Another sleep problem post.....

[samiryn]

Bit of background first... DS is was 2 in April. He was almost 4 months early, but I'm not sure he's corrected for that anymore. Until the age of about 18 months, he was on full time oxygen at home and has been weaned off now. His 1st birthday was spent in hospital after he became very sick and his lung collapsed. He was back to night time and tube feeding. I feel the above may have a small part to play in his sleep aversion.

I have 2 other children aged 4yrs and 3yrs. The usual "put them to put awake, let them have a moan, they'll fall asleep by themselves and after a few days/weeks you'll have cracked it" routine worked as well as you should expect it to with my older two children. They now go to bed awake and can play for a bit before getting into bed, but largely they are rarely a problem at bedtime and hardly ever have been.

The little one however is a bloody nightmare it's driving me to dispair and I don't know what to do with him anymore. He will wail for hours on end. Ignoring him doesn't work. Going up and molly cuddling him doesn't work. Cuddling him to sleep doesn't work. Going in without talking to him and putting him back in his bed doesn't work. Letting him do as the older two do doesn't work.... all these have been tried over the last 18 months and nothing is working. He is still upstairs screaming his head off right now, and I've been up to him about 6 times since putting him into bed

I need a miracle worker.... he is so clingy in the day with me too, but I think if he slept better at night he wouldn't be so irritable in the day? He is, of course, great in the day with anyone else as long as I'm not around. The night time issue however, still happens.

Any advice would be much appreciated, I really don't know what to do with him now. My neighbours must think I'm being an awful mother by ignoring his howling for hours, but I really have tried

Didn't know whether it'd be useful to also add that he had been in a cot until about 3 weeks ago. Because of his screaming I thought it best to not change him over (he's still a tad wobbly on his feet too) but he started headbutting the cotbed sides. He's now in a bed, and bangs his head on the floor (laminate) or stairgate by his bedroom door sometimes instead...

Have you tried co-sleeping with him ie you laying next to him whilst he is in bed?

TBH he has been through an awful lot so I would try cranial osteopathy before I tried anything else. My incredible non sleeper had too much adrenalin which was treated through neuro developmental delay therapy.

He just giggles and jumps on me and thinks it's a agame. He'll lay down for a minute, then get up again. If he lays still for ten-thirty minutes and I think I've cracked it, he'll wake and start again. I tire after about an hour of this and when I put him in his own bed, he starts all over again! So gave up with that one

He has been through an awful lot in his life, and I feel bad for being so frustrated with him sometimes. I am so greatful he lived through what he's been through, and it's his stubborness that he displays now that kept him alive, but it's still not so useful when he keeps everyone up and is driving me potty and waking up in the night half the time still too.

Cranial Osteopathy is an interesting suggestion, I don't know alot about it but I will look it up cargirl, thanks.

I've booked an appointment with a Cranial Osteopath for tomorrow morning CarGirl. Thank you for the idea. Fingers crossed they may be able to help

A good one will tell you if they don't find anything that should be affecting them, it could all be tension from a traumatic baby hood that means it's hard for him to relax and actually drift off?

It could be... I've just sat with him for 45mins while he laid half asleep on me, then on my arm.... then just in his bed next to me.... eventually left the room and now he's sat at his gate again wailing away poor child just needs to learn to be able to sleep somehow... I'm prepared to try anything!

Where abouts do you live? I think part of it could be neuro developmental delay producing too much adrenalin - this is what dd3 had, it's very easy to test for your CO may know how to do it or may not - it's about how the pupils dilate. When you do the torch thing (like drs do) they go tiny like they should and then suddenly go huge instead of staying tiny IYSWIM

Sorry late reply... I will ask CO which I go for the secpnd appt next week. I live in Milton Keynes. How do they treat it?