Help! My child can't fall asleep at night

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  • #599787
    s-h mum
    Member

    My child who is 6 years old finds it very difficult to fall asleep at night. Any advice or tips on anything that can help him??

    Thanks in advance

    #814830
    GumBall
    Member

    She could take melotonin its a chew vitamin that my little sister takes that helps her go to sleep…Its very Good…

    #814831
    s-h mum
    Member

    thank you gumball. is it something he would have to take every night? i don’t feel comfortable giving a child a vitamin every night

    #814832
    Torah4Me
    Participant

    Try classical music. ‘sailing by’ by Ronald Binge works a treat. search it online. It is a beautiful piece of music anytime. Hatzlocha Rabboh

    #814833
    GumBall
    Member

    s-h mum-yes but its a very easy pill…

    #814834
    bpt
    Participant

    Benadryl. Or Bourbon, depending on your child’s gender

    (jusk joking!)

    #814835
    mommamia22
    Participant

    I’m having the same problem. I have to stagger bedtime in the hope that they don’t keep each other awake. Bedtime is torturous for me. It takes hours of chasing them back into bed, threatening to take away a toy (all this followed by bath, books, etc./ you would think that’s enough). I think they don’t get enough exercise. They sit all day in school, and I guess that doesn’t tire them out enough. I also might be putting them to bed too late and maybe they’re overtired (between 7-8 doesn’t seem too late, though). So, I don’t know. I’m at a loss myself.

    I tried the melatonin as per doctor’s suggestion, but didn’t find it helped that much.

    #814836
    doodle jump
    Participant

    Ask your pediatrician about melatonin. It really works, but you need to ask. Before you give it though, try the same routine for about a week or two. Supper, homework, bath and bedtime story. Sometimes, a routine is all that is needed. I have a couple of friends who give their children melatonin ,with physician’s advise and it works. Good luck. A tired, cranky child is not a happy child. Nighty night:)

    #814837
    Yatzmich
    Member

    Try the melatonin. My nine year old chews a 1/2 a pill every night. She goes to sleep on time & wakes up every morning refreshed & with a big smile in her face.

    Don’t be afraid, give it to your child so you can have a somewhat normal night and morning, you deserve it!

    (P.S. It was my pediatrician who recommended it.)

    #814838
    msseeker
    Member

    s-h mum: Little kids don’t need more than a quarter pill of melatonin and it works wonders, though for some kids it doesn’t work at all. I don’t give it on Shabbos so that they shouldn’t become addicted. Hatzlacha.

    #814839
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    ok, i have a solution that helped so many chldren that I know personally. mothers called my wife to thank her for this “magic”. It is simply calcium pills (they have chewable ones for kids). i can’t promise you with all brands. The one that we use is the Shaklee pills and they work like magic every time. You cn’t get Shaklee in stores though only through certified members.

    #814840
    deiyezooger
    Member

    the best solution, and yes it works you see results right away, no side affects.stay in the hall next to them, or sit outside the room with a chair,like this they are scared to come out, so they automatically fall asleep(what then should they do in a dark room and in one position?)no yelling, no screeming, and the best part, a quiet house quicker.good luck! and an “earlier good night”.

    #814841
    aries2756
    Participant

    You might try going over his diet with a nutritionist. Does he eat a lot of chocolate? Does he drink coca cola? Do you give him sugary deserts? Even many fruits are high sugar content. Chocolate and Coke have caffeine in them, so if he has a large intake by day, that might affect his ability to fall asleep.

    Do you keep to a routine?

    Is his room to hot or too cold?

    Is there too much light?

    Did you try a sound machine?

    #814842
    winny1
    Participant

    bpt- were you joking about the benadryl or bourbon ?

    #814843
    happiest
    Member

    baalhabooze- would the calcium pills work for adults too? I am also having severe sleeping issues where I can not sleep through the nights anymore. I tried Benedryl (under Drs orders) but didn’t work. Now on Melatonin but so far no relief. I am going a lil crazy over it so if s/t as easy as Calcium could help me then I’d run for it lol.

    #814844
    mommamia22
    Participant

    deiyezooger

    I often sit in my kids room in a chair reading, waiting for them to fall asleep. If I put them to bed at the same time, they laugh, joke, act silly, and keep each other awake. The bedtime routine sometimes takes HOURS! I collapse afterwards.

    How do you get your kids to stop snickering and making noises? The big ones start the little ones going and then it’s hard to get the little ones to stop! Is there any way to get them in bed at the same time and keep them quiet without threats or constant rewards?

    My little one will also continuously run out of bed, laughing, thinking he’s being cute (which of course he is, ba’h, but the cuteness wears off after multiple times of non-compliance!

