pleaseeeee someone help

Replies

By EL

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Sun 12 Oct 2008 00:06

Hi Sarahg, my son Adam(13) went through a phase like this, it ended up with me having to sleep in his room with him for a good few weeks, then it progressed to me having to sit up watching the tv till all hours with the volume loud enough for him to hear, his sixth sense always told him if i had fallen asleep and he would come out of his room and wake me up and tell me off for falling asleep before him. This went on for at least a year, but had i not gone with the flow to suit him it could have got very distressing for both of us. The simple solution is for your dad to camp down in her room till she gets through this difficult phase. If she sleeps while your dad is present do you think she could go through the whole night with him there? if yes then they would both get a good nights sleep, this wont last forever just ride with it for now. Good luck. Elaine

By fenlander

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Sun 12 Oct 2008 00:16

It's been a long time since my Autistic son was 5 and going through this - he's now 17! It's anxiety and although it goes against the usual advice of being firm and not giving in that just didn't work for us. We kept him up later - I think about 9 or 9.30 - and gave him lots of hugs. We put relaxing music on in his room - I think TV would be too stimulating. If he came down we let him stay for about 30 minutes at first and gradually reduced that by 5 minutes until he was only having a quick hug before going back to bed by himself.
He didn't necessarily sleep until much later - often after midnight - but that is usual with Autism. At least he was resting and happy with the music and we were able to rest.
The music we found worked well was soundtrack from Beatrix Potter DVDs! We ran a shop and found it hard - in the end we had to give that up as his sleep patterns were variable and he often wandered in the night. We had an alarm on downstairs at night for safety but still one of us could be up and down all night. If that is the case then the Autistic person does qualify for the higher rate of Care component of DLA and more Child Tax Credit which helps a bit if your ability to work is affected.
Hope that helps. It's not easy coping without sleep.

By sarahg

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Sun 12 Oct 2008 00:37

thanks for the answers spoke to mum and she has asked me to ask if either of you got any medical help or advice with this or have you managed to fix it on your own?

if you got medical help/advice what was the help/advice??

By Forbsay

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Sun 12 Oct 2008 10:08

My son used to do this. He was diagnosed at 2.5 with autism and he is now 8. It is really hard dealing with a lack of sleep. We used to lie beside him until he went to sleep. Has the wee girl got a favourite toy or book that she gets assurance from? I would also get your mum to look at the national autistic website.

By kerry.

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Sun 12 Oct 2008 10:32

Hi Sarah,
bless you for taking the time to worry about your parents. It's hard for siblings too and I hope you are also getting support maybe with young carers (altho I dunno how old you are)

Maybe something upset your sister to start with, which caused some anxiety, and now it has developed into a habit which is hard to break.
probably something that others wouldnt even realise- with my boys it could be something as simple as cutting their toast in half wehn they wanted triangles haha.

My eldest boy used to be dreadful and i would be in his room all night up and down and had his brother who was only a baby at the time, also up all night...
Nothing worse than tiredness!
My eldest still doesnt sleep but now seems to entertain himslef better thru the night, altho we are forever catching him watching DVds at 2am 4am etc! little monkey.

sometimes he will let me massage him before bed, lavender oil, firm pressure, low classical music- altho nothing which is too busy. Baby classics is a good CD, very soft and gentle.
also blowing bubbles while all this is going on haha sounds bonkers but really does help.
good luck

By gemini mum

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Sun 12 Oct 2008 22:16

Theres nothing worse than lack of sleep, the lavender oil massage is a very good idea. you can also sprinkle some oil on the pillow and use it in an incese burner. I also seem to remember you could get a medecine called phenergan ( i think ) but i don't know if this is still availible or recomended these days. I'm sure there must be someone reading this who could give more info about that.

By fenlander

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Mon 13 Oct 2008 00:24

Hi Sarah
At the time we had a Community Nurse who advised us being firm and locking his bedroom door!!?? This would have been dangerous and would have upset him unbelievably. I do remember she suggested Phenergan but it didn't really work. Talking to my husband he reminded me that we also had to turn the TV off when he went to bed so that the house was quiet. Not easy .
In answer to your question we have not had much advice for anything really. I read a book by Donna Williams who is Autistic and the best bit of advice came from that - don't confront or challenge, but sit alongside the Autistic person and share their experience. When I first did this when our son was about 3 - I sat next to him on the floor while he was "stimming" - he looked at me with the greatest relief that I understood what he was feeling and calmed down. Since then I have tried to feel what he is feeling and go from there really.

By natalie

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Mon 13 Oct 2008 11:29

ita anxiety and maybe a behaviour pattern my daughter went through this and i also work full time with autistic children in a residential school is much harder to deal with your own than with others so i wont try to sound like im a know all the only thing that that helped my own daughter was her little sister bein born !!!!!! and having sound in the room she now has smooth fm on every night in bed even in the bath as bath time makes her anxious also doctors tried melatonin they said she was having night terrors as she just used to sit up screaming every few mins it was exhausting she still does this but we try to ignore it and over time she has learned to lie back down but still continues through the night the music helps xxxxxx hope it helps

natalie

By lee

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Tue 14 Oct 2008 00:33

at the moment my daughter is smearing in the night with her poo. she also makes high squeels (happy 1s i think) but she has gone from a baby who slept from 7pm til 9am to a lil girl who is awake till after 1 and up at 7 or 8.. rachel has no diagnosis other than global developmental delays. she is not coping well with the school holidays (on 2 week off at the moment)

here we have a gate on her room, she is big enough that if sh wanted she could climb over it and it is broken and the part that locks it just needs a simple tap to open it. it is more of a security blanket type thing for her. we tried to take it away but she was not happy.

i hope you sister grows out of this, the other coments make me feel confident that it may well change in time.

also just thought, rachel has been known to wake up and scream as if she has had a night terror, many times over the years.

gl xxx

By kerry.

Re: pleaseeeee someone help
Tue 14 Oct 2008 09:17

gemini mum,
my boys had phenergan for a time, it does work but the only problem was we were trying to get them clean so we had to stop it.
its like an anti-histamin really.
I kno melatonin has a mixed reaction, some it works, some it doesnt, not something ive tried though.