How can I help her fall asleep??

amother

Blue

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 10:27 pm

DD is 3.5. Until recently she has been going to bed at 6, and is fast asleep by the time her older sister is ready to get in bed, at 7. About three weeks ago she started having trouble falling asleep, and since then it has taken her 1.5-3 hours to fall asleep every night. Nothing major changed in her life. At this point, at the mention of 'bedtime' she gets all worked up that she can't fall asleep and she doesn't want to go to sleep. I have tried exercises followed by a warm bath, I have tried letting her listen to music or story CDs.

Any suggestions for me?

smiledoamitzva

Thu, Jun 18 2015, 12:53 pm

Maybe lay down with her for a few minutes until she gets into the bedtime mode.
It's usually the sumer time when kids start resenting bedtime so you're not alone in this one.
good luck!

amother

Blue

Thu, Jun 18 2015, 9:01 pm

Thanks for your responses.

For the past week I have been keeping her up until 7 or 7:30, and it has still been taking hours to fall asleep. I often end up giving her melatonin (1/4 of a 1mg mel-o-chew) which has her sleeping in 10 minutes.

mha- I stay with her for about 15 minutes, but then it's the next kids' bedtime so I can't really stay longer.

A little background: My older DD always fell asleep easily, until we got rid of her paci at 4.5 years old. for three months she was unable to fall asleep on her own, it took hours, every single night. she was a complete basket case, and the dr. recommended melatonin (1/2 of a chew) which she has been on since. without it, it takes 3 hours or so until she drops off. I don't feel so comfortable with this long term hormone business, but the doctor encourages it as she gets sick from lack of sleep, and she can't manage to fall asleep without it. One more thing, DD3 has been on oulmicort in the nebulizer/inhaler for the past little while could that be keeping her up?