sleep disorders

[MrsRabbit]

In the past month after nearly 4 years of dealing with a child with a sleep disorder DH and I accepted putting DS on a prescription medication. It was a long time coming but once the constant lack of sleep began effect his moods, development etc we took it.

Anyone else?

DH and I sleep in shifts even now to stay up with him at least 1-2 nights a week but it's getting better.

Finally I had to admit his lack of sleep was making us all miserable including him.

The way I've been treated when I mentioned this online [another forum] you'd think I'd just admitted to giving my child illegal drugs. Maybe I'm not a martyr but it really sucks hardly ever getting to sleep. I miss sleep. I want sleep more than anything else. The idea of sleeping blissfully for 10 hours in a row...

People think I'm tired from the baby she grumps all the time because he wakes her up being loud....my girl loves her sleep.

 

[natalies1982]

hi my son is 6 and has melatonin at night to help him sleep he has adhd and aspergers and finds it so hard to shut down. the melatonin really helps to get him to sleep. he needs to sleep so i dont see anything wrong with him having it

what is ur child on?

melatonin is something that ur body naturally produced but in some it doesnt so its not like its anything bad.

ignore people lack of sleep is a nightmare

 

[MrsRabbit]

DS was on melatonin but shrugged it off we went up to 6mg. We started at .25mg and worked our way up to 6mg over the course of about 6-7 months.

He's on Clonidine now .1mg he was on half of a .1mg tablet but it stopped working after about 2 weeks.

His SPD his mind runs a mile a minute then the OCD and how things have to be just so and then on top of that he's on several asthma medications.

 

[xie]

I so understand and if melatonin hadn't worked for my son we would be right where you are now. Please don't regret doing what you have to do for a healthy and well-rested child.

We also dealt with it for a long time and tried all sorts of advice, none of which worked. It was amazingly frustrating and really made me feel like a bad parent for not being able to get my child to bed, or keep him there once he was.

He was regularly getting only 2 or 3 hours a night and then was a cranky mess the next day. We started melatonin and it was beautiful! He was in a better mood, was able to deal better in school (started at 3 due to PDD-NOS, for early intervention), and just generally listened better. My only regret is that we didn't start using it earlier.

He did eventually wean off of it (started at 4, stopped around 9) because of vivid nightmares (known side-effect). Thankfully having years of a healthy sleep pattern behind him seems to have helped. He'll never be one of those kids who go to bed at 8pm and sleep 10 hours, but he does regularly get 8 hours and that absolutely thrills me! He goes to bed around 10pm and up around 6am. He's doing great at school and is now old enough to get himself all set to go in the mornings, so I still get to sleep in, lol!

Best of luck to you with your son! I remember feeling like the only parent in the world who couldn't get their child to sleep, ever. It's not true though and we are here to support you.