Re: Sleep Disturbance- 4/5/93

[Guest guest]

This sounds EXACTLY like my son before I removed the highly phenolic

foods from his diet. Now, he will sleep 9-1/2 hours each night, and

if he wakes at all, he will either go right back to sleep, or come out

to the living room couch and fall asleep there, not waking anyone else

in the family. I would HIGHLY recommend you try removing the high

phenols and see if it helps.

Here is my information on high phenols.

http://home.pacbell.net/cscomp/phenol.htm

Here is how I taught my son to stay in his bed and/or come out to the

couch, so he would not wake the rest of the family if he accidentally

ate a high phenol food during the day.

http://home.pacbell.net/cscomp/sleep.htm

Your mention of the ear infection is probably related in that if you

gave amoxicillin, it is generally colored pink and flavored, which is

a high phenol. You can also consider whatever supplements

and/or medication you might be giving your child, many of them contain

artificial colors and/or flavors, which will also cause this waking,

and SNT aggravates waking issues in many children. This information

is included in my phenol link above.

Please give this serious consideration. It worked 100% for my son and

my family. We all sleep all night now.

Good luck.

> Hello Dr. Sulkes,

>

> For at least two weeks now (or longer--can't remember in our state

of exhaustion), has been waking around 2 AM. We have explored

all the possibilities such as: his being too warm/cold, wet/soiled,

awakened by a noise, etc. only to decide that none of these is the

problem.

[Guest guest]

-I wrote this to someone else who asked about their child's sleep

disturbances-maybe it won't help but it could be worth a try. I read

that it can be realated to bananas and then I noticed a correlation

between when my daughter ate them and was up in the night. We cut

them out and then tested and sure enough even if she only had 1/2 a

banana at lunch she'd be up in the night full of energy. She hasn't

been up once during the night since(its been several months.) Wish

I'd tried this when she was a baby!!! Good luck.

Kathy-- In GFCFKids@y..., " Theodore Semesky "

<tsemesky@s...> wrote:

> Hello Dr. Sulkes,

>

> For at least two weeks now (or longer--can't remember in our state

of exhaustion), has been waking around 2 AM. We have explored

all the possibilities such as: his being too warm/cold, wet/soiled,

awakened by a noise, etc. only to decide that none of these is the

problem.

>

> Since he's been on the vitamin cocktail, he has been growing taller

and we've seen some signs of what seems better comprehension. He now

has a sense of when we may leave him with someone else and has thrown

several tantrums at such times. This however, does not explain his

night wakefulness. Sometimes he'll quiet and go right back to sleep

and other times, he's up for the duration and/or goes back to sleep

for a few hours.

>

> Recently, he had an ear infection to which we attributed some of

the problem, but that seems to have cleared up now and we are again

at wits' end trying to figure out why he doesn't sleep through the

night. Doesn't seem to matter what time he goes to sleep--early or

late, he wakes up around 2 AM. Tried keeping him up longer, feeding

him later, and all those kinds of things.

>

> (My observation this evening/morning was that he will sit and just

swing from the waist, back and forth continuously, for at least a

half hour or more at a time, if allowed to do so.)

>

> Although he has a buzzer on his door, he can turn the knob now and

lets himself out anyway. We have asked our local DDSO to get funding

to have the door make into something similar to a Dutch door so that

we can lock on the bottom half and view him through the top portion

when he's in his room. (This of course, pertains more to issues of

behavior although it would be helpful if he didn't roam in the night

either.)

>

> Honestly, we cannot take much more of this--it disrupts the entire

household. Obviously, Ted has to get up for work weekdays and can't

be up in the night with although he has done so because I'm

having trouble with foot pain related to an old injury and must take

codeine to sleep sometimes. On the nights, when I try to take only

Tylenol, I get up with myself--but then spend the next several

days catching up/recovering (if possible). Ted does not have this

same opportunity and it becomes very unfair as well as exhausting.

Even though we have respite, one hesitates to contact a crisis center

in the middle of the night--and by the time someone came, it'd be

more disruptive and uncomfortable (if this makes any sense).

>

> Any input? Increase in meds? We need our sleep just to cope with

daily living activities and it goes without saying that our household

becomes slightly more than dysfunctional with these sleepless

nights. Ted even went so far as to mention that it's too bad we

can't just find a 24-hour tranquilizer so that we could all catch up.

>

> Help?!!

>

> Shirley Semesky

>

> Alter your attitude and you can alter your life.

>

>

>