Is anyone's child UNABLE to sleep?

[ajcire]

I used 5hpt for sleep issues with my ds at the rec. of the dr I saw regarding the pandas. I don't know if it worked or not in that we had also started antibiotics at that time. Ds was having severe anxiety over sleeping alone at that point. He would wake up in the middle of the night crying until I went in and then he was able to go back to bed but this would go on multiple times a night. It got better but a few days before we saw a difference... I do believe it helped his overall mood and sleep issues although it was combined with the start of the antibiotic. We stopped because my dh was thinking it was curbing my ds's appetitie.. I do not believe it was. We gave it at night and not too high a dose. I might try it again at some point, more for mood since now we have gotten past the sleep issue. My ds called it his sleep medicine. I am not sure if some of why it helped was maybe just psychological in that he convinced himself he needed it to sleep for a while.. we ran out one night and he was very stressed over it.

[Megs_Mom]

Thank heavens for sleep! I thought of you last night when I was up at 4 am (no kid awake, that is just my darn pattern now!). I am SO thrilled that she got great rest last night. That just makes everything so much easier. Hoping for another good night for you all -

 

Here is an update from last night. Again DD is 3 so the method of giving her supplements has to be considered.

 

We gave her 3 sprays of time release melatonin. But since she wouldn't be able to do the actual spray, I sprayed it into a syringe and then gave it to her orally. Then I also gave her half of the smallest adult sized GABA sublingual tablet. We did instruct her to put it under her tounge and leave it there till it melted. Luckily she is a child that likes to suck rather than chew, so this worked for her. All in all, I think this was a lot of supplements for her. But she was exhausted and was telling us that she wanted to sleep.

 

She instantly fell asleep at 6:30 and slept until 2:30. She started to wet the bed but didn't go all the way and ran to the bathroom and then told me we needed to change the sheets. When I came down to her room, she was resting in her tent. That was how I knew she would eventually go back to sleep. She wasn't raging or playing, but resting. After DH and I changed the sheets she and I climbed into bed. It took about an hour of my rubbing her back and legs, but eventually she did fall asleep. I stayed the rest of the night with her. She woke up a few more times, but when she realized I was there, she went back to sleep until 6:15 this morning.

 

Who knows if that was a one time deal or if we can repeat it tonight. But you can be sure we will be doing that exact same ritual each night until we get to do PEX!

[EAMom]

Just fyi,

 

Our chiropractor - familiar with PANDAS - asked DD to take two night's worth of GABA as a diagnostic to see if her blood-brain barrier was intact.

 

The theory was - if the barrier was intact - GABA shouldn't do much.

 

If there was a breach - as with a PANDAS exacerbation - GABA was supposed to make her feel calm and peaceful, sleepy.

 

So, if she's having a PANDAS related bout of sleeplessness, maybe GABA would help?

 

Pixiesdaddy

 

Did you give Pixie the GABA? What happened?

[pixiesmommy]

We did give Pixie the GABA.

 

We thought she seemed a little giddier, and she definitely slept better the two nights we gave it to her, though she didn't get drowsier any earlier.

 

We think we saw a response on it anyway.

 

Pixiesdaddy (who didn't log off of Pixiesmommy's account)