Why does my son have so much mania at night

[matis_mom]

Very interesting reading this thread. I can see so many similarities! My son does not get giddy or happy at night, but his anxiety goes way up. When he's really bad, I can definitely notice the dilated pupils (it's like a panic attack), and even his eyelids seem swollen. It takes him a long time to settle down to sleep too, and then he also has bladder control issues, which wake him during the night. On top of that, if he does go to the bathroom, that starts the whole OCD thing about handwashing, changing underwear, changing clothes, etc., so that really interrupts his nights. His doctor is looking into some possible kidney/bladder/prostate infection, we'll find out at our next appointment. They put him on Nystatin and that has helped some.

But, the one thing I see in common on most of your posts is the morning crankiness, which he also has, and I do think that is low blood sugar. I can see it in my son. I am thinking of putting him on a sugar-free, protein at every meal diet and see if that helps. I have serotonin issues and I was doing the "Potatoes, not Prozac" diet and it really helped. Very interesting book to read, I highly recommend it to anyone struggling with depression and/or sugar control issues. One of the things it recommends is having a potato before bedtime. I can't explain the whole thing right now, but it basically gives you a good "sugar low" in the night to help sleep well, and increase serotonin levels. If anything, it can't hurt! And I think it will help my son tremendously with his yeast issues to be off sugar. But it won't be easy!

 

Isabel