To think DD's sleep is effecting her health (ASD).

[whysonice]

My DD is almost 3, she has shown signs of autism and is under a paediatrician who she will see again in Dec. So far since starting nursery (In Jan) she has improved a LOT on her speech.
She is still not potty trained and seems to be having more tantrums.

One of the MAIN concerns I have is her sleep, I started writing it down and in august she had 8 nights were she woke up between 1-4 AM and never went back to sleep, other nights she will stay awake till 12 or 1 AM and get up at 7/8 AM.

There is no way she is getting enough sleep, maybe once a week she will nap 1-2 hours in the day, but it doesn't matter what I do, she doesn't sleep. If I keep her up all day she goes to sleep at 7-8PM and wakes up early hours! If I let her have a nap she won't go to sleep till 1.30 AM

Im really concerned its starting to effect her health, even DH has commented on how she needs to be carried after walking for maybe 5 minutes etc!

What do I do? Can the GP help?

You need to ask your paediatrician for melatonin. My ds (Asd) would regularly stay awake until midnight until we started him on melatonin, he's asleep by 8.30 at the latest now.

He still wakes in the night unfortunately and gets up before the birds some mornings but overall he is getting extra sleep by settling earlier and I get a couple of hours a night to clean up and sit down and drink a cup of tea in peace.

If your not being seen until December I would phone your paed secretary and request to be seen before or if no appointment can be made ask for them to prescribe leave a message for your paed to phone you - say you are desperate and you cannot carry on as you are!

Your Gp won't prescribe it, but you can buy online, although I personally wouldn't have done this I know others on here that do.

Other things to try in the mean time (I used all this when ds was your dd age) Epsom salts in the bath. Magnesium liquid, lush sleep cream and wash.

@danni0509 thanks for the advice! Ill ring and ask them to bring the app forward!

Iv tried sleep sprays, bath products, massage oils, bed time story's nothing works. I used to think some stuff did then quickly realised actually she just falls asleep when she wants to 🤦🏻‍♀️

Some night I will give her the tablet with blue light on because if I don't she will play in her room for hours, sometime she just lays under the bed doing nothing 🤔 but if I give her the tablet sometime she will fall asleep in 20 mins others she will lay there watching it for hours xx

whysonice, my DS has autism. He's late teens now, but I still remember what a nightmare he was with sleeping as a baby and toddler.

Obviously every child is different, but here are some things that really helped him:

Absolute darkness. I'm not talking normal darkness, with some blackout blinds that the light still comes around, I am talking total darkness that is hard to achieve. We discovered this on a holiday at a house that had proper shutters and there was literally no light coming in. Transformed his sleep. It was hard to achieve at home, but I fitted blackout blinds and blackout curtains that covered the whole wall the window was on AND a blackout curtain that went over the bedroom door too.

White noise. He was super noise sensitive and every creak and groan of the house would wake him, so I put a fan in his room and had it running every night of the year and that made a big difference too.

Getting outside in the daylight as much as possible during the day. To help trigger the natural melatonin, as much daylight as I could manage during the day, ideally with lots of running around etc.

I really feel for you, the lack of sleep nearly killed me, but those measures really helped us and he then got into a good routine and was much better for it.

@MargoLovebutter thanks for the advice! We have black out blinds and the fan running all night, it defo makes a difference as when I tried to turn it of in winter last year she was awake within an hour so need to get a noise machine for this winter!

I try to get her out, we went to the park the other day got to the end of the road and she wanted to be carried because she was so tired.

It just boggles my mind how she can be awake all day, look absolutely exhausted her eyes drooping & everything and still not fall asleep for hours 🤷🏻‍♀️ xx

No real advice but just to say it might not be solely physical fatigue making her not want to walk - my autistic children often refuse to walk when anxious e.g. when the pavement gets busier or we get to a noisy road. Good luck with the sleep!

Other things that may help are weighted blankets or those compression sheets. Ds sleep improves when we put him in a double bed as I think he had been waking himself up moving about then just considered himself up for the day

@MoMandaS Never even thought about that! She doesn't seem to get anxious in public places, she just runs of constantly gets into children's faces and says Hello! Bless her 💗

@Stuffofawesome I will look into that! She does love filling her single bed with toys books and teddy's, I do empty it once shes asleep though 😁 xx

Agree with the tiredness scenario another poster mentioned.

Ds is the most hyper kid I've met, never stops, but often wants carrying but its not because he's tired he just doesn't / won't / can't walk. (No triggers really, it happens often, but so randomly)

He flops on the floor like he's physically exhausted and won't take another step he goes all floppy and feels like a lump of jelly. hard work trying to carry a tall heavy 6 yr old, he was referred to epilepsy clinic bcos of this (no epilepsy) his consultant couldn't work out why he did it so referred him to there.

The neuro we see at the epilepsy clinic basically said it's just one of those asd things and is quite common regarding refusal to walk.

@danni0509 right ok, thats good to know! All things I need to mention at her next appointment! Thank you.

Baby #2 will be here in a few weeks so I am praying she will use the buggy board 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think it's something to do with proprioception, danni, and the impact of anxiety and/or sensory input on the balance of that sense. Just my own theory!

DS was and is a nester as well. At 19 when he's at home he still sleeps surrounded by soft toys. At uni he sleeps with pillows and about 10 fleece blankets bundled up around him. Weighted blankets weren't available when he was small, but I'd say they must be worth a try, as there is clearly something very comforting for some autistic people about being tightly hemmed in when sleeping.