DD tired in the mornings at school - reception age

[WiganKebab]

Morning all,

does anyone have any tips for me? DD goes to bed by 7, and is up at around 6.30/7. She's rarely disturbed through the night and sleeps well. She eats a good breakfast. She then goes off to school at 8.30. the teacher tells me that she is yawning a lot and struggling to concentrate in the first part of the day, but perks up by late morning.

We've tried giving her an additional snack (banana etc) before she sets off for school in case it's hunger / sugar levels depleting, but that hasn't helped much.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do you have any tips, suggestions?

It is possible to have to much sleep and struggle to wake up properly. My nearly 3 yr old suffers from this. If he has too much sleep he is massively grumpy. In fact he is still asleep now after 13 hours sleep so I should go and get him but am enjoying some peace before baby 2 arrives any moment now.

What is she eating in the morning?

DS has largely porridge oats with a sprinkling of something 'normal' cereal wise (or has porridge with raisins) so that he gets a nice slow release. In reception he was probably in bed for 6.45pm and waking at 6.30am - so fairly similar....

Thanks for those answers ladies. A typical brekkie would be 1 or two bowls of shreddies or similar and a piece of toast. Perhaps a banana just before leaving the house.

Shreddies are quite high in sugar ifirc - so could give her a sugar rush first thing which dips for the first part of the morning - then she manages to get back on an even keel later on? What's on the toast - and is it brown?

I would be looking at making sure that she has something that gives a longer, slower release and seeing if that helps?

If a change in breakfast doesn't help I would ask the GP for a bloodiest. Some things like not enough iron and thyroid problems have these symptoms. Being there myself as a small child it can easily overlooked.

Plain shreddies aren't particularly high in sugar, sounds like a good breakfast to me. But 2 bowls and toast and banana sounds like loads! Is she just struggling to digest it all? My DS had one small bowl of cereal and some juice, then a fruit snack at breaktime.

Hi there,
I'd get her to bed half an hour earlier and see if it makes any difference before doing anything else. Reception is tiring for a lot of kids, and some seem to need more sleep than others. DD is nursery and half an hour difference in sleep for her makes a huge difference. The other day she had to get up early 6.45 rather than 7 (had to wake her up) and went to bed late (7.30 rather than 6.45/7). This was a day she had school nursery the school day (9-3). She was awful the next day! Got her in bed early that night and she was full of energy again.

Also, what does your DD do between getting up and school? Could you tweak that to see if she is yawning less? Do you walk to school (good wake up!).

I've just looked on a GI tracker and Shreddies are in 'medium' - whereas no sugar muesli or porridge is in low... I do also think that Tgger might have a point in terms of quantities? Try a bowl of porridge (I would use porridge oats and cook for a couple of minutes in the microwave rather than get any 'porridge mix' as those will have been processed to minimise cooking time) and see how she goes?

First year of school can be very tiring though.

Yes, i'll look at both of those (GI and an even earlier night). Thanks very much all.

At this stage in reception my youngest was going to bed at 6 and waking at 7am - he needed lots of sleep.

It might be worth a trip to the doctors to get iron and vit D levels checked.

Before reception my dd wouldn't be asleep before 830/9pm and woke up around 7.30/8 (getting her to sleep at night was always a battle!) - when she started reception she was asleep at 7 - with no fuss - for the first time in her life - then up same as before. She just was more tired. Having said that the morning tiredness thing seems a bit different so agree with other suggestions. Does she have time to play a bit before school? Maybe she needs to get her brain into gear on her own terms before having to concentrate at school??

Useful suggestions. Thanks all. Testing sleep this week and will move onto GI next. I'll soon have this narrowed down.

I hadn't thought of vit deficiencies, or pre-school activities (usually a bit of drawing and playing with siblings), but I'll observe that too.

Perhaps I'll keep a diary if all this stuff and see what the pattern is.

My DD has a nap on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and it makes a huge difference. She is also a monster if she is just half an hour down on a night. At the start of the term she had a little nap in the classroom one afternoon

I would second the too much sleep comment made above everyones bodies are different, my daughter who is in nursery went to bed at 6.00 pm one evening and woke herself at 7.00 am can you imagine my surprise when her teacher looked down her nose at me because she had been falling asleep at carpet time? she seems much perkier when she is getting between 11-12 hours. Definatly try your daughter with a week of extended bedtimes and see how she goes on.