Kids Sleep Habits

[kejohe]

Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone else has any problems getting their kids to sleep through the night. My son, who is 3 years old, still wakes up 3 and 4 times a night, nearly every night. He has been gluten free for 2 years and has no other issues, except the sleeping or lack of. He doesn't always nap during the day, but they don't seem make any difference. He eats enough and drinks enough and he is fully potty trained.

Just wondering if there was any feedback. Thanks in advance for your comments.

[ROYAL BLUE]

My son is now 6 years old. He never slept for the first 3 years of his life, well 10 minutes at a time (no kidding). I'm still trying to recover from sleep deprevation.

[hapi2bgf]

You are not alone. I feel permanently sleep derived!

My daughter did not start sleeping through the night until she was 2 years old. I went away for a business trip for two weeks and Dad got to take care of her full time. I still don't know exactly how he managed to get her to sleep, but she slept through the night after that. She has always know that if Dad comes to get her in the middle of the night, she will get nothing and just slams her head back on her pillow and goes to sleep. If Mom comes for her, she knows she will get out of her bed. (Dad traveled so she and I frequently slept on the floor if I wanted any sleep at all.)

She is now 3 and waking up almost every night for a potty break or water. So I have had close to a year of her sleeping through the night regularly and now that is gone again. I think these kids know how to read their parents too well at a very young age. The only way I could ever break a bad night time habit of hers was to send Dad in to deal with her. He does not put up with her games and does not give in. She learns to adapt to the right behavior prettty quickly. I think the change in people made a big difference.

Good luck.

[seeking-wholeness]

My older son (now three and a half) began to sleep through the night at about 15 months, but then regressed and began waking up two and three times a night. It seemed to be related to whether he had a nap--if he did, he could sleep, but if not, he couldn't. If he went without a nap for several days in a row, it would take several days for his sleep to normalize after he began napping again. His sleep habits would also "mature" at least temporarily after visiting his grandparents for a couple of weeks. Change seems to be good for that! Now that he is gluten-free, I have noticed that he will sometimes wake up at night after having a gluten accident. My younger son is almost 18 months old and still wakes up at least twice a night. People want to say that's because we co-sleep, but I co-slept with my older boy, too, and once he learned to sleep through the night it didn't matter that the dairy bar was always open!

As far as my own sleep is concerned, I think I can count the number of times in my entire life that I have slept through the night on my fingers! I had a bed-wetting problem as a child (hmmm, should I be surprised?), so my father would get me up to use the bathroom. (Hey, that means he wasn't sleeping through the night, either--and I'm sure I got my celiac disease from him!) Now, I can't sleep longer than four hours at a time, whether the baby wants to nurse or not! It's really frustrating! What is even more infuriating is the belief shared by almost everyone (it seems) that my sleep issues are solely the result of "poor sleep hygiene" (and co-sleeping, of course)! No one considers that it doesn't matter what I try--enforcing a bedtime, getting up early so I am tired at night, refusing to get out of bed when I wake up, even taking supplements that are supposed to help have no effect. (I don't find this surprising at all, now that I know I am probably not digesting them properly in the first place!) I wish I weren't so sleep-deprived all the time! Oops, sory for the rant! If I figure out a way to get better sleep, I'll definitely post it!

[kejohe]

Hi all, thanks for your supportive comments. I never really thought of sleep habits as being a hereditary thing, but now I wonder. I have been an insomniac almost as long as I can remember. I have not been diagnosed as a celiac, yet, but my son was diagnosed at 1 year and has never in his life slept more than a few hours at a time.

He used to have night terrors, and he would just scream and scream in his sleep. We never knew what caused them and the doctor said it was fairly common. He doesn't have them very ofen anymore, but he did have one last night. It takes him a while to wake up and calm down, and I usually have to sit with him for a while and rock him back to sleep, which is unusual, because he has been a lone sleeper since he was 3 months old and usually hates to sleep next to us because he's such a sqirmer.

I don't know I guess he'll either grow out of it or maybe when he gets older, he can see a sleep therapist.

[jordanandnadia]

Don't know if this has anythign to do with the celiac disease, but when i was little i didn't sleep through the night until i was 6... My mom still likes to point that out. I wasn't diagnosed until a year ago though (i was 20 then).

Maybe this helps...

[chantal]

i never sleep maybe a few hours a night and its not together, maybe it could be related.. anyway im 19 now and still the same way

[jeremy'smom]

Dear Kathleen,

wow, i really relate to what everyone is going thru, and in answer to something you posted, i think insomnia and sleep related problems are more prevalent with celiac.