    #814845
    happiest
    Member

    winny1, I know many drs that recommend taking Benedryl as it is a non- addictive medication that causes one to fall asleep (usually atleast). It is non-addictive but you can get used to it and that would make it not work. I worked with a child who took it for years and it still works on her now. Just ask your Dr before trying it on your child!

    #814846
    a mamin
    Participant

    I was told by a nutritionist that melatonin is habit forming or addictive.You can not take it every night. A safer alternative is Formula 609 by Maxi Health. Hatzlocha!

    #814847
    msseeker
    Member

    momma, your kids are NOT AFRAID OF YOU. You need to teach them ??? ??? ????? ????. How about a few good old fashioned well-placed petch?

    #814848
    EzratHashem
    Member

    Suggesting you inquire at the blog called imamother, a frum website that deals a lot with parenting little kids.

    #814849
    nnuts
    Participant

    Lots of excellent suggestions posted already.

    Melatonin works for many; not all though. And doses don’t need to be as high as indicated on the label. Just make sure to run it by your pediatrician.

    Never heard of calcium pills promoting sleep. Anti-histamines, yes. Saying Tehillim, yes. Repetitive sound machine, yes. But calcium pills? Very interesting.

    mommamia22- your children may not be getting enough energy out of their systems before going to bed. Heavy increase of activity before going to bed might do the trick. I know someone who had this problem with her 2-yr old daughter who actually became more active and agitated as bedtime routine unfolded. So I recommended that her mother have her daughter dance it out, or exercise in some other way, to get her tired and to appreciate the bedtime routine each night. She started taking her daughter out for nighttime walks. It worked like magic! Now her daughter practically begs her to go to bed each night even without the walk and falls asleep almost immediately.

    #814850
    a mamin
    Participant

    correction: formula 605

    #814851
    mommamia22
    Participant

    msseeker

    It’s true. They are not afraid of me. I’m not thrilled with the idea of potching. I’ve done it in the past, only to feel horrible afterwards. I need to find ways of motivating them without hurting them. I always thought I’d potch only for dangerous behavior like touching a stove, etc., but now I find myself wanting to potch for repeatedly not listening and chutzpah. I don’t want to have a relationship with them like that. I also can’t bribe them to go to sleep every night on time. It used to be so easy, but something changed. As they grow older, ba’h, they grow more independent and teach the younger ones, so now I have a group issue. I shortened my younger ones nap today and that seemed to have helped.

    I think I have to try more exercise like nnuts recommended. What is the youngest age melatonin is safe to try?

    a mamin: What is formula 609? Is it like melatonin? How did you hear about it?

    #814852
    mustangrider
    Member

    s-h mum you should try giving your kid a banana before bed time, or a tea spoon of honey. i am not sure exactly why – from a scientific standpoint – they work, but they do. just dont give both at the same time – cuz then your kid will have weight loss issues!

    also you can try the age old remedy – a cup of warm milk before bed.

    i hope this helps! good luck!

    #814853
    Momofsix
    Member

    I have the same problem with my 2 year old son.

    I would start bathtime at 7 and kept the routine nightly. Still i would sit from abt 7:30 to 9:30 till he fell asleep. I tried excersise, stories, singing, patting. He simply could not drift off.

    My pediatrician did not approve of melatonin saying that if given too much synthetically , the body would stop making in naturally.

    Just today, I was in a health food store, and the owner gave me the number to “zahler nutrition”

    I spoke to their nutritionist who recommended l-triptophane (sp?) and I tried it tonight.

    I was out of his room at 8:45.

    Coincidence? Maybe. I’ll post again in a few days gd willing.

    To those who think it’s a discipline issue, please don’t judge. My son is a good boy, who just can’t shut down like most, he certainly doesn’t need a ” potch”

    #814854
    am yisrael chai
    Participant

    Have your child help you clean up the kitchen…

    let’s see how quickly your child will want to get to bed then!

    #814855
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    happiest: Yes, it helps for adults too, I tried it a couple times, fell asleep pretty much after that, It is healthy, and safe.

    I might add, that aries2756 brought up very simple but clever questions to ask yourself. For example, the other night my son couldn’t sleep until I realized he put on his new valore PJs and his room was much too hot! Sometimes it could be a simple solution. I drank Pepsi 3 hrs before going to bed, (I never drink soda)and the caffeine kept me up for hours, literally!!

    #814856

    mommamia22: your bedtime description sounds very familiar.

    I find that I need to get two things right: winding them down and the order of bedtime. Only you know your children and their individual needs.

    For example, I found that one of my boys needs winding down and plenty of sleep. If I give in and allow him to play ‘just a bit more’ because he’s playing nicely, then he will fall asleep late.

    He also needs more sleep than his younger brother. So i put him to sleep first, and send his younger brother out of the room to play until he’s asleep.

    Another child needs less than average sleep. If he goes to bed too early, then he is unable to fall asleep, even when his usual bedtime hour arrives.

