My 5yr ds showed sensitivity as an infant. He needed a very dark quiet room to go to sleep. His room decor had to be toned down to not distract him. He liked repetitive movement like gentle patting or bouncing or rocking.(I still rock him to sleep lol). I used to take him up to his room and pull the shades and make a quiet soothing repetitive humming sound. HUM, HUM, HUM , for some reason this really helped. He never slept through the night until he was 18 months old and gave up his bottle.....
My DS had sleep issues as well. I believe they were more sensory related than adhd, but could be wrong. He had to be help, cuddled in order to fall asleep. So my husband or I would lay down and hold him until he fell asleep.
He also wouldn't sleep in his crib, we tried using that method with lettting them cry and go in ever so many minutes, that was brutal and also gave the child false hope that when you went in you were going to pick them up. Ferbering I think it was called, something like that. He always slept great in the BIG BED with my husband and I.
He is now a great sleeper!! And loves HIS bed.
These are great responses, thanks so much! I have actually seen research online about diagnosing very young ones with ADHD, I'm just not sure I want that diagnosis before everything else is checked out.
We feel certain it is not an attachment issue because she is otherwise well-adjusted, just tired a lot. Also because she lays awake perfectly still with her eyes wide open even if we stay in the room. Yesterday except for feedings we tried leaving her in her crib in her darkened room with us in there, and she was awake for four hours before I gave her Benadryl at my doctor's suggestion and then another 1 1/2 hours after that. Obviously, I'll never leave her there that long again, but we needed to see what would happen.
We have a good bedtime routine that gets her calm, but she still won't go to sleep. We have also been doing sleep training for five months, using each method we find online for at least a month before giving up.
We have observed her sleeping to see if she could have RLS or apnea, and she doesn't have the symptoms that are listed online. shellyA, did your child have breathing difficulties or snore when sleeping? Our girl doesn't, although when teething she will cough occasionally.
It doesn't seem to be light sensitivity, although that makes sense for infants with some forms of delayed sleep onset disorders related to their internal clocks. This happens in a light or dark room.
There is another kind of delayed sleep onset that results from a deficiency of melatonin. I found it yesterday online, and our ped must be thinking the same thing because today she prescribed melatonin. We'll see if that works. We may also see a child psychologist to make sure we're not missing anything psychological.
btw, our daughter was adopted and her birthfamily reports similar sleeping problems for other family members but they haven't investigated the cause. They just keep their kids up late and let them sleep with the parents until what seems to me like a very late age.
If anyone can think of anything else, please let me know. Just wondered if there was a connection with adhd...
Thanks again!
Forgot to mention that since this is happening at naptimes and at night, she is not getting much sleep during the day either. She gets tired after two hours of being awake, but rarely falls asleep during her morning naptime. Most afternoons she will sleep for two hours after taking two hours to fall asleep, then she's awake for about 3 1/2 hours before bedtime.Have you tried Co sleeping? My oldest was not a sleeper, so we put her in bed with us and we all happily slept. We actually did the family bed thing with both kids until age 6-8 or so. It worked for us, and they are well adjusted,never have had a fear of the dark or nightmares, and went to their own beds when they were ready. The only problem I encountered was that I have 2 cribs that have never been slept in.....3 1/2 hours awake after a 2 hour nap is probably not enough to get her tired enough. This age was hard with my daughter (no ADHD diagnosis, now 6). I worked really hard at getting just that one nap in mid-late morning and that was it until evening. We had LOTS of crabby dinner times. Once I got her on that schedule though she stayed with it for about a year and a half, it was great. 1 1/2 nap about 11:00-12:30, then bed 7:30 - 6:30. Still does the 7:30-6:30, but hasnt napped since about 2 1/2. We never have going to bed issues with her, once that schedule was set, she's stuck to it. Almost to a fault now that she's older, she cannot do evening activites......too tired. Altough my 13 year old still cant last much past 8:00, same schedule .My daughter is 11 months old and cannot fall asleep. It's not just that she can't fall asleep without us - like an attachment disorder or something. It's that she can't fall asleep even when we are right there - she will lay perfectly still for up to two hours, then start standing up in her crib over and over again. When she was smaller, she would only go to sleep with a bottle. Then she didn't have to have a bottle but had to be gently but physically restrained - no movement allowed and her eyes half-covered. Everything was a distraction. She couldn't even make it through a bottle without being distracted by other things in the room. Now she just won't go to sleep, we have tried all the recommended methods of putting a child to sleep, but nothing works. Even our pediatrician is concerned, but she hasn't mentioned ADHD yet.
Has any parent of a child with ADHD experienced something similar when your child was a baby?
I personally would just take it one day at a time. Stay consistent in your choices and keep routines down as much as possible. You really can't pin point it as ad/hd in my opinion. 11 months is very young. I actually have never seen any research on anything involving that young of an age.
My son was an awesome baby in that he was very mild mannered. I noticed some things more at the end of 2 1/2 years of age. Didn't act upon it until a month before his 4th birthday.
You don't mention how often/ how long your daughter sleeps during the day. Although given the fact that you pediatrician is concerned I'm sure she has gone over the amounts of sleep needed by children at this age. As other's have mentioned 11 months is way to young to know if a child has ADD or ADHD yet. Not many children are diagnosed prior to older preschool - but mostly not till school age. I assume that your daughter does got to sleep at some point and is not up all night. Perhaps it is just that her sleep needs are less hours in a 24 hour period than the average 11 month old. Maybe just cutting down on daytime sleep and/or adjusting when she goes to bed at night and is gotten up in the morning would do the trick. If you have already tried this forgive me for stating the obvious. I'm just thinking about an infant that I had in my infant room when I was a caregiver at a day care center. She slept from 8PM to 8AM from a very early age (4-5 months or so?) and would not nap during the day for more than 5-10 minutes. If I had gotten her to sleep during the day she probably would not have slept the way she did at home at night. As for taking a long time to go to sleep, it takes some people longer to relax than others, that just might be the case for her. As long as she is not crying or upset, and is safe in her crib I would not worry. It would be impossible to diagnose ADHD in a child this young, so that is whay your ped ahs not, and will not mention it. SOunds to me like she might need to be sleep trained, I had to do it with my oldest NON adhd child. I agree about taking things one day at a time and waiting to see what happens at least the doctor knows what is going on. I also agree with routine important.we had sleep issues with our NON adhd child, in his case it was HUGE tonsils and adenoids the size of an orange. after his adenoids were removed he slept thru the night...the pediatrician didn't see any of this, we were at our wits end...and i only made an ENT appointment because i was so desperate. she said "when was he seen last"? and i said yesterday...she said, he can't breathe, his adenoids have to be the size of an orange. sooooo...adenoids and tonsils removed...+ 5 sets of ear tubes...but NO sleep issues after the adenoids were removed. he was suffering from sleep apnea...
just something to consider...our kid we stopped picking up out of the crib and letting him cry it out..we did shifts at night, seriously! and it was his adenoids...not bad sleep behaviors that we caused.
good luck!
shelley
Thanks for the suggestions. Will not do co-sleeping. I have thought about schedule changes, but I can tell when she starts getting tired - she's a little hyperactive when she's not, so it's easy, plus she does the eye-rubbing, glazed-over look and sometimes even the hitting herself in the head over and over thing. Almost always gets tired around 2 hrs, but can go longer in the evening. I have really tried to watch for her signals and listen to her natural schedule.