Childhood sleep problems?

Hi Tilly,
Sometimes I wonder about doctors who don't know about a side-effect that happens to alot of people! I've heard alot of people saying that they feel good for a month or 2 on a drug, then it loses its affects. My brother once said that he wondered if, for example with Wellbutrin, that it gives us a side-effect of having energy....but then our bodies adjust to it, and we lose the side-effect (energy). It's an interesting perspective!

[quote="sharon1965"]as far back as i can remember i've had sleep problems

i could sleep around the clock, even at an age when kids naturally wake early and start running around like little maniacs! was always profoundly tired, sleepy, sluggish; nothing and no one could wake me, and i could get out of bed after sleeping for 12-14 hours and go back to bed an hour later

had nightmares my whole life, sometimes every night of the week...sleep walked, sleep talked right up until earlier this year (still do both on occasion, not as much since cpap), in fact, i used to act out my dreams on a regular basis; my mom took me to a dr. when i was a kid but they told her i'd grow out of it

always, even as a toddler, snored like a power drill, always had a large uvula, which many dr's commented on, but nothing beyond 'wow, it's huge'

have complained my whole life about feeling generally crappy, but was labelled as whiny and lazy...even just before my severe OSA dx, my dr was trying to prescribe me effexor for a non-existant depression and pretty much telling me to get off my ass

i have fibromyalgia, osa, plmd, rls...experienced adrenal crash and sudden gain of 40 + lbs in less than six months (sadly that has increased by another 10 lbs in the last 6 months for a grand total of 50 extra lbs on a five foot tall woman )

though i'm grateful for my family and friends and have lived a truly fulfilling life (so far)when i think of who i could've been if someone had looked into my symptoms as a child, it makes me sad, indeed...as it was, i've always struggled so hard to achieve anything and always wondered why everything seemed to be so difficult

you can bet i'm keeping a close eye on my kids...especially my 13 yr old daughter who has a small mouth and narrow jaw and who snored like crazy when she was just 5 yrs old...she had her tonsils and adenoids out at 7, but she may still have a tendency toward osa...

jen
thanks for your kind words

it's so funny that you mention braces...devon has been in orthodontic care since she was 8 years old...when she was 3 i took her for a speech assessment and the speech path told me that her speech was fine but that her hearing was significantly impaired in both ears...she's had trouble with her ears ever since, had tubes twice (ENT tried to get me to put them in a third time, but i said, 'do you get the feeling that maybe that's not the answer?!' duh...and she's been in chiropractic care--successfully--since she was 10); back then the speech path also told me that her jaw was narrow, the roof of her mouth was very high and arched and her mouth/throat was short from front to back, causing tongue thrust, and that we'd see some real problems when her permanent teeth started to come in...when she started with her orthodontist, he told us that everything that could be wrong with her mouth and jaw spatially, was wrong: too high, too short, too narrow and that her teeth were just huge...he cemented an appliance into the roof of her mouth when she was 8, which had a key that i had to turn every night before bed which would gradually widen her jaw as she grew...that went on for 6 months till we got the measurements we wanted...the appliance stayed in for 6 more months, then a retainer; then she had 8 baby teeth and four permanent teeth pulled, because xrays showed that the teeth waiting to come in were enormous and couldn't possibly fit; a spacer was then cemented into her mouth again to hold the spaces left by the extractions until the new teeth could come into place--that took 18 months...she had the appliance removed in august and now on december 3rd she'll be getting her braces...the difference in her bite and her jaw measurement is just remarkable and actually visible to the naked eye...and the xrays and photographs are really something to see! i'm so glad we found this guy who is a pioneer in the field and teaches all over the world...he also invented the most extraordinarily small braces which will be so much easier and more comfortable for her, and they take much less time to work; the hope attached to all this preventative orthodontic treatment is that she won't have to have her jaw broken at 16--he firmly believes in doing all the work while they're growing, not waiting till they're done...so yeah, i guess i'm pretty brave, but i've got nothing on this little trouper of mine! she hardly ever complains and has co-operated beautifully with all this treatment and the maintanence of the various appliances she's had to put up with...

as far as pregnancy goes, i'm great at getting pregnant and i have awesome children, but the in-between part was a nightmare, including the fact that with both of my pregnancies i conceived twins and lost my daughter's twin at 12 weeks and my son's at 9 weeks...i'm grateful that i was able to sustain the pregnancies at all, though it wasn't easy, and my son was born 7 weeks prematurely and spent a month in the n.i.c.u., his first two weeks in critical condition...so yeah, fun and games, that's for sure!

sorry my reply is soooooo long...thanks again for your kind words and thoughtful input
sharon

Sharon,

That is amazing! Of course, I was just guessing, but it is so cool that can be done! I'm glad to hear she won't have to have her jaw broken. While having braces and other mouth gear isn't fun, at least it isn't a surgery recovery. Do you have any feeling for whether that is improving her sleep?

A little off topic, but relavent to kids with sleep issues:

My son (age 4) has recently decided to put us through Dante's realms in the early am. He started waking up around 5 am and then repeatedly coming into our room with some complaint or other every 1/2 hour to hour. We have strict rules about staying in bed until 7 am. He would come in saying he had to go potty so bad he was about to have an accident (which of course takes 3 x longer than just going without help) or that he couldn't go back to sleep or that he had a tummy ache (he gets hungry after being up for so long). Each time he usually cries and makes a big scene.

This morning he got up at 5 to pee and then at 6 I woke up to hear him playing in his room. I went in and there he was in the dark playing with his bedtime stuffed animals. I just about lost it. He is tired and cranky all day and by 8 this morning, when it was time to leave for preschool he was rolling around on the floor sucking his thumb with his eyes closed because he is already tired. Last night he got so tired that when we tried to give him supper at 5:30 he completely melted down and said he wanted to go to bed! He normaly sleeps 12 hours (on a good night) so of course he was ready for bed! We put him to bed at 6 because he was a complete wreck.

I don't know if it is daylight savings time (although I'm pretty sure this was occasionally happening before then.) My husband was gone all last week and I managed to stop him from doing it for about 3-4 days and he was so happy and cheerful and played so well--really seemed like he was sleeping well and that the surgery had done him some good. But as soon as my husband got home it all started again. Worse than ever before.

He has no toys in his room except these stuffed animals that he is very attatched to. All his toys are in a playroom and the living room. So, I had to tell him that each time I caught him doing this I would take away one stuffed animal, maybe forever. I emphasized how important sleep is to how we feel all day and to prevent us from getting sick. I don't know what else to do! He actually got a decent amount of sleep last night because he went to bed so darn early, but then that only reinforced the early wake up.

I'm completely thrown for a loop here. Any experienced mom's here have any help for me and this very stubborn child? How can I help him to sleep better? I can't think of anything else. And I guess if he managed to hide these morning play sessions this long, he will have little trouble playing a little quieter in the future. When he is in a good sleeping mode, he normally sleeps 7pm to 6:30 am. According to the experts, kids his age are supposed to sleep 11-14 hours. If he weren't so tired I would guess he needed less sleep. But the proof is in the pudding. He acts tired and whiny all day when he does this.

I'm thinking I will make him nap today to try to reset his clock and put him to bed a little later so he will sleep in a little later.

I think he might be waking himself on purpose and coming into our room a lot because he doesn't see his dad much except a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes at night before bed. I think in some weird way he is trying to maximize that time with him, even if it is negative (we are tired and angry) rather than positive. He spends tons of time with my husband on weekends and they have special outings together every sunday.

Sorry to ramble. Anyone have any comments or suggestions?

Jen