My 3 children have had the strictest routine possible due to my 6to sons ODD and ADHD. Lately though the routine has been broken by my 6yo deciding he doesn't want to go to bed until after 9:30 instead of 7:30 (usual bedtime). In doing this he is also keeping awake my 8yo daughter and my 4yo son. And all three end up sleeping in the next day which is usually school. Does anyone have any relaxation methods I could try to relax my boys body into sleep? We have tried reading quietly together and lavender baths and relaxation massages. It just seems like nothing is working. He needs a lot of sleep to be able to function and I've even tried explaining this to him (he's a very bright boy).
Thanks in advance for your help. xo
4 Replies
What about meditation? There are some awesome kids meditation apps you can buy from the App Store. My kids love them. Good luck! X
have you tried melatonin ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin kids with ASD etc naturally lack melatonin which makes us sleepy.. you can supplement it and its natural seeing as it already occurs in our bodies anyway. Other than that we find doing ten mins wind down time before bed helps & giving him a mp3 player to listen to .. we don't insist he sleeps but we do insist he stay in bed quitely, attempting to sleep.
I second the melatonin, my eldest is the same and the melatonin helps to regulate his "sleep hormone" so he can get to sleep at a decent time.
Melatonin and maybe a weighed blanket might do the trick