So we have come to this!

[macb1702]

I am feeling vvvv confused about this. Am I doing the right thing. My DD (3.4) has not slept through the night for 4 months now, before she was a great sleeper. We have tried everything, and I mean everything. I took her to the doctors last week, who suggested a reward chart, mainly so she could look at it this week to get an idea how bad it is. Needless to say, it has made no difference to my DD and she has been awake from 2am most nights. I have been suffering from severe PND for 2 years and I am going down hill recently due to serious tiredness. It looks like we might be going down the drug route for her, which I hate the idea of, but she is suffering from being overtired and the rest of us (I have a DS 22mths who is woken by her). What do you all think, should I give it a try? I really trust my GP who has been fantastic to me, I don't think she would prescribe sedation unless she really thought she needed it. But at the end of the day who wants to drug their 3 yr old!!!

I am no expert here but hope you don't mind if I hazard a guess. Could your daughter's sleep problems be in response to your own PND? It sounds to me like something is unsettling her so maybe she is picking up on your own unhappiness. What treatment are you getting? Maybe it's time to review your treatment and really knock the depression on its head. I know that's hard when you have the vicious circle of sleep deprivation too, and it doesn't offer you a short term solution to your dd's sleep problem. You could try the drugs for her just for the short term to help you get back to grips with the PND. Maybe you also need to give the reward chart more time - are you finding it difficult to stick to it 100% given that you are tired and depressed?

Sorry don't really have any easy answers but just wanted to offer you some support and sympathy.

Thankyou for your thoughts. I have been on AD's for a year now, have had counselling, met with a psychiatrist, and started Cognitive Therapy. I am sure she picks up on my mood sometimes, but funnily enough her sleep changed when I was getting on really well, and life was pretty much back to normal. She has no real interest in the reward chart, but I will keep it going, the GP suggested using the chart and meds together, so when the meds stop there is still the chart to fall back on.