Phenergan

[bubbly]

Would you ever consider giving a 3yearplus old phenergan to get them to sleep throught the night?

Our ds has never slept through the night. He has always either woken several times in the night and/or woken (at top volume) extremely early. He has lost his pm nap and is utterly exhausted as are we.

MIL and M suggest phenergan (have been suggesting it since he was 3months old!!!) but dp wants to try it out. He's prepared to be persuaded otherwise but I just wondered if anyone has any experience of this.

We have tried the alternatives - sleep training (I am NOT a softie wiht this), rewards, stars, shouting, crying, falling asleep on the floor in his bedroom , getting him in our bed , us in his bed, any other variation of musical beds you might like to think of, bribery, putting one of his sisters into his room for company, leaving light on in his room, in the corridor, feeding him later/earlier, different food combinations, giving him more/ less excercise, more/less attention, talking about it alot/not talking about it at all.

He knows every trick in the book and worst of all he knows exactly what we want. I genuinely believe he just doesnt care.

My gut reaction is not to do it, but when I'm really tired in the middle of the night I'd be quite happy to shoot him with a tranquiliser dart.

Littlerach - It sounds a bit like the treatment for night terrors. Once you've woken them at 4am/ How late do they sleep on(IF they go back to sleep) my horror would be that he would not go back to sleep and then start waking a 4 regularly!!

so do you ask the chemist just "for phenergan" and what should i say it's for? i have tried tixylix and medised but ds still wakes in the night. i am despairing now.

It's a risk!!!!
In theory they should sleep until their body goes through the next cycle of lighter sleep, then wake up - in theory!!!
We find that the later DD goes to bed, the earlier she wakes up, and late nights make her terrible. Often she wakes between 4 and 5 to g oto the loo, then back to bed, sometimes until 7.30 or 8. I do know that we are very lucky that she is a good sleeper, also DH has always made sure that she is trained to sleep, if that makes sense. He always put her down awake, and when she woke in the night, he would kiss her and tell her it's not morning, back to sleep. But we are lucky. I guess adults don't all have the same sleep pattern, so why should chilgren?
I think anything is worth a go, do try things like you said about changing routines etc.
HTH.XXX

Is there a reason he is running about and shouting and leaping about - with DD I tell her that it is not acceptable that now is winding down time and she has to sit and listen to the story quietly or she will go to bed with no story.

DD also is better the earlier she goes to bed and will more often than not go backto sleep if we tell her it is too early.

Sorry if this sounds contrite!!

We tried phenergan once on a flight and must have got the dose wrong - it was horrid. Ds1 was completely out of it but wide awake, so just kind of moaning and rolling around. Haven't risked it again and wouldn't on a plane. However, we've been tempted to try it with ds2 who has been going through a bad sleep patch - I even got as far as looking at the bottle but he's too young (18 months). Anyway, he slept well last night for the first time in ages so we've stopped being desperate.

Madgirl, you can get it from the chemist next to the Coop - no questions asked!

Ha ha - no questions asked always makes me laugh!!

Sari, you're priceless. I'll be there like a shot after w/end. Keep meaning to leave clock in your ds's bag as it's the middle of the night not the morning that's the problem, and he can't see the clock then!! very glad to hear that ds2 gave you a good night. do i just say a large bottle of phenergan my man please?

Say it's for travel sickness (say you're going on the ferry to Calais or whatever). I went in the chemist and asked for it (naively thinking they sold it to help with sleep problems!) and the pharmacist refused to sell it to me. She said "we don't advocate drugging your child to make him sleep" and I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up!

I also had a 3 year old who had never slept through the night so I can really sympathise. I did give him Phenergan once (when my brother got married and an auntie ds1 didn't know very well was babysitting while we were at the reception) but he STILL woke up at around 2am.

He sleeps fairly well now at.......almost 7 (sorry).

Twinkie - i'm trying not to feel useless here I have 2 dds they have always been utterly biddable. They are both good sleepers (we had to slepep train dd2 but it took a week no looking back text book stuff. Sometimes I stand in a room wiht ds and I wonder what I did to make it SO different this time round. I could enter into the boy/girl debate right now but I simply dont have the energy. Your comment 'Is there a reason he is running about and shouting and leaping about - with DD I tell her that it is not acceptable that now is winding down time and she has to sit and listen to the story quietly or she will go to bed with no story. 'should have raised a wry smile but has made me cry and I know you are only trying to help but I have just had another shitty evening with him. I promise you if I knew the reason I would be able to work out the cure and I wouldnt be here writing this.

Sleep deprivation is like torture; do whatever you can to get sleep. I guess it disturbs the rest of the family too. Maybe it would be worth a chat with HV again, with emphasis on the family as a whole, or even the GP. I know we all ahve quite low opinions on these people, but they are here to help.
Sorry I can't offer any more help, perhaps a tranquiliser dart would be best!!!

Piriton works too. Allegedly.

There was a thread a little while ago about "sleepy milk" where they milked the cows at night thus increasing the melatinin levels in the milk. A nice warm glass of this might calm your DS down at bedtime. If it really exists!

Oh, Marthamoo, how embarassing!

Bubbly I'm sorry to have made you cry I just wondered if he had some sort of problem that made him behave this way and was not questionning your parenting at all - DD has always been very grown up and so it is terribly easy to reason with her and she really steps down when we threaten to take something away or stop her doing something - sorry again I just wondered.

Try the phenergan or tixylix or piriton ro something - even if you just do it for a week to get your spirits back up and get some sleep.

Good Luck and once again I am sorry.

SD, I have heard of this milk, apparently our local Waitrose sold out of it when they first stocked it!!!

DS1 has autism and has sleep problems because of this,i used to give him piriton syrup as it is easier to buy,no nosey chemists asking what its for etc,it works just as well(have had phenergan as well)if not better.He is now on melatonin from the specialist which i threatened to sell to parents after i seen how well it works

Bubbly, big sympathies, how's it going? I had sleep problems with my dd2 when she was 2-3, and my HV used to say it takes 2 nights to make a habit or 2 nights to break it. I think it's probably 3, but my point is I used Medised for 3 nights with my dd2 whenever her sleep started spiralling out of control and it did used to work. So, I'd give it a go for a short burst. Medised worked for us in getting dd2 back into a pattern. HTH, good luck.