i dont think he has slept through the night since he was born! He starts off asleep on the couch then we move him to his bed but that only lasts maybe 2 or 3 hours! i have found he will go back to sleep if i let him sleep in my bed with me and my hubby other wise we have screaming all night long

good luck

 

my son wakes up in the night and goes back and forth between me and my husband's beds (we sleep in our own rooms, because one of us has to sleep with our son or he goes ballistic).  last night, i took my son down to our basement bed room, and it worked great (kind of) because it was way too far away for him to switch to daddy's room -- but when he woke up in the night he was very scared to be in the basement, got out of bed, and cried until i told him, mommy is right here, then he saw me and went back to bed.  he also has to hold hands to fall asleep and keeps us awake by touching our hands and making little motions with his fingers or hand on our hands.  sometimes it takes an hour or so of this hand holding before he falls asleep, and it keeps mom and dad up...

Hi,

I've discovered that my son does not sleep when he gets the smallest amount of red 40. It is in everything from juice to vitamins to doritos to chocolate cereals.  His hand flapping increases if he happens to get some red 40 and he looks like a pinball literally bouncing off the walls.  This is only on small amounts.

Before I discovered his reaction to red 40 he would go to bed late and sleep for 2 to 4 hours and then he would be up in the middle of the night running around the house, legs shaking when I tried to rock him, rubbing his nose, and scratching his head... for hours before he would settle for a little more sleep.

I highly rec. that All parents of children with or without autistic tendencies who do not sleep properly IMMEDIATELY CUT RED 40 out of their child's diet.  It is worth a try.  We now all sleep at night.

blairflex

all I have to say is that even as an adult I can go a day or 2 without sleep, maby a nap for an hr, its horrible, even sleeping medication fails to help, It was not as bad that I recall when I was young, it has gotton much worse sence, its probably a life long thing, but also, the variable for me thats different for these other kids is that I dont have a sleep scedual, u may put your kids down at a specific time, but I may sleep, or not, may work overtime, may go out, may walk around the city at 4am while nobody is out. No sleep routine wreaks havock on me.

All I can say is the medicin may work, plus if you keep your kids on a sleep routine (weather they like it or not) perhapse thatll get them in a better position then I am, heh.

Sorry I cant be much help, just tellin ya what may occure later in life.

I think the teen years were best for sleep, I would sleep 8-10 hrs during the teen years, in childhood and adulthood sleep is not so easy to obtain.We have been on a sleep rollercoaster since he was born (now 4 1/2)....I have found that if he has too much melatonin, he's cranky the next day (sleeps all night)...if he wakes for several hrs in the middle of the night, he's happier...go figure!!! He is free of chemicals, sugar and processed carbs, low fruit (GFCF, Low Oxalate and Low Salicylate) Melatonin has been a godsend for us. My daughter falls asleep about 35 minutes after taking it and she does actually stay asleep all night.  I crush half a pill into powder and mix it into applesauce.
Now, that being said.... it has no effect on my 3 year old daughter, but luckily she doesn't need it.
I actually tried a whole pill for myself once and wow... I couldn't believe the effect on me.
NJmom39348.7393634259

The GF-CF Diet, for whatever reason, really regulated my daughter's sleep pattern.  Actually, prior to it, she didn't have one.  Then again, once we took her off of the diet, it didn't make a difference.  I guess my point is, consider what food your child is consuming. 

Melatonin never worked for us and Clonidine made Aiden so drugged he could not even stand. Aiden is on 2.5 mgs of Valium and it works o.k. he is still up some night but it is not an every day thing like it was.

Melatonin never worked for us . How do you administer it? It's hard getting him to take anything unless we sneak it in a drink or his food.

we have sleep issues too and most of the time I end up falling asleep and let him do his own thing. He wakes up early like 2 am probably. I have his room fixed to suit him, meaning there are locks on the closet and nothing but his preferred toys. Squishy things. lol All he can do is run around his room pretty much but yeah it keeps me up at night.

The only time I think he sleeps is when he is sick. I use a product from Young Living called Immupro, it has 1 mg of melatonin and zinc and selenium...my dr says he doesn't sleep cause the zinc level is low!!! The tablet is a chewable, which he loves and is made with wild wolfberries!!!

