My handsome little Monkey boy is having some severe sleep problems. He cannot fall asleep at night, and if he does he's awake an hour later. The pediatrician had me try Melatonin, Benadryl, and finally last night Xanax. He is such an anxious kid in general, and I think it's the root of his sleeping issues. So he prescribes a small dose of Xanax, to be given 45 minutes before bedtime.
He fell asleep, he was even snoring. YAY! For the first time in literally weeks, both kids were asleep. It was nice to have some alone time with the hubby. And then, the boy was crying. Not even crying, moaning and wailing. He wasn't really awake, so I couldn't get him to talk to me. I had to stand him up, wash his face with cold water, and wiggle him awake. Then he cried uncontrollably.
For the next two hours, the Xanax wrecked havoc on his little brain. He was dizzy, his eyes were fuzzy. He was paranoid - everywhere that there was dark or a shadow, someone was watching him. He was confused, he said he felt like he was supposed to be somewhere else?? He was hyperventilating and freaking out. He said something bad was going to happen.
I finally googled how to counteract Xanax and everything said caffeine. So I popped a cherry coke and had him down it. Within 30 minutes he was calm and really awake, and then he was so tired he actually slept the rest of the night. In my bed, but sleep!
Wow. So I need to call the pediatrician back and tell him that this is clearly not the solution! His next option was Ambien. Anyone have experience with that, as an adult or with your child?
We used to revel in the "new perfect" that was our life. Raising a beautiful girl with multiple special needs showed us that "perfect" is all in our minds. Emily's life was perfect. It was happy, it was brilliant. She was social, outgoing, silly, and ticklish. Now we are learning to get through life without our "Perfect Peanut" in it. This is most certainly NOT a new kind of perfect.
5 comments:
Oh my goodness, that sounds awful and scary! Poor Monkey! I am so sorry this is happening to him. I have no advice on sleep aids, just hugs and prayers for you and Monkey.
How scary! I don't have any advice, but I hope you find the right solution real soon! Love and Hugs!!!
for a while, my mom was on a bunch of different medicines and caffiene was an instant sleep aid... now she is back to drinking coffee in the morning instead.
kids react differently to different medicines. ritalin for my brother helped him calm down for ADHD and for my sister helped her pep-up from other fatigueing drug side-effects.
good luck
~chaney
Oh I can't imagine how scary that was for him. I haven't tried ambien, but my ped said it doesn't have any side effects and it doesn't make you groggy in the morning. She wanted me to take it.
We are coming down for sure the beginning of June because our cousin is getting married. But we are getting season passes to Disneyland this year, so we might sneak down for the weekend the last weekend in Febuary.
That sounds awful!
Both of my boys have trouble sleeping. They both take melatonin an hour before bedtime and Isaiah (the 13-year-old) also takes mritzapan (I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong). Prior to that, he took Clonidine. Much more mild than anxiety medicine (we tried abilify with DISASTROUS results).
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