My son used clonidine for sleep issuesabout the age of 6. I HATED it. My son was a zombie, he would sleep so hard he drooled on himself (not a little either a small puddle), peed the bed (hadnt done that in years), had bad dreams (every night), and in the morning he was calmer and nicer but he seemed to still be in a trance. I used it for about 2 weeks to see if it was just from him starting it and these side effects would go away, they did not. I took him off, against the doctors advise. We just tried to deal with sleep issues by trying to reward him for staying in his bed, reading quietly until he fell asleep. That worked for a little while until he started to get out of bed after my hubby and i went to bed. He would go into thebasement and watch Tv half the night. We would catch him at 3 in the morning watching cartoons.
At this point the doctor recemended we try Melatonin, which we bought at the GNC. It did work well, but it seems like my sons tolerance built for this pretty quickly. We started with .5 mg and he was sleeping 30 minutes later, eventually we were giving hm 1 1/2 mg and he still couldnt fall asleep.
I was going crazy myself not getting enough sleep. My sons behavior at school was crazy. We went back to the doctors....he recomended a child psychiatrist.
I started to see a highly recomended (and fairly expensive)child psychiatrist. He gave us the idea of RAID. We use it for all 5 of our children now. We made up a chart, all the kids names down one side and the days of the week across the top. Every night your children go to sleep without incident they get a star or a sticker, if during one week they get 4 stars or stickers on Friday night they get to stay up late, watch tv or movies, even eat popcorn while watching!!!! This sounds like no big deal but if you are consistent in putting your "problem" sleeper to bed while they others get to stay up late, boy this chart works wonders!!! And if your child got 5 stars or stickers (Sunday to Thursday), both Friday and Saturday they get to stay up late. I consider late 1030 for my kids, but you can tweak this to work for your family. I highly recomend this chart. We have been using it for 7 months, my son has gotten RAID just about every weekend except the first 2 or 3. He learn quickly!!
Thanks for responding so quickly. Yes, our dr said that it will probably be a temporary thing until he can into a good sleep pattern again.Amazing the difference a good night's sleep can make!
I know it sucks to have to use another med, but it sounds like it will do him (and the rest of you) a world of good. And, like vickie said, you'll probably only need it for a little while.
My youngest uses guanfacine (tenex) which is similar to clonidinie. It helps with hyperactivity, defiance, sleep issues, impulsivity, etc.
It may be that after your son's sleep patterns get reset, the med will no longer be needed.
I read another post about morning problems and I wanted to ask another question, related to that.
My ds (13) has ADHD and is on Adderall. Our mornings are pure hell b/c he's down right mean. He's disrespectful, angry, fights to get up, etc. He's not like that after he's been up and has had his medicine. We've also noticed that he's having trouble sleeping at night b/c we've caught him playing games or reading books n his room after he's supposed to be in bed.
Our pediatician said that it sounds like he's not getting nearly enough sleep, which can cause all of the problems we're dealing with in the am.
She prescribed 'Clonindine' which she said was originally used for blood pressure but has been found to help children with ticks (tourettes?) and help children with ADHD sleep at night.
We tried it last night and he was asleep by 10:00. This morning he got up at 6:20 when I called him. He didn't bite my head off, yell or anything like that. He was pleasant to me and even his sisters. I was happy that he got a good nights rest. However I still don't like him being on any meds. Fortunately the dr said this is just a temporary thing.
Has anyone else used this drug before?
Just for the info, our doc has my son on Melatonin, an over the counter remedy. Since he started stims we upped the dose slightly but it works wonders without having to give the extra pill. Ask your doc about it.Hello,