Sleep issues-STAYING asleep

[fuelforall]

One of the big bugaboos with my son is he gets to sleep okay now but he wakes up constantly, talks in his sleep, plops himself back down again.

This is of course disruptive to sleep habits and can add to an already cranky temperament.

 

How do you get a kid to stay asleep without nighttime disruption and what he calls BAD DREAMS?

 

(Oh,and need I add it has now been two weeks since IVIG treatment where NOTHING has happened?)

 

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Michael

[Megs_Mom]

One of the big bugaboos with my son is he gets to sleep okay now but he wakes up constantly, talks in his sleep, plops himself back down again.

This is of course disruptive to sleep habits and can add to an already cranky temperament.

 

How do you get a kid to stay asleep without nighttime disruption and what he calls BAD DREAMS?

 

(Oh,and need I add it has now been two weeks since IVIG treatment where NOTHING has happened?)

 

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Michael

 

I am so sorry. I hope that you will find answer soon. There was good thread on this a little while ago - http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5667

[KeithandElizabeth]

We have gone through this for the last year.... it is so hard....

 

My son is slowly progressing in terms of sleep. We had IVIG 7 weeks ago and the sleep issues have been some of the last issues to go away. He used to have horrific hallucinations in the middle of the night that kept him up for hours. Then they turned to just bad dreams and feeling afraid. To give you some hope, our son slept 10 straight hours last night.

 

So, I don't know what is helping the most with our sleep, but this is our regime:

 

He takes his allergy pills at night ( when I stopped giving them to him (because he didn't show sypmtoms of allergies, although his blood work did) he regressed with sleep.

He takes 3o mg. of iron supplements during the day. He came back low on iron and our pediatrician said the a deficiency in iron can cause neurological issues and sleep issues.

Melatonin to get to sleep (but this doesn't keep him asleep all night)

Then we are also doing monthly IVIG's for 6 months

 

It may just take a little more time for these issues to resolve!!

 

Elizabeth

[dut]

Hello...

 

Our dd also had very bad nights during exacerbations. In particular she would have night terrors. I thought they were bad dreams followed by fearful crying fits then I read about night terrors and it was exactly what was going on for us. Even now at the slightest hint of a fever she has them but scaled down. There are times when she is coming down with something where she feels hot to me, perhaps not actually warmer, but her temperature has a different quality, sort of more radiant to the touch but the thermomenter says she's withiin normal but thsat night she'll have a night terror. I don't bother with the thermometer for those low ones anymore just whack her with ibuprofen and she doesn't get the night terror.

 

Night terrors run in our family.. an aunt and uncle of mine had them, and according to the literature they do indeed run in families. I thought it interesting that some parents on here have reported that their kids get night or day time hallucinations which often have a green or blue colouring to them. Children often report seeing green monsters or little green men during night terrors. My uncle always saw green elves/men climbing the curtains....

[ajcire]

My ds was waking up hysterical multiple times a night at one point... He was totally fine if I was in the room with him. It was just fear if he woke up and nobody was in his room.

 

My dr. at the time had me try 5HTP. I think it did ease up some sleep stuff, maybe even helped with some mood stuff but not sure because we also started him on antibiotics for the first time at the same time... so while we saw improvement I can't be sure which it was from.

[KeithandElizabeth]

Wow - I had no idea that night terrors ran in families. And yes, my son always hallucinated in GREEN. He would wake up and say "oh there are those green monsters and mom, you have green lilly pads under your arm." Doesn't this have to be a product of brain inflammation? So, do you think your relatives had any type of brain inflammation?

 

Elizabeth

[mom md]

Before we were finally disgnosed with PANDAS they thought he had restless leg because he was arousing 14 times an hour. We gave him Neurontin (100-200mg)and it worked well.

[dut]

Elizabeth - my uncle and aunt on my mom's side had the night terrors. My mom's other sister had a bad bout of RF as a child, whether this is linked in any way I don't know. They always had their night terrors in response to fevers, I believe.

 

My dd has had minor flares of PANDAS in response to other illnesses but it only seems to happen when the illness is accompanied by fever and if I understand correctly, fevers can lessen the effectiveness of the BBB. Perhaps these night terrors run in families who have weaker BBBs in general.. ?