How do I make this stop? | Autism PDD

If you find out let me know. LOL Nicky is 6 and 5 out of 7 nights there he is Well, as you soon will see I am no expert because I am still working on getting my son out of our bed. He is five. My daughter was our first and the sleeping in our bed started almost immediately after she was born. Actually she slept in a bassinette in our room for the first 8 months and that mainly was because she was our first and when we found out that she had a heart condition called vsd (a small hole in the heart which by the way did resolve itself by the time she was two) and asthma which she was hospitalized for twice as a baby, we were just nervous nellies when she went to sleep. So she slept in our bed. About age four all the nervousness stopped and we were ready for her to sleep in her own bed. Plus my son was newly born and for the first week he slept in a bassinette by our bed. So with my daughter, I tried telling her that when you go to school you have to start sleeping in your own bed, which didn't hold much water with her. So then, I told her a few months before Christmas that big girls had to be sleeping in there own beds on a regular basis when Santa Claus came. That worked! Once in a while she would come to our room in the middle of the night, but soon after it completely stopped. My son, I completely ruined myself. We had him in a bassinette for one week in our room and I did not want to do the co-sleep thing with him and so we started out on a great start. After one week he was in his own bed in his own room and he loved it. The co-sleeping started when he was two. He woke up with a stiff neck one day, which we wound up in the emergency room with. We thought it was meningitis! But, soon we found out it was not and they were just about to send him home when the attending ordered a neck xray. Then next thing I knew they were admitting him and ordering all kinds of test and calling in a surgeon, because he had what was called a retropharyngeal abcess. (An accumulation of puss behind the throat) They considered it dangerous because it was so close to his esophagus so they put him in the PICU where I stayed with him for the next two weeks, day and night. So anyway, he recovered wonderfully, but guess what started after we got home from the hospital? You guessed right! Another kid in the bed with us. And he has been there ever since. The Santa thing has not worked with him though because he does not really get the whole Santa thing like my daughter did. However, he has been trying to sleep in his own bed by himself. He is very independent about things like that. He likes to teach himself things. We have just mentioned that big boys who go to school sleep in their own beds, they don't sleep with their Moms and Dads, so lately he has suggested several times that he sleep in his own bed. Of course, we never object! He usually at some time will come in during the night, which for us is not such a big bother because atleast he starts out his own bed, and I know eventually he will stop coming to our room. Anyway, I know this has been a long reply, and I hope you have success with whatever you do. Maybe you could try the Santa thing or the school thing. I feel your pain! (Yes, my husband and I both have been bopped a few times) never left bleeding though) Good luck!"The Claw" - ROTFLMBO!!!!!!!!!

Gage does this too, A LOT He takes melatonin to sleep & that does a great job but he still tends to crawl into bed w me and sometimes my DD too! Im glad it isn't just my kids - I always thought it was my fault because after me ex left us, the bed was so empty that I had both kids, well they were really babies at the time, sleeping with me. I have tried to break them of it but it still tends to happen 3 or 4 nights a week.When our first child was born (our NT daughter), we co-slept with her until she was almost a year old, and then moved her to her crib, because I became pregnant with our son (who is 12 now and has moderate autism), and I wanted to be able to co-sleep with the new baby. Well, when my son came along, he had no interest in co-sleeping. He preferred his crib. But, once he turned about 3, he decided he liked sleeping our bed MUCH better (ugh!) He too would wake up in the middle of the night and crawl into bed with us. I hate to say it, but this lasted for years, and there was NO way to break him of it (I tried, believe me I tried). It has gotten better as he's gotten older. He's 12, and hardly ever does it anymore.

Mason did this until last March...he finally stopped right around his 6th birthday...I too tried everything and nothing was working--I tried bribing him and would carry him back to his room several times a night to show him it wasn't ok to sleep in there even if he woke up. Nothing worked.

Well I was introduced to social stories around that time and I figured I would give it a try...it actually worked...I wrote the story starting with just explaining different types of beds because Mason sleeps in a bunk bed, we have a queen bed and his sister has a day bed...then I went on to explain why people need to get a good night sleep to feel good and happy the next day...lastly I explained that it can't happen when extra people are in your bed because it's too crowded and we bump into each other.

