won't sleep alone

We “cured” our son of that when he was about 8 years old. We painted his room, redecorated (with things he already had - just got rid of the baby stuff and pinned the big boy stuff to the walls), and bought him a new mattress that was “even better than Mom’s and Dad’s.” (It was, too!) After the fanfare and glory, he decided he couldn’t possibly give up all that comfort and started sleeping in his room exclusively (even when offered the sofa and TV for the night). He also sleeps with a lamp on all night (with a 25 watt bulb).

I’ve always been a real mean mom when it comes to sleep. Ferbered both of my kids. (its a good thing I did it before I realized my son has anxiety or I wouldn’t have been able to go thru with it.)

You need to address the fears/anxiety that started the behavior and then work on getting him out of your room. Even though Dr. Ferber is thought of for babies, he actually has a lot of good advise about older kids (maybe not 10, but I bet the principles apply) . But I would suspect your son will feel better about himself when he can sleep in his own room.

maybe it is a phase he goes through. Otherwise, perhaps he has some problems with school or socially he wants to get you to understand but doesn’t feel comfortable speaking up. How tall is he ? Could it be he is developmentally delayed ? Try it in little steps.

Your son may be to old for this but I found a CD at the Library by Patti Teal, it is called the Floppy sleep game. My son, who is six, was asleep in two seconds, I was amazed.

She talks and plays music and has you lift your arms and legs, he may find it too childish but my son was like a zombie after he listened to it. Even he noticed how quickly it made him fall asleep!

K.

would this cd be good for learning relaxation techniques at bedtime?

my son Josh is 6 with a dx of Autism, he too demands to sleep with mom, Josh also has anxiety. he’d rather sleep on the couch, in the floor, with me… anywhere but in his bed… about a year ago i was told Josh has Sensory Interative Dysfunction… sublingual siezures (apparent during sleep pattern analysis) and nightime enurosis. here is what i have done to ease him to sleep alone. each night when he gets ready for bed i put a CD in playing celtic rhythms… (nature sounds with the calming use of harps) i have Celtic Nights. anyway while he listens to this i massage his head for about 10 minuites, with SID most have a tactile definsiveness needing deep preasure, and i made Josh a weighted blanket, (i make these for The Autism Program of Va) since i have introduced these techniques to Josh he has begun to sleep better, and longer, he is not as grumpy in the am and looks forward to his massage at night, his nightime enurosis has begun to improve decreasing from several times a night to a few times a week. Josh also had a medication change… he was on Adderall, Nortriptyline, and other meds for his chronic asthma. now Josh is on Buspar for anxiety, Nortriptyline for prn use for severe fits, and prns for asthma control.
i also have a nephew with Severe ADHD (very wild Mr. Thang) his mom says… she came to me and asked me how i calmed my Josh down for he used to be severe in fits etc… i showed her one night when she and the kids stayed over… she took home Josh’s spare blanket, and has been using it now for about 3 weeks… of course its not a miracle cure but she has seen some improvement with Brandons sleep. Temple Grandin has a wonderful book about preasure, and how to use it to calm, and teaches techniques on how to use various preasure areas of the body to massage and relax an individual with hyperactivity, anxiety, and much like my son the typical sensory involvement of Autism.
this is my case i thaught it may help.
Hope

I am not sure but I know it uses some yoga techniques to help the children relax. Here is the web address, it isn’t the original place I found this CD but it is about the artist and what the CD is all about:

http://forums.weta.org/ldonline/phorum/read.php?f=8&i=13733&t=13706

I was just shocked that my son would fall asleep that fast, usually we go through an hour to half and hour of chatting and bathroom visits!!

K.

I read a study recently where they used weighted vests for ADD kids to help them focus in class. There were positive results.

You can get this type of thing at www.pfot.com.

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