So my best friend asked me to put this up here about her 16 month old son. First let me tell you that she has worked in childcare for 12 years and works with infants and still can not figure her son out. He is, for the most part, a happy baby, but the child rarely sleeps! He refuses to nap throughout the day, and if he does it's never longer then a half an hour. She has a very strict bedtime routine for her daugheter that's 2 as well as her son. They take a bath, read a book, and both then are put in bed. Here's the problem, he sleeps for no longer then 4 hours. She puts him down at 8:30 and he's always up by 1 screaming as if someone is killing him!! Even when she goes to comfort him he pushes her as if he wants to get down, when she puts him down the screming is worse. After about an hour he may fall back asleep for an hour maybe 2 if she's lucky, after 4 a.m., no hope for sleep. He has been this way since he was an infant but it just seems to get worse the older he gets. She's had everything checked by her doc. for him and everything is normal, he's normal, nothing is wrong. The doc. says he'll grow out of it, but when is her question? Leaving him to cry doesn't work either as he will scream for hours on end and wake his sister in the other room in the meantime. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!
That sounds exactly like the reflux my son had and the ped always told me he was fine because he was fine during the day. Get a pediatric GI to evaluate him.
He couldn't sleep more than 2 hours without waking and shrieking. They told me he was fine for a year, and then treated him and he improved drastically.
Don't let the docs tell them nothing's wrong when something is.
H.
Hmmm. That is definatly not normal. Especially since she does everything right to get him to sleep. Reflux can be the problem and is something to look into especially if he had the problem as an infant. If I were here I would have this looked at by a developmental pediatrician that can really answer her questions. Something is not right and they will put kids on melatonin or even sleeping pills (low dose) if needed. My question is what does this kid look like during the day?? Is he easy going or is he a very active child??? There are lots of things that can contribute to a child being able to sleep and well. Don't know where she is located but the Center for Pedicatric Sleep Disorders is at Children's Hospital Boston. Just a thought. Even if the cry it out method doesn't work, which is what it sounds like Richard Ferber's book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems may give her some idea of maybe medically what might be causing issues. He works at the Pediatric Sleep Clinic in Boston. Just a thought. Hope this helps some.
Hello,
It sounds as if something is waking him up. Maybe night terrors or nightmares of some sort. It sounds a little deeper than he just doesn't want to sleep. Maybe something is scaring him. You might want to consider a sleep specialist or some sort of counseling to see what the cause may be. Good Luck!
Chris
Tell her to go to another doctor. Screaming means he is in pain, there is a difference between screaming and crying. He may have reflux or something along those lines. My son had reflux for his first year and it was awful. He would scream in pain and if he outgrew the dosage on the medicine it would start back up again. But when the meds were at the right dosage, he did great and could sleep...well, like a baby! He would do the same thing and sleep for about 3-4 hours then wake up screaming. It was like he didn't know what he wanted and finally I would get him back to sleep (usually nursing him) and he would sleep for short periods waking up again and again. He only napped for brief periods too. NOw he naps for hours and sleeps 11 hours at night! Tell her to get a second opinion and keep talking to other doctors until she finds an answer.
