Kids And Sleeping Problems.
I think just about every child must go through a phase where they don't sleep properly for one reason or another.
My worst one was Kelsey. Man, she was bad! She so rarely slept properly when she was a baby that the first time she slept for a full 4 hours (at the age of 8 months) I refused to go into her room because I honestly thought she'd be dead! I ran over to get my neighbour, she came and went into Kelseys room and came out laughing at me cos Kelsey was sleeping soundly and sweetly.
With Kelsey, life was a total nightmare. I had Chris and ended up as a single parent by the time Kelsey was born. Chris was then 2 and a half.
Kelsey would NEVER sleep. Well, just about never anyway. She'd feed, then sleep for 20 minutes, then cry for hours and feed and sleep for 20 minutes and cry for hours. Nothing we did helped. Like I mentined, she was 8 months old the first time she even slept for 4 hours straight.
We kept going back and forth to the doctors and got palmed off with 'hysterical mother', 'chest infection', 'virus', 'ear infection' etc etc etc.
Actually, Kelsey was constantly plagued with ear infections and chest infections. I started to notice that when she was sleeping she also tended to snore a LOT and to stop breathing, which constantly woke her up. It was a really scarey time for me, and I had to keep an eye on her all the time when she slept to make sure she DID wake up when her breathing stopped.
This carried on for years, with still no help from the doctors. By the time she was 2 and a half I was totally worn down. She seemed to not be able to hear anything at all, and 'watched' people speak to see what they were saying to her. If someone was behind her and spoke, she had no reaction at all.
Then she started pressing her head/ear up against the speaker on the tv, even though it was already really loud. I decided enough was enough, went back to the doctors and sat there until they gave me a referral to see a specialist.
When we finally got to see the specialist, she pulled out HUGE rock hard clumps of wax from Kelseys ears. Look at the size of the top joint on your little finger. They were THAT size! Needless to say, our 'normal' doctor lost his post as he'd always told us there was nothing wrong and had never found the lumps of wax.
When we got out of the specialists office, Kelsey turned around and looked at me with a great big smile on her face and said 'Mum! I can hear everything!'
It helped a bit, but she was still having sleeping problems. We raised up the head end of the bed, we used breathe easy creams and sprays, we opened windows and everything else we were told to do. She still snored and still stopped breathing, resulting in her waking up.
She couldn't eat anything hard like bread crusts or meat, everything had to be mashed up or in tiny pieces. A year later we had a new appointment to see the specialist. She put us on a waiting list for the hospital to remove Kelseys tonsils and adenoids. It took another year for that appointment to come through. When it finally did, we went to hospital, had the op done, Kelsey woke up and wanted food, and LOTS of it.
She slept through the night for the first time ever at the age of 4 and a half. And again the next night, and the next... In fact, she just stopped waking up through the night at all. Her snoring stopped, her breathing NEVER stopped again and we were in heaven.
To this day Kelsey sleeps a lot, as much as she can in fact, as if she's making up for lost time. She's almost 14 now though, so she should've made up for it by now, eh? LOL.
If your child has sleep problems, don't listen to 'experts' if you have a gut feeling that something is seriously wrong. Keep going and keep pushing. Get a 2nd, 3rd and even 4th opinion if you have to.
I'll cover some of our more 'normal' sleep problems next time.
Anna
Technorati Tags:
parenting, parenting advice, parenting tips, single parenting, parenting resources
My worst one was Kelsey. Man, she was bad! She so rarely slept properly when she was a baby that the first time she slept for a full 4 hours (at the age of 8 months) I refused to go into her room because I honestly thought she'd be dead! I ran over to get my neighbour, she came and went into Kelseys room and came out laughing at me cos Kelsey was sleeping soundly and sweetly.
With Kelsey, life was a total nightmare. I had Chris and ended up as a single parent by the time Kelsey was born. Chris was then 2 and a half.
Kelsey would NEVER sleep. Well, just about never anyway. She'd feed, then sleep for 20 minutes, then cry for hours and feed and sleep for 20 minutes and cry for hours. Nothing we did helped. Like I mentined, she was 8 months old the first time she even slept for 4 hours straight.
We kept going back and forth to the doctors and got palmed off with 'hysterical mother', 'chest infection', 'virus', 'ear infection' etc etc etc.
Actually, Kelsey was constantly plagued with ear infections and chest infections. I started to notice that when she was sleeping she also tended to snore a LOT and to stop breathing, which constantly woke her up. It was a really scarey time for me, and I had to keep an eye on her all the time when she slept to make sure she DID wake up when her breathing stopped.
This carried on for years, with still no help from the doctors. By the time she was 2 and a half I was totally worn down. She seemed to not be able to hear anything at all, and 'watched' people speak to see what they were saying to her. If someone was behind her and spoke, she had no reaction at all.
Then she started pressing her head/ear up against the speaker on the tv, even though it was already really loud. I decided enough was enough, went back to the doctors and sat there until they gave me a referral to see a specialist.
When we finally got to see the specialist, she pulled out HUGE rock hard clumps of wax from Kelseys ears. Look at the size of the top joint on your little finger. They were THAT size! Needless to say, our 'normal' doctor lost his post as he'd always told us there was nothing wrong and had never found the lumps of wax.
When we got out of the specialists office, Kelsey turned around and looked at me with a great big smile on her face and said 'Mum! I can hear everything!'
It helped a bit, but she was still having sleeping problems. We raised up the head end of the bed, we used breathe easy creams and sprays, we opened windows and everything else we were told to do. She still snored and still stopped breathing, resulting in her waking up.
She couldn't eat anything hard like bread crusts or meat, everything had to be mashed up or in tiny pieces. A year later we had a new appointment to see the specialist. She put us on a waiting list for the hospital to remove Kelseys tonsils and adenoids. It took another year for that appointment to come through. When it finally did, we went to hospital, had the op done, Kelsey woke up and wanted food, and LOTS of it.
She slept through the night for the first time ever at the age of 4 and a half. And again the next night, and the next... In fact, she just stopped waking up through the night at all. Her snoring stopped, her breathing NEVER stopped again and we were in heaven.
To this day Kelsey sleeps a lot, as much as she can in fact, as if she's making up for lost time. She's almost 14 now though, so she should've made up for it by now, eh? LOL.
If your child has sleep problems, don't listen to 'experts' if you have a gut feeling that something is seriously wrong. Keep going and keep pushing. Get a 2nd, 3rd and even 4th opinion if you have to.
I'll cover some of our more 'normal' sleep problems next time.
Anna
Technorati Tags:
parenting, parenting advice, parenting tips, single parenting, parenting resources
posted by
Anna at 5:02 AM
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