Has anyone else had this problem?

[Linzoid]

My ds is 4 and will be due to start full time school in september. The problem is he still sleeps every afternoon! It's not so much that he likes his sleep he seems to really NEED his sleep. I have tried keeping him awake and by about 3 or 4 o.clock it's impossible. I have tried waking him after about 1/2 hour or so but he's so zonked that even shaking him doesn't get him to open his eyes! We had a spate of 4 or 5 days where i managed to keep him going but although he slept much longer at night he was STILL really tired in the afternoon. I am worried about how he is going to cope at school and i'm sure my friend just thinks i'm being boring when i decline to go to the play areas with her of an afternoon as hers hasn't had an afternoon kip since the age of 2.

Linzoid I do sympathise, they still seem so little at 4 for big school.My dd is very young for her year and I have an unwritten agreement with the teacher that I can take her out some days at lunchtime or all of Friday just to give her time to catch up energy wise. She has found it a shattering year but with a symapthetic reception teacher you should be Ok.

Linzoid, what time does he get up in the morning/go to bed at night?

Linzoid I would talk to the reception teacher. They can be flexible. it may be that your little boy needs to start with half days and then build up. I do know people who have done this.
I've just had a chat woith some lea representatives about flexischooling- sending my son to school part time and then teaching at home the rest of the time- they were quite open to that as an option- it's at the head teachers discretion- so I don't see why they can't give your son more time to drop his nap.

Mind you September is while away and he may have dropped it by then anyway......

Bundle,he gets up around 7-7:30 and goes to sleep at night about 8:30. The occasions when he has stayed awake all day he's asleep in bed by about 6.
he goes to preschool 9- 11:30 every day and that seems to be enough, he then goes to sleep until i wake him to collect his older brother from school at 3:30.

Linzoid, gosh that sounds like a long nap. on the days he's awake all day have you tried keeping him up till 7pm? my 2yr 8mth dd sometimes has 45 mins, maybe up to 1 hr 15mins during the day and she's ready for bed around 7.30. she wakes between 7 and 8 and doesn't always have her daytime nap but is noticeably more tired on her nurserydays (Mon-Weds).

Linzoid, have you mentioned this to your GP or HV?
I only ask as my ds, also 4, is always very tired and weary, and a couple of months ago we were told by a child health GP that he has low muscle/body tone.
This makes him tired at even doing the most basic of tasks, like going to playgroup and with our ds means that he has problems with balance, sport, anything physical.
If you are worried, just ask and I'm sure they can put your mind at rest.

If he's OK, then maybe you could keep him up without a nap until 7pm and then see how long he sleeps at night. If he goes to bed at 6pm, what time does he wake up?

You could even defer school for a year if you like. It won't do him any harm.

Linzoid, you have my every symapthy - I'm just sorry I can't offer any answers. DD1 was just like that - now so is DD2 (3/5m). Can't make the whole day without her kipping but I do try everything -if I try to stimulate (and I mean it really has to be big time, new craft, never seen that before kind of toy/stimualation) then she'll fall asleep at about 6.00pm, thinking it's her pm nap. Then wake again at 9.00pm, and God knows then she's awake till 10.45 or so, and then repeats the pattern the next day. There must be someone out there who can help us....

In the meantime Linzoid, you're not alone.....

PS DD1 just outgrew it, but now she's got cabin fever (along with me) cause she wants PM activities but dd2 just wants kip. Aaaaagh!

Love Carla

Carla, how old is dd1? I may have made it sound like he sleeps longer than he does, he finishes nursery at 11:30 but then we have to walk home and have dinner before he goes to sleep which is normally about 12:30-1pm, he gets woken up at 2:30-3pm. i asked at school about starting him the year after but apparently he has to start the term after his fifth birthday which would be easter. He would then be the odd one out from the others and also not guaranteed a place at the chosen school.
He's seeing a doctor at hospital at the moment, they are checking him out for an immune problem, wondering whether this could be why he sleeps? What is it with the muscle tone thing, how did that come to light if you don't mind me asking Fairy?

