Help! My 5 year old cannot drop off. Am after advice in breaking recent bad habits.
My 5 year old has always been a slightly tricky sleeper. Once asleep, stays asleep but always difficult to drop off, even As a baby didn’t like napping etc, and ‘passed out’ rather than dropped off. But was going through the night at 7 months, was dry at night by 2.6 years. I thought life was sweet but........about a year ago, her asthma kicked off seriously, was bad and I was up at night giving blue inhaler nightly every 4 hours for about 5 months. I was so worried about her breathing that I moved her into my bed at night so I could keep an eye. That was genuinely justified as she was in and out of hospital, and her breathing went off quickly, but is now all finally controlled. Around that time she also started bed wetting, which I attributed to starting school, disrupted sleep due to asthma, possibly new meds etc and brushed it off (put her into pull ups after a bit as couldn’t keep up with washing) and thought it would all settle down in due course when asthma better. So roll-on best part of a year: we’re in Y1 at school all going well, asthma well controlled, but she really struggles to drop off. We do bath, book, bed and is in bed normally around 7.30, but rarely asleep until 9-9.15. She lies quietly in her room but wide awake. She’s not on any meds that could do it now (previously had montelukast which might have contributed, but off that for months). I feel so desperately sad as she’s yawning during day and is clearly tired but just cannot drop off. She also typically comes into our room at about 4 am, climbs into our bed and drops off immediately, and we’ve tried taking her back, but she reappears in our bed 20 minutes later. She’s so deeply asleep at that point. So in a year I’ve gone from a child with a decent bedtime routine, dry at night since 2.6 yrs, to a child that cant drop off until after 9pm, bed wetting and coming into ours 5 nights a week at 4 am.
Any suggestions how we knock this on the head? we’ve tried what feels like dozens of combinations without effect but would be keen for advice with fresh eyes.