Any good tips for calming your kids?

[becjonz]

Yesterday my son fell asleep in school, was lethargic. Today...OMG! He is so HYPER! He is so hyped up, so not himself. We were at the store and I tried having him do some brain gym while we waited to pay. He turned that into somthing that was definitely NOT calming. I had to tell him to not even attempt homework, I'll have him attempt it in the a.m. He literally ran circles around the house when we got home. At times I would see him near the window and if I spoke he would growl at me and run off.

 

If I had videotaped him tonight, he would be shocked when he returns to himself.

 

His therapist wants him to use calming techniques so at night I always read a relaxation script before bed- he bounced on his bed. He usually loves them. I just got interrupted by him and finally gave him Benadryl because he is so wide awake and miserable.

 

Any good strategies for helping to calm your kid so they can not feel so manic.

[kimballot]

I have had success by starting with a good nights sleep. We use melatonin and that has helped incredibly. The more over tired my son is, the more wound up!

[Phasmid]

When I was in the practice of giving supplements, I did use powdered magnesium citrate. It really did work. I followed the dosing recommendations by Dr. Leo Galland (Super Immunity for Kids) that call for giving just enough to get loose stools, then back off some. I used it for years. I mixed it in a juice of any type. My son had a HUGE hyperactivity issue when he first developed PANDAS like signs. It was exhausting. He could never walk from room to room, never stood still, mouth never stopped. Other things that I think worked:

• off all juices, simple sugars, bad fats
  
• vegetables at every meal
  
• protein for breakfast (no cereals!) including some form of meat AND egg
  
• protein powder (whey) mixed with milk
  
• avoidance of any fermented product (catsup, mayo, anything with soy or vinegar) yogurt is ok
  

This seemed to really change his behavior at the time. He isn't hyper physically now, but has attention difficulty.

 

 

Any good strategies for helping to calm your kid so they can not feel so manic.

[Phasmid]

I should give the melatonin a try; haven't yet.

[norcalmom]

I don't know about anyone elses kids, but mine are really stressed right now. There is just sooo much going on. End of year parties, graduation, baseball playoff tournaments, squeezing in whatever events and work they need to do before the year wraps up. My pandas son has his knickers in a twist. I see some rise in symptoms, a little separation anxiety (he no longer wants to go to a camp he begged to go to a month ago..) a little trouble falling asleep. Its different from other "up tics" milder, but I think the stress is affecting him.

Tonight I'm going ot give him a very small amount of calms forte sleep aid that I got at whole foods. they sell it for children, but my son is 100lbs so I give him 1 of the adult tabs (adult does is 3 tabs) . Its gentler than melatonin in our experience.

 

I think lack of deep SLEEP - which it seems almost all our kids have some kind of problems with, can cause some of the other symptoms.This is a hunch, but I know I am hghly irritable and weird when I don't get enough sleep. I even get "twitchy" eye. (OK, maybe that is from coffee I consume after not sleeping. )

[Suzan]

Melatonin (I give 2.5 mg nightly)

Epsom Salt Baths (1-2 cups in a bath as often as I can get baths in. Not daily any more but I wish we did)

L-Theanine (amino acid, very calming)

Attend and Extress by Vaxa (I found this very calming and helpful for my dd8)

Benadryl (works for some but not all, some it jazzes up)

 

Good luck!

 

Susan

Edited June 4, 2010 by Suzan

[MomWithOCDSon]

We're big fans of melatonin in our house, also. In fact, I just picked up Kirkman Lab's Melatonin/Magnesium mix; they tell me the magnesium sort of "amps up" the melatonin, helping it work faster. Haven't tried it yet (using up what remains of the current bottle), but looking forward to it!

 

During the day, if we want him to calm down but not necessarily sleep, we use Valerian Root. Now, he'll even ask for it sometimes if he's feeling jumpy or edgey.

[peglem]

Yes, valerian root- relaxes when awake, helps sleep when tired. Also, white noise, dim lights, try to make the environment as unstimulating as possible.

[Suzan]

Yes, valerian root- relaxes when awake, helps sleep when tired. Also, white noise, dim lights, try to make the environment as unstimulating as possible.

 

White noise, yes! Very helpful! Dimming lights, quiet calm voices, low volume on TV (if the TV is on). I came home late tonight, babysitter had the TV on loud, loud voices, lights on. I had them asleep within 5 minutes after calming their environment. After the melatonin of course but with all that other stuff going on, the melatonin would not help.

 

Susan

[Phasmid]

I think ur right about lack of sleep.. it does make you feel very awful.

[becjonz]

Thanks these ideas do sound great and some new ones I'd never heard of.

Sleep thankfully has not been an issue over the past few months. What is weird is that we just had to up all his meds as a way to manage an exacerbation since we are waiting to rule out an antibiotic allergy. I hate the increased psych meds since we are addressing symptoms not cause but that is another issue. My point is that he should be calmer. He was tired seeming on Saturday, fine Sun. & Mon., lots of tics Tues. super tired, headache on Wed. (had to pick him up from school mid day and he slept all afternoon) then to super hyper today. I can't figure out what is going on but when he is so wired I feel badly for him as he can't settle but I will try what you suggested. I'm first going to look at reducing sources of sugar, calming the atmosphere, add in melatonin and check out valerian root.

 

BTW, the Benadryl worked thankfully. I hate Benadry- feel like I'm drugging him but felt trapped like if not I was setting him up for a bad day tomorrow. Benadryl amps up both myself and my other DS. I also never had success with Melatonin but Matt seems to not follow me in things like that so we will try.

 

Thanks!

[saidie10]

Yesterday my son fell asleep in school, was lethargic. Today...OMG! He is so HYPER! He is so hyped up, so not himself. We were at the store and I tried having him do some brain gym while we waited to pay. He turned that into somthing that was definitely NOT calming. I had to tell him to not even attempt homework, I'll have him attempt it in the a.m. He literally ran circles around the house when we got home. At times I would see him near the window and if I spoke he would growl at me and run off.

 

If I had videotaped him tonight, he would be shocked when he returns to himself.

 

His therapist wants him to use calming techniques so at night I always read a relaxation script before bed- he bounced on his bed. He usually loves them. I just got interrupted by him and finally gave him Benadryl because he is so wide awake and miserable.

 

Any good strategies for helping to calm your kid so they can not feel so manic.

 

melatonin for sure. we only have to give ours .5mg (they are both around 40lbs). we went from sometimes taking 3 hours to settle them down to 30 minutes after giving them the pill it was lights out! we also bought a sound machine. the sound of rain really is calming for them and is really helping them sleep through the night! good luck!