    Putting two children to sleep in the same room *never* works for me. I try to stagger bedtimes or, if it’s getting late, put them to sleep in separate rooms.

    am yisrael chai: I like your suggestion!

    #814857
    s-h mum
    Member

    Thank you everyone for your good advice. The reason I am hesitating to use Melatonin is because I am worrie that he will become addicted to it and as others said he will never learn to fall asleep naturally. I really don’t like the idea of giving a little child a pill every night. It feels so unnatural.

    He does not eat a lot of sugary foods and the room temperature is fine. I don’t think that sitting inside or outside his room will help because he is a good child and usually does try very hard for about half an hour to fall asleep and only then does he come out.

    Although the problem now is that he has it in his head already that he can’t fall asleep so sometimes he doesnt want to go to bed

    #814858
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    ..” I really don’t like the idea of giving a little child a pill every night. It feels so unnatural.”

    Taking a chewable calcium pill, is SAFE and HEALTHY.(It doesn’t even taste bad IMO). Of course you can make sure he gets enough calcium during the day in his food intake, but how would YOU know?

    Anyhow, your child not sleeping is ALSO UNNATURAL, so you HAVE to take certain measures into account. Although it is not REGULAR, taking calcium pills is in no way not NATURAL. Besides I know PLENTY of people who give their kids kid vitamins every day, so it’s not a crazy idea.

    Lots of Hatzlochoh,

    from a parent to a parent.

    #814859

    s-h mum: when my son was 6, he had the same problem. I would put him to sleep at around 7.30-8, which I thought was right for his age. He would sometimes lie awake for over an hour without falling asleep. I pushed his bedtime off until 8:30 and he fell asleep far quicker.

    I could see that a later bedtime was ok for him, since he woke up on time in the morning and wasn’t tired during the day.

    Even now, at age 9, he falls asleep late. I give him an mp3 with something interesting to listen to and that helps.

    #814860
    Vanilla
    Member

    Happiest- try Maxi Health Melatonin. I take it about 2 hrs before going to sleep and with food otherwise it won’t go down and kicks in the next morning. Taking it half hour before as recommended doesn’t work for me.

    #814861
    flowers
    Participant

    Happiest: I find that taking calcium helps have a full night’s sleep.

    #814862
    a mamin
    Participant

    Mommamia: I was told about Formula 605 from a nutritionist. It is natural and healthy, not habit forming.It does not have Melatonin in it.

    #814863
    flowers
    Participant

    a mamin:

    According to maxihealth description of Formula 605, it contains melatonin.

    #814864
    honolulu
    Member

    there is something for children called the weighted blanket its a drop heavier then your average blanket and it helps calm them down which helps them fall asleep i think you can even get it for a baby

    #814865
    s-h mum
    Member

    BaalHabooze – I am not against taking a calcium pill every day. I actually do give my kids a vitamin c pill daily. I was more worried about the pills that make them fall sleep. I have been giving him for a short while Mel-o chewable vitamin from Maxi-Health. It worked wonders but it seems like its just a natural sleeping pill which made him drowsy after 10 minutes and made him fall asleep.

    I am going to try the calcium pills and let you know the results.

    Thanks everyone for all your advice

    #814866

    i dont like the idea of giving the child a pill to help him fall asleep, not at all.

    he will be indoctrinated by the medical establishment soon enough that for every problem there is a pill.

    i dont care if the pill is calcium or melatonin or a placebo, this is NOT a good idea for the child, and not a good idea for you to look to pills to solve your childs problems.

    #814867
    Toi
    Participant

    i ahd trouble falling asleep. either i would wack my head on the wall till i fell asleep or id sneak half a bottle of wild turkey. works for my parents, works for me,and works for my ten year old bro.

    #814868
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    Mod 80. I know where you are coming from. However, you MUST diffentiate, between a drug pill and a vitamin pill. The pharmaseutical pill, a pill with unnatural drugs, may releive, soothe pain but can unfortunately cause addictiveness. But a vitamin pill?? Our bodies NEED vitamins! what on earth scares you about vitamins?? Why do you eat? For the taste? To fill you up? It is a basic necessity and is not only totally harmless, but something the body starves, yearns for. You can’t just lump all pills into the same catagory and label them as bad. We taught our kids, my wife and I, to know what each vitamin is good for, and they take them with happiness, knowing that it is good for them.

