Almost 4 yo with CP, Autism and sleep issues

[laumiere]

As it says on the tin, DS1 has CP (so still in nappies) but is mobile, and used to be a great sleeper, but was DXed with autism about 3 months ago and it's all gone to hell. He's non-verbal and his favourite behaviour when not sleeping is to bounce on the bed and jargon loudly. This is a problem in itself as we rent a 2 bed house and he shares with his 1 yo brother who is now also exhausted!

We've tried:

• increasing his food intake
• toileting before bed
• putting him back to bed repeatedly
• putting him to bed later

No luck and no pattern, it's usually 2-4 am and then 5-6 am a night, with maybe him sleeping through 1 night in 20. I work full time to pay the bills while DH cares for the DSes but he is a really heavy sleeper and inevitably I wake before him and deal with the kids, so between the job and the lack of sleep I'm a bit of a wreck. We're on medium care DLA at the moment and seriously considering applying for higher.

So, any parents on here with kids in similar situations, should we just separate the kids and I sleep with earplugs and let DS get on with it? Should we try to enforce a sleep pattern? Any resources anyone could recommend would be great!

Oh we had a sleep study and his SATs were below 90% about 18% of the time (little so and so slept 10 hours straight THAT night!)

Hi, i have a 4 year old dd2 with ASD, she does the bouncing thing before she goes to sleep and now she has found her voice she sings at the top of her voice or runs through all the theme tunes that she has picked up from the TV.

At the moment dd2 and i sleep in the sitting room (well for the past 4 years) as we rent a small 2 bed house and she wakes her sister up in the night.

Dd2 now takes Melatonin before bed which sends her to sleep within 20 minutes (most nights, some nights she fights it) so we only get 20 minutes of bouncing and singing before she goes to sleep (instead of the 3 hours we had before).

We get higher rate DLA for her as she can wake up to 3 times in the night, i would say if he's waking in the night then try and get higher rate (its worth a go). Dh is also a heavy sleep (either that or he makes out he can't hear).

Sensory problem? Have you tried exercise before bed (mini trampoline / swinging - don't know what's appropriate with level of CP and where you live) followed by calming down with brushing or massage?

ds2 with CP & ASD will only sleep if his bedtime routine is spot on.
He also has to have a tidy bedroom, so he has a lavender bath, warm pj's, cuddle & story.
While dh is getting him in to PJ's I go up & pull his curtains, put on his lamp & kick all his crap under the bed so that it is out of sight.

Sounds like us treating him like a little prince BUT it works - some of the time.
If we have a run of bad nights then he gets phenergran before bed & that seems to restore the sleep pattern for a week or two.

Getting him to sleep is no problem, it's the waking in the night! It's like he's exhausted at 7pm, then is awake at 4 (or whatever it is that night) and is properly awake and getting him to sleep again is a nightmare!

We've been offered Melatonin but not sure how it would help the night waking....

you can split the dose and give the second half on night waking - or only give on night waking - it takes a bit of trial and error to find a dosage that works for kids that don't stay asleep lol, but you can usually work it out eventually.

have you been on skinuk? i think there are a few there who split-dose for this reason. you just have to be careful that the second dose is not too 'late' lol, or you might have a ds that wants to stay in bed when you want him up lol!

Thanks madwoman we'll give his consultant a ring today.