Need Help with Sleeping Tricks

Oh. My. Goodness.

Yeah. Steroids sooooooo often cause sleep problems. My 9yo has mystery respiratory problems (similar to asthma or CF but not asthma or CF). We started this steroid 2 months ago (3 month course at 6x the dose for a normal kid his size).

Guess when the EARLIEST he's gone to bed has been? 12am. But that has become freakishly early for him. When he's Usually getting to sleep these days is (wait for it) 5am or 6am.

Poor kid. He's absolutely exhausted. (I'm so happy right now I'm ADHD, since I can swing some insomnia and weird hours with the best of 'em, but after 2mo of this, I'm tired, too)

AND he's absolutley starving. All the time. We already eat every 3 hours. It's now every hour some days. For the first time in my life I'm actually having to monitor how much he's eating. Talk about the MUNCHIES.

Right now, I'm just rolling with it. This isn't bad habit, or something he's choosing... the starvin'o'the'hunger and no sleep is a reaction to the medication. It's only 3 months. IF we have to go longer, then we'll look at some serious restructuring.

HOWEVER... For him, the one big trick I've learned is to give him his steroids 30 minutes after benedryl and *literally* right before bed. (Since they can cause mouth ulcers he has to brush his teeth/tongue/cheeks/etc right after... so we puff in the bathroom, brush, and *immediately* go to bed).

The nights I get the timing down, he's usually asleep by 1am-2am. Trying to have it be earlier than midnight, though, and even if he can fall asleep he wakes up 6 times during the night.

I just keep reminding myself: It's the medication. It's the medication. It's the medication.

That doesn't sound like much dinner. Maybe some protein to digest over a longer period of time and keep him satisfied? White rice and a veggie won't hold him very long, and he's missing the protein. The bottle has protein (if it's milk or formula) but it's liquid and digests faster.

The meds probably didn't help but even so, 4:30 is way too early. Is he waking up hungry, or is he just not able to self-soothe? He needs to put himself back to sleep - that means you can reassure him but not pick him up. If he expects to be snuggled every time he wakes up, no one is going to get any sleep. At 8.5 months, he needs his full night's sleep, and so do you. There are many techniques for "sleep training" so you have to find one you agree with. Some do cry-it-out, others don't. I'm not here to tell you which method to use, but that you should find one and stick to it consistently to build a pattern.

Sleeping through the night is a developmental milestone and while sleep training can encourage those who are ready to do so, it can also be harmful to those who aren't well enough to sleep through the night. If he has trouble breathing and he falls into a deep sleep to sleep longer stretches at night he is more likely to die. Waking frequently is a instictive way to prevent them from forgetting to breathe in their sleep and dying.

I know that you are tired yourself but it is much better that he is waking frequently with his breathing problems than losing him because he forgot to breathe in his sleep. I had a preemie and had to watch her carefully and prevent her from sleeping through the night until she was healthy enough to do so without forgetting to breathe.

Your son is still in the peak time to die from SIDS and once his breathing problems are under control and have been for at least a month then you can work on helping him sleep longer.

1. Feed him protein before bed, or at every meal. Protein takes longer to break down, so it makes you feel full longer. True for babies and for adults.

2. Are you putting him to bed drowsy, or fast asleep? If he's zonked out before you lay him in his crib, then you need to change. Start laying him down when he's sleepy, but not already asleep. He may cry for a minute or two, but he needs to learn to fall asleep on his own. That way, when he wake up at 4am, he knows how to fall back asleep on his own without you.

I sleep-trained my son at 9 months after someone told me there is such thing as sleep training! I had no idea there were books out there about it. I just thought kids would sleep thru the night whenever they felt like it. Within 3 days of reading Babywise book, my 9month old son slept thru the night. The biggest thing for me was putting him to bed drowsy but not asleep. Good luck!

I have 2 kids, and each had different sleep patterns/ability/appetites.

Waking up twice a night, is really not much, for a baby.
My kids as babies, woke up MORE than that. And I was breastfeeding, on-demand, and they woke up every 2 hours to 3 hours during the night. I woke too. I nursed them. They had, GINORMOUS appetites, and especially during growth-spurts and developmental changes. Which is normal. Appetites, fluctuates in a baby/child and even in an Adult. Hence, "on-demand" feeding, for a baby, is important. Not going by a 'schedule.'

Your son is on the cusp of 9 months old. 9 months old is a growth-spurt time and they also hit other major milestones or other developmental changes at this time, as well. Thus, this tweaks sleep. Or they may be teething. So this also wakes them.

For the 1st year of life, per our Pediatrician, feeding baby on-demand is important... because this is a building-block time of development and their organs are also developing too. Adequate intake, is important and per growth-spurts, too. Intake has to keep up with, baby. Even if baby is on solids. Breastmilk/Formula is the PRIMARY source of nutrition for a baby. Not solids and not other liquids. Solids is not a nutritionally dense, as breastmilk or solids.

Also, sleep in a baby, is not static. It ALWAYS changes. Per each age stage & developmental stage, sleep will vary.

To me, your baby is not waking up too much.

Also, is your baby napping?????
Lack of sleep and being over-tired, actually makes it harder, for a baby/child to sleep.

You also want to be sure, that his breathing problem, is fixed.
Didn't your Pediatrician have you come in for a follow-up appointment? This is usually done.
If his breathing problems are not fixed, you need to take him back to the Doctor.
Steroids, does affect anyone. And sleep too.

I recently started brewing a pot of chamomile tea before bed and each get a sippie/bottle full. i sweeten it with agave nectar. I have been amazed, but i wont swear by it yet, i have only done it a few times

The steroids or the breathing issues may be the problem, or he may be teething. Personally, I'd just try to ride it out for a little longer to see if it goes away on its own.