    #814869

    its not the content of the pill i am referring to, its the reliance on pills, whatever chemical they contain, for the solving of normal life experiences.

    and there is nothing magical about vitamins

    they are CHEMICALS that our bodies need in minimal amounts for proper functioning. more than that amount they do nothing.

    because vit a is necessary for vision to function it does not mean that vit a given in high doses will improve vision

    there was a strong (well deserved) backlash against the medical establishment at its heday about 40 years ago. but instead of learning that we need to deal with the causes of problems, we the laymen can just use vitamins instead of pharmaceuticals. we can be in control of our health, not the doctors!

    it went over big and became a billion dollar industry

    replete with multi-million dollar budgets for madison avenue advertising (very well disguised as “holistic”, caring experts)

    to squeeze money out of an ignorant public anxious to become their own health care providers

    vit c was the wonder pill of the seventies, then vit e of the eighties and nineties. both proven again and again to be useless in quantities greater than the minimum to prevent deficiencies.

    now its vit D

    i bet you give your kids vit d in high doses, dont you?

    its the latest overhyped vitamin fad

    even the doctors are prescribing it (if you cant lick em join em)

    #814870

    on the other hand there is some validity to HERBAL medicine. of this there is no doubt, although its very, very difficult to separate the truth from the hype about how to use them.

    but VITAMINS as therapeutic agents. pure quackery

    #814871
    mak
    Member

    Wow, I just saw this thread and I’m shocked that the first option most people came up with is a drug (or even a natural pill)!

    What about making sure that your son doesn’t have anything with caffine in it for a number of hours before bed time. This includes chocolate and coffee flavored products (like Coffee yougurt or icecream). There has been much said about food coloring contributing to this sort of problem also.

    There is no reason to start giving children drugs or suplements before ruling out other problems- and even then only after consulting with your pediatrician!

    #814872
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    I don’t know WHAT your talking about Mod80. I don’t give my kids high doses of anything. I’m not a vitamin fanatic or someone who jumps on the bandwagon and does things just because others do. So I don’t know what you take me for, but before you start rattling off your “History of the Vitamin” lecture, I would recommend that you educate yourself with what vitamins are, enough to diffrentiate them from the pharmaseutical drugs.

    I will reiterate: Don’t just lump all pills into the same catagory and label them as bad!!

    #814873

    I will reiterate: Don’t just lump all pills into the same catagory and label them as bad!!

    and i reiterate, i did not lump them all into one category, and i didnt label them all as bad, e.g. i clearly stated that herbal treatments can be effective.

    if you read the beginning of my post you will see that my entire point was not that the contents of pills are what i was particularly objecting to but on the reliance on them to treat normal life events.

    #814874

    as far as my speculation as to your giving your children high doses of vit d, i see i misread your post and i apologize.

    as far as YOUR conjecture of my lack of knowledge of vitamins and how they differ from pharmaceuticals, i assure you that you are very wrong.

    #814875
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    ..”and there is nothing magical about vitamins

    they are CHEMICALS that our bodies need in minimal amounts for proper functioning.”

    call it what you want, Chemicals, dietary minerals, nutritional elements, whatever, the FACT is that it is HEALTHY. What is it that you are so against “their reliance to treat normal life events” with good nutritious, healthy vitamins?? Of course, one needs to be wary of the company vitamins you purchase (some are phoney baloney), however a proven, illustrious company like Shaklee products which are PROVEN to be TOP quality (I did do research on this company -personally!) is SO NOT a problem. Is it better to give a nosh to your kid if it helps him fall asleep better? You know what garbage ingredients are in nosh these days? What if I have seen with my eyes, a better quality of health in my kids since we started taking them. They used to get sick so often. Now, they HARDLY ever get sick. Hardly ever…and they see the results too, so I can’t be convinced the other way if I witness it daily in my family’s health. So yes, there is nothing wrong on relying on a quality vitamins to treat normal life events such as insomnia.

    #814876
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    “but VITAMINS as therapeutic agents. pure quackery “

    I see it daily. Daily! They work. And it works for all others that I recommended them to.

    As far as expressing my thoughts concerning your knowledge of vitamins/ medicine, or lack therof, it was wrong of me, and ask you for mechila.

    #814877
    adorable
    Participant

    i have heard that calcium makes kids sleepy so I can imagine the pill working. we used to take melatonin ( a couple of my sibs and me) in order to function the next day but my doc told me its not certified in the US because its not safe. they found that people who took it got cancer faster and lots of brown spots on their skin. the body produces melanin on its own and you are taking more than you need to fall asleep. he suggested doing exercise and reading. works great. once in a while, after a couple of nights of o sleep my mother will give my sis a half a pill of melatonin but its addictive and unhealthy so be very careful.

    #814878

    from the mayo clinic:

    “melatonin side effects may include:

    Daytime sleepiness, Dizziness, Headaches, Abdominal discomfort, Confusion, Sleepwalking, Nightmares.

    Melatonin may interact with various medications, including:

    Blood-thinning medications (anticoagulants), Immunosuppressants, Diabetes medications, Birth control pills.

    It’s thought that taking melatonin for longer than two months may be harmful, and the best dose of melatonin isn’t certain.

    If you take melatonin, make sure the supplements are made of artificial ingredients, not made from animals. Melatonin from animals can contain viruses or other contaminants.”

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