4 year old; sleep problems

Wise Old Elf

My wife and I have a four year old son, and we've been having a lot of trouble with his sleep for quite some time now, but we're really struggling now (we have an eight month old baby who is only barely settling down now)...

He was a fairly happy baby, followed all the usual development milestones, slept all night for a while, up until he was about 1. He got a couple of chest or ear infections, and would wake up crying with a cough, or pain. This happened a couple of times between 1 and 2.5, and he has never really slept properly since. He also eczema (as do I), which, on occasions can wake him up with itch, however, having observed him a lot recently, I am convinced that's not the issue.

What happens is, he goes to bed, usually between half seven and eight. At around 9:30 (almost like clockwork), he will start dreaming and talking in his sleep. He may or may not call out for us, and can start crying. For a while, this used to continue on until about midnight, but the last few weeks, it's been going nearly all night, in and out of his room all night. Mainly, between half nine and half twelve, I could be in and out every 10 mins. After that, it could be every two hours. I try soothing him, bribing him , being a little stricter, nothing seems to make any difference. He's a happy chap during the day, and I'm not sure that he even remembers the night time troubles.

He is in a creche, but I don't think he's having any troubles there, we've spoken to the adults there. He was doing this before baby came along, so I'm not sure it's that. The eczema is a factor, but it's not the main cause, as even when his skin is not broken out, he still wakes (anti histamines don't work). I'm not sure that it's night terrors, can't remember why, but we looked it up, and not all the symptoms match. Our GP is sympathetic, but solutions are not that forthcoming.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Have you treated it with any child pschiatrist, the sleep clinic in the Mater, anything at all?

TL;DR? 4 year old won't sleep, need help!

lynski

is he night trained or still in pull-ups? my ds did not sleep through the night until he was night trained

Wise Old Elf

lynski wrote: »

is he night trained or still in pull-ups? my ds did not sleep through the night until he was night trained

He is, one of the few night time things that have gone well :-)

Wise Old Elf

Bump.

Just to add that following another few sleepless nights and frayed tempers/sanity, we've made initial contact with a sleep clinic in the Mater, and they seemed willing to assess him subject to a referral from our GP.

Has anyone any experience of this clinic, either as a child or an adult?

Mink

That's seriously rough, I hope the mater can help.

Just going to throw this out there... when I was a little kid (I used to be a sleep talker & walker and would walk out of the house in the middle of the night ) my mam gave me a vitamin B1 supplement. Normally you have to take this in conjunction with vitamin B complex but I think if getting good diet then it mightn't be needed.

It helped and I still take it the odd time if I get a lot of nightmares. She is a doctor by the way. Can get it in boots and check dosage on bottle for kids/speak to pharmacist.

It might make absolutely no difference but thought I'd mention it as it worked for me as a kid.

Wise Old Elf

Mink wrote: »

That's seriously rough, I hope the mater can help.

Just going to throw this out there... when I was a little kid (I used to be a sleep talker & walker and would walk out of the house in the middle of the night ) my mam gave me a vitamin B1 supplement. Normally you have to take this in conjunction with vitamin B complex but I think if getting good diet then it mightn't be needed.

It helped and I still take it the odd time if I get a lot of nightmares. She is a doctor by the way. Can get it in boots and check dosage on bottle for kids/speak to pharmacist.

It might make absolutely no difference but thought I'd mention it as it worked for me as a kid.

Interesting, thanks.
I'll pop out to the chemists, we'll try anything once .
Diet not too bad, plenty of fruit, but not great on the greens, which I see are good sources of B1.