5 year old sleep issues

[tasha41]

I am tired and worried about my 5.5 year old daughter.

She slept through the night (8-10 hours) from 6 weeks to 6 months. Then she started teething and was up every 2 hours usually, until she was about 1 (still waking a couple of times per night but having most of the teeth expected by the age of 2).

Then she started to have issues with crying and throwing up at night. We got confirmation that she does have asthma when she was 3, but starting preschool and junior kindergarten seemed to have her sick with various upper respiratory and tummy bugs every few weeks.

She was literally vomiting up to 3x per week regularly after either coughing or getting upset, even without other symptoms of illness, often completely fine before bed and when she woke up in the morning.

Now she is no longer having the coughing episodes at night (which were sometimes triggered by crying I think) but she is still crying at night. Today, she went to bed around 8:00pm and she cried on and off, while sleeping, from about 10-11pm, sometimes stopping for 10 minutes and then restarting.

I just have no idea where to go from here. She sleeps a lot- 8pm to 7:30am usually. She occasionally has nightmares that wake her in the middle of the night (more like 2am), and she'll call to me or come into our room. But this is crying in her sleep, ALWAYS just a couple hours after she falls asleep, almost every single night.

It's not nearly as dramatic as what people describe their kids' night terrors as, but upsetting for us. She doesn't seem to remember or be affected by it really, even when I try to calm her she doesn't really respond, and if she cries she does not eventually wake herself (now that it doesn't trigger her asthma the way it used to).

The nurse practitioner at my doctor's office said she is probably just being disturbed by noise in the house etc when I spoke to her about it at a recent appointment. However tonight my OH got home around 10:30 from work, well after she had started.. I had the TV off and was working on typing up an essay for school so was being quiet.

Any thoughts??

 

[OmarsMum]

Omar is the same, it started after his 1st birthday & he still doesn't sleep without either crying, talking or screaming in his sleep, he suffered from night terrors when he was younger.

I keep olbas oil close to bed, & I started recently to rub his feed with 1 drop of lavender & almond oil as a base.

It seems like his brain doesn't switch off when he's sleeping. I still bedshare, sometimes when wakes up he seems scared & he asks me stay close & cuddle him.

There is no noise where he sleeps, the bed room is at the end of the apt with 3 separation doors closed

 

[CandyDay]

Do you have a bedtime routine set up that helps her to settle down from the day?
Maybe you can get some classical music CD's and put one on quietly in her room. Classical music is soothing. And look up aromatherapy for sleep aid, lavender or chamomile is supposed to be good.
https://www.healinginourhomes.com/2013/09/helping-babies-sleep-with-doterra.html

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom is exactly the same too at the moment. He is very overtired from starting school, falls asleep by 8pm and every night around 10.30pm he is screaming or crying in his sleep. He has done this for a long time and every night we're usually downstairs with the TV on but there's not a lot of noise in the house.

I try to wake him up now because otherwise he gets stuck like that and every time he calms and settles back to sleep he goes back into the nightmare and starts sobbing again. He is better if I can wake him properly.

He used to have night terrors when he was younger (3ish) which were horrible to deal with. These aren't as bad but are still hard to deal with.

 

[tasha41]

Right now the bedtime routine is small snack if needed, then pajamas, bathroom/teeth, reading, bed (with hall light on, water bottle at the bed side, relaxation tape on.. it's rain).

 

[hattiehippo]

Right now the bedtime routine is small snack if needed, then pajamas, bathroom/teeth, reading, bed (with hall light on, water bottle at the bed side, relaxation tape on.. it's rain).

Ours is similar with bath, pyjamas, story, milk and then a story on CD to listen in bed. He's always very relaxed by the time he falls asleep so I don't think it's that either.

He did have a night terror again last night after not having one for over a year. It was about 11pm and he was screaming and crying and seemed awake but after 5 mins of not being able to comfort him, he suddenly started asking where I was when he was sat on my knee. I clicked my fingers in his face to wake him up properly because he obviously wasn't actually awake and he went into a total panic and started screaming he couldn't breathe. Eventually he calmed down and was much better but it was really scary. Problem is if we don't get him actually awake he won't settle back to sleep and is stuck screaming and crying but if we do wake him, he panics and gets into a state. I don't know what the best thing to do is

 

[OmarsMum]

Anyone tried or heard of sleeptalk?

https://sleeptalkbook.com

I'm thinking of attending a workshop, there is one here on Nov 4th

 

[OmarsMum]

Right now the bedtime routine is small snack if needed, then pajamas, bathroom/teeth, reading, bed (with hall light on, water bottle at the bed side, relaxation tape on.. it's rain).

Ours is similar with bath, pyjamas, story, milk and then a story on CD to listen in bed. He's always very relaxed by the time he falls asleep so I don't think it's that either.

He did have a night terror again last night after not having one for over a year. It was about 11pm and he was screaming and crying and seemed awake but after 5 mins of not being able to comfort him, he suddenly started asking where I was when he was sat on my knee. I clicked my fingers in his face to wake him up properly because he obviously wasn't actually awake and he went into a total panic and started screaming he couldn't breathe. Eventually he calmed down and was much better but it was really scary. Problem is if we don't get him actually awake he won't settle back to sleep and is stuck screaming and crying but if we do wake him, he panics and gets into a state. I don't know what the best thing to do is

Big hugs

We also have a routine & we dont have issues with falling asleep at bedtime, it's the restlessness & lack of deep sleep

Night terrors are scarey, I also wake him up, if I dont it will go on & he wakes up in a hysterical state, some times it takes up to 1 hr to get him to calm down

 

[hattiehippo]

Right now the bedtime routine is small snack if needed, then pajamas, bathroom/teeth, reading, bed (with hall light on, water bottle at the bed side, relaxation tape on.. it's rain).

Ours is similar with bath, pyjamas, story, milk and then a story on CD to listen in bed. He's always very relaxed by the time he falls asleep so I don't think it's that either.

He did have a night terror again last night after not having one for over a year. It was about 11pm and he was screaming and crying and seemed awake but after 5 mins of not being able to comfort him, he suddenly started asking where I was when he was sat on my knee. I clicked my fingers in his face to wake him up properly because he obviously wasn't actually awake and he went into a total panic and started screaming he couldn't breathe. Eventually he calmed down and was much better but it was really scary. Problem is if we don't get him actually awake he won't settle back to sleep and is stuck screaming and crying but if we do wake him, he panics and gets into a state. I don't know what the best thing to do is

Big hugs

We also have a routine & we dont have issues with falling asleep at bedtime, it's the restlessness & lack of deep sleep

Night terrors are scarey, I also wake him up, if I dont it will go on & he wakes up in a hysterical state, some times it takes up to 1 hr to get him to calm down

It's not good Omar does this too but it does make me feel better to know it's just not us dealing with it

Last night he was so panicked when I woke him that he actually couldn't breathe cos his neck and jaw locked up. It was horrible. I'm really hoping tonight is better but I doubt it.

I've just realised that last time Tom's night terrors were triggered by being overtired and he is exhausted from starting school and since the clocks changed on Sunday morning, he has been waking between 5 and 5.30am. He is shattered again tonight after 5.10am start and then a busy day so it's not going to be a good night is it