My 4 year old is my middle child, the only one with celiac. He's also the only child who has never drunk milk or slept thru the night. He started off in the world by screaming thru the night from about 11 pm until 4 am and often woke the neighbors two houses down. As an infant he would ONLY SLEEP IN THE INFANT SWING. i used to lie by the swing holding his hand until the rocking finally settled his screaming. When he learned to walk he would night terror and throw himself into walls. He ate dirt anytime i let him play in the yard. And still it took me four years to get him diagnosed.

As far as suggestions go, Jeremy only has night terrors on the nights he has a reaction, so i try and plan ahead by going to bed hours earlier (me) and give him minerals and water at dinner to alay the screaming nightmare. (that's IF i know its coming) My husband and i take turns being "on call" so that one of us gets a break.

My husband jokes that we have been sleepless for years, and i'm sorry that all of you have been too. I'm always toying with opening a gluten free bakery or restaurant so i can relax and have a good nights sleep, I'm sure alot of you have thought the same.I honestly cannot imagine having more than one celiac child, bless those of you that do.

brooke

[kejohe]

Hi Brooke!

That sounds just like my son, when he has night terrors, he will hit anything within reach as hard as he can with his feet and hands and wakes up with black and blue bruises all up and down his arms and legs. His teachers probably think we beat him! Anyway, it's funny that you say your hubby jokes about being sleepless for years, mine does too... a lot.

Thanks so much for all your comments and support, I know things will get better as he gets older and I can only bide my time until then.

[carrie4495]

Open Original Shared Link

i thought i have been losing my mind. Oh my goodness, I am not the only one. I have felt like this horrible mother because my child does not sleep hrough the night.

he is 21 mos and i have tried everything to get him to sleep for atleast four hours straight. ha! about 4 mos. ago i took him to a digestive disease specialist in hou, tx. he is wonderful. i found out that he is allergic to dairy, wheat and eggs. he hasn't been diagnostic with celiac disease but it sure sounds familiar. we go back in two months and are probably going to have to have an endoscopy done.

once i took him off of all these evils, sleep did get better. for a bit. but now it seems if he gets even a hint of one of them it is worse than before we started this. we have anoher older son who doesn't have any problems with food. my husband is ok with everything. i wonder if i fall in the same lines as avery? we all eat a wheat, egg and dairy free diet at home. i feel better but wonder if i am just used to the side effects of the allergies.

does this get better or is it a for life thing? the doctor told me that once his stomach has a chance to heal that he may be able to eat these things again. down the road.

this is a relief to know that there are other people who have kids who don't sleep through the night.

[gf4life]

Carrie,

If your son is wheat free, then that means he is on a reduced gluten diet. He is probably still getting a little bit of gluten from other sources. You said you might be taking him in for a biopsy in a few months, and you need to know that a reduced gluten diet could cause a false negative biopsy when testing for Celiac Disease. You would have to put him back on wheat to test him for Celiac. I'm not sure you would want to do that, so if you don't you may want to check out Open Original Shared Link and the stool and gene tests they offer.

Mariann

[Trying2GetHelp]

After over FIFTY years, I'm being tested for celiac disease. Over the years, I have emassed so many symptoms and diagnosis's that would make anyone groan, let alone question my sanity.

 

Until someone recently started putting the pieces together, I would never have considered this. However, one of the longest and worst symptoms (that goes all the way back to infancy/toddlerhood), is my inability to sleep.

 

Lately, people were blaming my "other" problems on sleep deprivation, but didn't seem to realize (or hear) that I had been living like this my whole life. There is a difference between having a life-long sleep disorder and suddenly feeling exhausted and unable to continue through the day.

 

I've been considering having a WHY THE HELL DIDN'T ANYONE LISTEN TO ME? day ... where I can b%$@# and scream and everyone and everything.

 

At first, I thought it was the last 25-30  years; now I realize it's far more than that ......

 

My sleep problems were passed on to my son; but not the gluten intolerance.

[tarnalberry]

It is NOT uncommon for toddlers to not sleep through the night.  Something like 40% of 2-yr olds still wake in the night, and that number doesn't drop to the very low numbers until more like 5.  Of course it varies by child, and some of them wake up themselves but may not wake up their parent.

You're not alone.  I know many others in your shoes, and I am in them myself - my nearly 3-yr old wakes up on average twice a night.