Help Me! My 3Yr Old Wont Sleep Anymore!!!!!!!!

Our oldest daughter is very sensitive to chemicals in her diet - they hype her up and affect her sleep. Check out www.feingold.org. Feingold is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to inform the public about petroleum-based artificial ingredients in our food supply. These harmful additives cause ADD, ADHD, and many other behavioral , emotional and physical side effects. Feingold is a leading authority on this subject and has helped thousands of families over the years. Also melatonin is a natural, safe sleep aid that can be purchased at a local health store. Best wishes.

What happened in October? In your "a little about me" description it sounds like you moved in October? Something clearly changed for her then. How is her bedroom different? Different noises? Light? Room temperature? How the bed is set up? Have you ever spent the night in that new room? Maybe there's something to it.

Her new "sleep schedule," plus the fact that she potty-trained herself, tell me that she's a very independent little girl. This is a personality trait that will probably continue throughout her life.

You're not going to like my advice, but I would tell her to come into bed with mama when she wakes up in the middle of the night. It will be inconvenient for your husband and you, but it will be safer and it may help ease the problem. It's worth a try. Frankly, I would be worried about her being up by herself in the middle of the night--and I completely understand how difficult it is to get out of bed to go check on her.

Don't use the Zyrtec to make her sleep. She needs to figure out how to do it naturally. Again, since she potty-trained herself, you might even talk with her a little about how she thinks she can stay asleep at night. You might be surprised at her ideas. She is old enough, and clearly resourceful enough, to be brought into the discussion.

I did notice in your "about me" that you moved in Oct. I know it wasnt's your first move, but every move can affect children differently - they are at different ages and stages. Like the other mom who responded said, your little girls seems very mature for her age and so you might try talking to her and trying to explain that she needs to help you find a solution you can both live with. The idea of letting her get into bed with you would be ok temporarily, but she might become too dependent on that. It is probably just another stage she is going through and once she's through it she'll be fine. Keep trying different things and you will hit on something that works, and most importantly, try not to freak out about it. This too shall pass!

Dear V.,

If your child has had tubes in the ears, chances are VERY good that she does have allergies (which is why the Zyrtec helps!) Although we never chose to have the tubes put in, my daughter spent lots of time with ENT/allergy issues at a very young age. By the time she was 3, she was diagnosed with asthma. She's 14 now and has taken Zyrtec since she was a toddler. The allergy medication has even caused her asthma issues to disappear! Even though your daughter appears to not have any "breathing issues," when she's laying down at night, they may be present without your even realizing it. I talked for many hours with several pharmacists about Zyrtec (as it was a prescription medication at the time) and each of them felt very comfortable with my child taking it long-term. I'm one of the most protective moms in existence, so I know how you feel ........ but if it seems to help her that much, talk to as many pharmacists and doctors as you can and see if they can reassure you! Hope this helps!

Jen

Don't use Zyrtec. If you do some research on it you will see that there are so many side effects that it's not worth it. My daughter was on zyrtec for about 6 months or so. It did help her allergies but, she kept getting more and more aggressive. It got to the point where she was biting kids at daycare over and over every day, they were having to call us to come get her because she was out of control and they could not deal with her, they were telling us she had some sort of aggressive behavioral disorder, the parents of the other kids were getting mad (and I don't blame them), and nothing Nothing we did made any difference. She is in one of the best daycare's in our city, so we knew it wasn't them.

We changed our parenting tactics, we put her to bed earlier we did anything and everything we could think of. She was evaluated by a behavioral specialist and a developmental specialist, developmentally she was way ahead. Behaviorally well... she was having problems and the lady told us to try some things which didn't work. After the second or third time of us going to get her at daycare and just feeling like the worst parents in the world, I looked at what we were doing that might be a cause, besides our parenting.

She was on regular vitamins and zyrtec. So I looked up zyrtec and the first link in google on zyrtec side-effects started listing the exact same things that Alyssa was doing. Some of the parents said their kids ended up with permanent damage and are now on ADHD drugs and all kinds of things. I took her off the Zyrtec and the next day, within 24 hours there was a difference. She stopped biting except very occasionally, she stopped having the severe mood swings and turned back into our normal sweet little girl (except she has a chronic snotty nose). I'd rather have the runny nose. Another side-effect of zyrtec is trouble sleeping. That last day she was on it she had such severe mood swings that she would be happy and smiling and laughing and literally 2 seconds later screaming biting and fighting whoever was closest to her. That was the last time they called us because they could not control her, could not keep her from hurting the other children even when they were standing next to her.

Please don't give your daughter that poor excuse of a treatment. Take it from someone who has been there.

Check out this link:
http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=19835&...

I FEEL YOUR PAIN! I have a 5 yr old with very similar issues. First of all NIght TERRORS don't happen every night. But you will notice that she will be asleep and her eyes even open and not respond to you. It is a real freaky event. Second sound slike since the move, something is unsettling at night to her. SHE MAY NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS. We finally found that the fear of the house catching on fire was from the AC Unit.(for example) It sounded just like a roaring fire. So maybe there is ??a dog or something that she subconciously hears and she doesnt know whay she is "scared to sleep". Have you tried sleeping in her room?? Listening to all the noises and maybe even possibly hearing what she is hearing right before she awakens?? After alot of detective work, we figured out our problem but this has been going on since Dec, so I do understand. I am sure you are as tired of hearing "She'll outgrow it" as I am. She has an anxiety about something and she needs to learn to tell that "anxiety bully" that she is not scared and he needs to go away. This is a learning skill for her. I would love to talk more about this and thngs that we have done that might can help. Email me.