I can't be certain that it was the fully the social story that helped, it might have been a combination of the story and his age?? I'm not really sure...but try a social story and see if it helps.

Good luck and wishing you all a good nights sleep soon!!!!!

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Like I said, it wouldn't be a big deal if he didn't kick and elbow constantly through the night.

But if you have more, keep'em coming. I appreciate it.

First, I want to say that in my opinion, we parents don't cause sleep problems. Some kids are just better sleepers than others, and even if we had been strict from day one, there would have been some problem or another.

I used to think that my autistic son woke up in the night and moved to my bed because he was cold. Now I'm starting to think that this is a night-time sensory-seeking behavior -- that he craves touch and proprioceptive input even at night.

He does sleep pretty restlessly, so it is still possible that he gets cold in the night because he kicks off his blankets. I haven't figured out a good way to keep them on him. I tried a sleeping bag, but he didn't seem to like it. I've been thinking of attaching ankle-weights to each corner of his comforter. If he were smaller, I'd try a footed blanket sleeper.

Btw, he wouldn't tolerate a blanket of any kind until he was 3.

I should also add that when he was 2-3, poor sleep (night-terrors) seemed to be triggered by itchy skin and leg cramps. Just in case that's the problem for your son, you might try putting lotion on him at bedtime, if he doesn't mind touch.

Good luck with everything.

I have one of these ... well, two, and sometimes THREE!

T is my "active" sleeper though. At night she becomes ... THE CLAW.

My DS, 4.5, however came in the other night, and tried to last night but was thwarted. We found out he

a) does NOT like the sounds with his window open,

b) does NOT like the sound of the attic fan -- he cannot HEAR us, over it. So we are back to A/C.

Any changes like that, in your house?

I would say that it was the sensory touch that he needed at night, but he sleeps in the queen sized bed with his older sister. That just started about a month or so ago. He can't sleep without heavy covers on him and when they are pulled off of him, he will start moving around until he grabs them and pulls them back on top of him. There are two really heavy comforters on his bed, so I know he is not cold. There have been no changes in sleep routines of any sorts. My dh and I keep our bedroom door cracked (our bedroom door leads into their room and their tv is and has always been on at night, and if we leave our door open all the way, it lights up our room). I have racked my brain trying to figure out every little detail, to make sure that nothing has changed, and I simply cannot come up with anything.

I do know this though....night before last, he had already taken his Clonodine and was in a (for a lack of better words) very pissy mood. Mad at everything, emotional, nothing would make him feel better and then it suddenly hit me. I called him into my room, and I was propped up in my bed about to watch tv, and I told him" come here baby, I think I know what you need", and he asked me"what mommy", I told him "you need mommy love don't you"? He just looked up at me with those big blue eyes and said yes, so I had him crawl up in the bed and just lay next to me on my pillow, with his head on my shoulder and he calmed right down. Within less than 10 minutes, he was sound asleep.

But in the middle of the night, I don't for the life of me know why he wants to come and get in my bed. Needless to say, I am not getting much sleep lately, and have been up since 4 am this morning, because I don't know who is the bigger bedhog, him or his daddy.

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I am going to try the lotion thing tonight, now that he is in school, and takes PE for 25 minutes a day and has recess, he could be having some mild cramps in his legs due to he is more physically active now than he was all summer.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will let you know how it turns out.

It occurred to me that your son may be having a spontaneous erection in the night (this is not sexually related and even little boys have them). It often seems to bother my kids, perhaps especially if their underwear is tight. Going pee cures it.

At least it's something that's easy to check for, so you can rule it out next time he wakes up in the night.

That also makes sense. He is still in pull-ups (only at night), and when I change him into his underwear in the mornings, there it is.

But last night, after I got him out of the bath tub and got him dressed, I sat him down and asked him why he comes and gets in the bed with me and daddy in the middle of the night and he told me because he wanted to. lol
I told him that from now on, he needs to stay in his bed with sissy (that's what he calls Zoe) and he said ok. Well, it worked, he didn't come and get in my bed until exactly 1 minute before my clock went off for me to get them up and give them their meds and get them dressed for school.

Just maybe, I will remind him every night that he needs to stay in the bed, and he will do so.

Worth a try, I actually got a full nights sleep last night for once in I don't know how long.