Help! My child can't fall asleep at night

s-h mum-yes but its a very easy pill…

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.

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.)

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.

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?

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.

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!

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

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.

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?

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”

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!!

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.

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

a mamin:

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

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.

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)

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!

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.

..”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.

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.