I also have my 4 yr olds room safe for him to play but he makes alot of noise and wakes his 10 yr old brother!!!My daughter did not sleep for years until we about two months ago. We introduced a few new things into her sleep time regiment. She was on melatonin, this  worked fabulously until about the 2 month mark and her body built a resistence. After weeks of no sleep and lots of screaming we were forced to put her on prescription meds (which we try to stay away from because of her chemical and environmental sensitivities)So, we put her on .1 mg's of clonidin and it has been working amazing....3 months. We have also been soaking her in an epson salt bath prior top bed and we also have been very cognicent of her environmental sensitivities as I mentioned above so we looked at a possible weakness to EMF (electromagnetic fields). EMF is widely recognized in Europe and Australia as a major stressor especially for children on the spectrum. So we removed all of the items in her room that put off a harmful electromagnetic field and put some EMF protective devices on all of our appliances, tv's computers, etc. Not only has her sleep really improved but her erratic behavior has taken a 180. I DO NOT know what it is that is working but I DONT CARE.I am sure that those of you that read this have said that before. Although, my wife and I keep very detailed records of everything she does, eats and is exposed too, so we really have a very good grip on things that work and don't work.I tried this - this week to help him get to sleep - once he falls asleep we put him to bed

Last
week we bought a hammock and for some reason it + Mozart puts him to
sleep really fast - 3 out of the last 4 times I put him in it he went
to sleep sooooooo fast
Here is how the hammock is set up ( bought
from overstock for + ,95 Shipping and some hanging stuff from
Lowes for a few bucks )

Here
is him fast asleep in 5 minutes ( now he had not taken a nap today and
was tired and who knows how long he will stay asleep) But still here he
is looking so very sweet - my heart would melt
There is something about the swinging motion that regulates him

Kajoli, what a sweet picture!  I bet the snugness of a hammock is soothing, too (proprioceptive input).  I've considered a hammock (bed or chair type) for my son, but don't really have space for one indoors.

 

[QUOTE=NorwayMom]

Kajoli, what a sweet picture!  I bet the snugness of a hammock is soothing, too (proprioceptive input).  I've considered a hammock (bed or chair type) for my son, but don't really have space for one indoors.

 

[/QUOTE]

- thank you - I bet it is - we used to always wonder at the Magical propoerties of the Baby Bjorn or the Ergo

Melatonin is a heck of alot safer than everything else these kids are on...over the counter and all natural. Just because Im on a soap box to get the word out..look at www.prisms.org and see if these childrens descriptions match your child.  My son went 13 years misdiagnosed and to see a geneticist and be tested for Smith-Magenis Syndrome,changed our whole world.  It is sooo close to Autism.  I believe it should be listed between Aspergers and Autism.  Look and if its nothing you are feeling is familiear,at least tell someone else about it.  Its vastly underdiagnosed.We are currently using melatonin with both of our boys.  It does seem to help a little but not enough that it is truly making tons of difference.  The one issue I see with it is if your children are on it and you get up to the high does then the penal gland in the body which produces melatonin quits producing it making them dependant on the melatonin supplement.  A couple things we have tried that have worked in the past are a set schedule where the kids take a bath, brush their teeth, read a story, and then sing lullabyes until the fall asleep.  A great book we were given by our pyschologist and social worker is called "Teach your child to Sleep". It is written by hamlyn through the Millpond Children's Sleep Clinic.  It talks alot about what happens with children and why they won't sleep and has a few helpful suggestions.  Hang in there it does get better. Good luck with the melatonin hopefully they will sleep soon so you can all get some rest.

We tried melatonin and it did help Drew get to sleep.   It did not help him stay asleep.  He was still waking 2-3 times a night.   We went to the developmental ped and he advised us to try benadryl.   He takes 1/2 teaspoon every night and he sleeps through some nights.  He still wakes once some nights but nothing like before. 

Good luck!  Beware of some sleep medications-  I'm not sure which one-but one of them can give boys an erection that doesn't go away!  (I know it's a rare side effect but I can't imagine breaking that at age 4)  How would you explain that one ?? -"sorry, but we were really tired"  probably wouldn't cut it.

Laurie

For quite a while our son refused to sleep at night. He would have a long afternoon nap and go to sleep around 10 PM and awake at 2:30 AM. staying up with my wife until about 5.

It was because of this behavior that he is still refered to as "The Prince of Darkness"

He now will go to bed around 10 and get up at 7 for school. We take our victories, no matter how small they seem.

The subject of melatonin came up in conversation with another mom recently, and she said that timing of the doses is very individual.  With one of her children, it has to be given 20 minutes before bedtime, while in bed.  With the other, an hour before bedtime works.  But again, if they're not in an environment conducive to sleep, it doesn't work.  For example, they'll stay awake watching tv.  Maybe that's why melatonin didn't work on me when I tried it to recover from jetlag many years ago. 

Good luck with everything.

 

When Austin(6)was first dx in April 2006..I wasnt getting much sleep(before then)either but in Sept 2006 had an appt with his dr and she put him on 1ml risperdal .At first u gave him half in moring and rest a night and since then he sleeping the whole night.Now I just give him the whole dose in the morning before school.It works well and havent had ne problems with him sleeping nor sitting when told.

I know some ppl doesnt like to use it but it works and Im sleeping now


Copyright Autism-PDD.net