sleep specialist/neurologist?

[carrie a.]

this is not another "my baby doesn't sleep well" thread. i'm pretty sure we've tried everything, including waiting for it to pass. i'm ready to start considering medical intervention. my 18 month old frequently has 3 hour periods of wakefulness in the middle of the night. she's miserably tired but is unable to fall back to sleep. i've checked her diet, daytime activities, nap schedule, bedtime, routines, sleep wear, teething.. this week she had a bad cold so i tried giving her a small amount of benedryl before bed - still up! i'm an extremely patient person and don't mind being up in the middle of the night. i just feel that she's been suffering with this on and off for about 6 months and i feel so bad for her. could she have insomnia or a neurological condition? when is it time to call the doctor?

[Maluhia]

I think I'd consider insomnia/nurological if she did not sleep at all at night, but one big chuck sounds like a habit. In the end though, follow your gut, Mama tends to know best.

[kgreenemama]

Like pp said, trust your mommy instinct on whether to seek professional advice. If you do, be prepared to stand your ground on your co-sleeping and non-CIO choices (if that's what you believe in, of course! Sorry if I'm making an assumption just b/c you're on MDC ) The reason being, that even good ol' Dr. Ferber is a ped. sleep specialist (can you imagine taking your LO to see HIM?) Also, a friend of mine brought her daughter to a sleep specialist. They left the clinic with no advice other than putting her in own room, letting her cry, etc. So it seems that even (some of) the specialists think that sleep "problems" lie in the choices some parents make.

Good luck!

[carrie a.]

yeah, probably a sleep specialist will want us to do some type of sleep training, which i'm opposed to. i actually ended up taking dd to the ped. yesterday and it turns out she has an ear infection. i'm not convinced that's the reason for her insomnia but maybe.. also, we tried hylands calms last night and that seemed to help a lot. thanks for the responses!

[noobmom]

Glad you caught the ear infection (I mean, found it, not got it LOL).

If it makes you feel any better, DS had periods when he was like that too. He just got his schedule all messed up. Unfortunately, I can't remember what we did to snap him out of it. How long as it been going on?

FYI, Benadryl does not put all kids to sleep. For young children it can actually make them hyper.