Hi Linzoid, our ds problems were only picked up on recently but it dates back to his 3 year check.

At outr surgery we have a special child health GP who comes in to do the3 year checks. When he saw ds the first time he wasn't happy with him running and the facthe had poor balance and couldn't keep up with other children. At that point the tiredness wasn't so apparent. So as he 'failed' the check we had another booked for when he turned 4, last November.
At the check the GP was still concerned and more so when we reported to him how tired ds was, and that he always wanted to watch and not actually play. He then manipulated his limbs, and said he had low body/muscle tone and would need to see an occuptional threapist before he starts school in September.

Well we still have not heard from the hospital for an appointment, and we are now more concerned than before and over the past couple of months he appears to be getting more and more tired, but not sleeping anymore than before, and I think the best word to describe what he is like, is weary. It's really sad, its like he has lots his sparkle. But we have a GPs appoinment for this coming Monday, and I've decided that this is it, I've got to push them into looking more closely, if not I'll just get fobbed off again.

Sorry Linzoid, I've waffled a bit but thats how we found out. I've also searched online about and all you seem to get info about it is to do with having CP, and ds does not. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I hope you get more than we have so far.

I'm completely disillusioned with the nhs Fairy, i think the only thing to do is to be as informed as you can be and then push until you get what you need. The doctor doesn't feel the anxiety that we do when he looks at our children although i'm sure that children of doctors wouldn't be treated like we have. I might be getting a bit over the top here but i've just had another annoying trip to my surgery. I went in earlier this week for a repeat prescription of some medicine ds had from the hospital a few months ago. Picked it up today on my way to work and found it wasn't what i had asked for at all ( obviously didn't check his notes) he had prscribed TABLETS for a 4 year old! I then had to wait 15 minutes to be told i would have to come back later. I don't drive and i'm furious..AGAIN!
sorry, needed to rant i now realise!

I think it is totally pot luck with the NHS, and particular hospitals as well, on another thread I have mentioned that we moved to avoid a hospital.

I think the most annoying thing at the moment is that the GP said we MUST see a threapist before september, but nothing and the dept. involved almost laughed when I told them what the GP had said!

We'll see what happens on Monday, but I will not be fobbed off! Also my MIL wants to pay to go private, oh.....another story altogether!

no personal experience but a friend had this problem last year but when her son started school he was just fine - don't know how but he was so maybe it wont be a problem for your ds either - fingers crossed anyway!

Can I reassure you that IME children of GP's are treated exactly the same as children of non-medical families. The only special treatment I have ever had is a private room when having both the children, a courtesy extended to families of all staff and former staff members in the hospital (the other private room had one of the hospital porter's wives in having her first child when I was in having my second)

Linzoid - some children just need a lot of sleep at this age. DS2 is 3.5 - he could do with a nap in the afternoon, but goes to nursery, so it doesn't happen. He is absolutely shattered when I pick him up at 3 pm. He goes to bed at 5.45 and falls asleep almost straight away. He gets up between 6.30 and 7 am. DS1 is 5.5 and he is usually in bed for 13 hrs a day too, though he does read for 30-40 mins. So I don't think there is necessarily a 'problem'. How is your son the rest of the time? I also don't drive, so the children are used to walking a lot, and being in the fresh air - I think this does mean they need more sleep.

I too am worried about full time school in Sep - and how tired he will be, but the sch. he will go is very aware that some of the children are very young, and do get very tired. The afternoons are quite informal and relaxed, and anything goes.

DD is 4.4 and due to start school this summer. She still needs a nap most days and there is no way she would be able to cope with a full week of school. We live in Scotland and they are very easy about deferral here so we have held her back a year. Our GP thinks she may have an absorbion problem (?coelic disease) and she is being investigated for that. I think she is just on the sleepy side of normal but it is quite hard as whole days out normally end are too much of a challenge and we all end up in tears!

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