Please Please read this as you just might be able to help me!!!

I feel like writing this in the punching bag boohoo section, I am so frustrated.
A bit of background DD has been having big sleeping dramas over the last 8 weeks, we put her down to sleep, once she shows tired signs (this is at night time) she does not have a set bed time and has never gone to bed early which does not bother us. 3 hours later every single night she is awake, not just stirring awake but wakes up screaming, she used to stir awake and then get herself back to sleep but not anymore. We tried night light, teddy bears, too hot, too cold, teething so we give panadol or nurofen and that makes no difference. She would thrash and throw herself around the cot, headbut walls concrete and biting. She did have an amber teething necklace on but didn’t seem to be helping at the moment so i took it off.
It can take hours to settle her. We have had family staying here on and off due to floods in their home, so we try not to let her carry on too much as they work so we have been putting her in our bed. For a few weeks she was thrashing around in our bed too, hitting us, headbutting us biting, screaming, which ends up with me in tears sobbing and DH upset because I am upset. Now she gets in there and goes straight to sleep.
We stumbled across something about grapes and people having reactions to them as they are extremely high in salicylates, amines and natural MSG. She would eats loads of grapes everyday, and before bed, since stopping these the headbutting and thrashing has stopped and biting has improved.

I dont want to do the full elimination diet with her as I am already struggling with food ideas just cutting out or reducing the food she eats that contain additives. I have changed our bread so it does not have 282 or vinegar in it, I have changed cheese so it does not have 160B in it, she still has bananas, and I have been giving her pears but last night woke up screaming again and this time had heaps of wind also. We had sausages for tea which i didnt want to give her but had no other options in the house. She has also started drinking milk, never been interested before, I have been giving her normal milk, but have just changed to a2. Is it the food, teeth, milk I am so confused.
She is walking, so not milestone related. I have taken her to the doctor and ruled out ear infections, her breath smelt a bit funny for a while there but I have ruled out any throat issues. Do you think I should seek a referral to a paed?
She is an excellent eater, there is very little that she wont eat. Is there a test that she can have done to check for food Intolerance rather than doing an elimination diet.
Some days she is very clingy doesn’t know what she wants, whinging or just crying, wants to be picked up then when you pick her up she goes stiff.
I am 25 weeks pregnant tired very upset and confused and I don’t know where to go next. All i know is I want her to sleep like she used to before this next baby comes along.

THere are skin pirck allergy tests but they are a lot more painful than an elimination diet..
How old is she?
Do you think it could be, at least in part, related to the pregnancy?

Aww Salad you poor thing - big hugs :hug:

I thought my night time issues with DD were bad - you are doing it way rougher. I hear you on wanting to get it sorted before bubs comes along!!!

There are definitely tests they can do for food intolerances - definitely get a referral to a paed. I can't believe the GP didn't suggest it? Maybe they didn't see how serious the situation is.

One of the bubs in my MG has had food intolerance tests done and she has been a much improved bubs since her mum changed her diet.

Can you think back to 8 weeks ago when this first started - were there any big changes in her life, or anything that happened that she might be having trouble dealing with? Or did you introduce some new thing to her diet?

It sounds like you really need to get some help - I hope you can find some answers soon. I'm sorry I can't help any further hun :comfort:

One other thing - I just noticed your DD is about 6wks older than my DD - and we are having sleep issues at night time too.

Maybe it IS a developmental thing - not milestone related as such, but it could be a mental milestone? Something to think about.

Pandora - she is almost 15 months

OP - Do you know what they did to the child in your MG to test for the intolerances. There was a huge change to our lives 8 weeks ago, our rental property flooded which my mum rents from us and she and my sister have had to move in with us, they have been living here on and off ever since. I DID think of this as an option but I cant be too sure its the problem.

No hun I'm sorry I don't... I will try and find out for you! Unfortunately the mum in question has returned to work and I don't see her very often... but I will get in touch.

Perhaps it is a combination of all the things in her life hitting her at once - the changes at home, some teeth maybe, growth spurt, developmental milestone, who knows? It could be anything.

You are doing the best job you can hun. :hug:

hun where in country vic are you??

:hug: That sounds really rough.

I think it could be stress related, that's a big thing to happen and sometimes bubs don't cope with changes very well. On the other hand, it could be a food allergy, it's just so hard to tell isn't it? I'd definetly either be going to a different GP for a second opinion, or getting a referal for a paed.

I hope things get better soon, try and rest as much as possible! :hug:

All righty then. Hope this helps. I am thinking IMO it is pregnancy related.

When I was pregnant with DS#2, DS#1 started waking up at night from the time I was about 6 months pregnant, This is a child who slept through from 8 weeks.:o After reading some literature by Pinky McKay, I was able to change my way of thinking to accept that at 15 + months, DS#1 just wanted to be reassured I was still there. He was sleeping in a big bed and would climb in to ours every night. I remember one night he came in and I put him back to bed 6 times and in the end I gave up! Pretty sure Pinky recommended making up a make shift bed in our room, next to my side of the bed for him to climb into when he needed too. Two weeks after I came home from hospy, he started sleeping though again. he was only 17 months old when he bacame a big brother.

Round 2! I am 12 weeks pregnant now and for the past 4 - 6 weeks BOTH of my boys have stopped sleeping though. They wander round the house, climb into bed with us etc every night. Infact, they take turns at it!:rolleyes: DS#2, like his big brother has always slept though from the wee age of 6 weeks. I have another 6 months of this and will more than likley be in tears by the end and writing my own SOS on BB!

DS#1 though has spent the last couple of months taking up to 2 hrs of a night to go to sleep. He does EVERYTHING to keep himself awake as well as coming out for a drink, a wee, his music turned back on, his doona fixed up etc You name it, he has a great excuse for it. A week ago, I sat down on the pc and typed up a very easy evening rountine for him, complete with pics as he obviously cannot read yet. It is Dinner - Bath - Pack away toys - Small drink of water - Toilet - Story - Bed! He has come out once and that was to go to the toilet again. I went over it about 6 times the first day we had it up on the fridge and he knows it off by heart now. Routines work wonders sometimes!

I am a MASSIVE fan of Pinky McKay. Maybe get a hold of some of her books and have a looksy. There is one called Sleeping like a Baby and I see that it does have a section on sleeping for little ones up to 18 months I think!

I hope you do get some solid sleep in between now and the end of your pregnancy. Sleep dep and being preggas is a real nightmare to say the least.

HUGS to you.
xxxx

OP - Thanks :)

Olive - I am near shepparton

Littlebear - Thanks for your reply

Vixstar - that was really interesting to read, I can only hope that if my pregnancy is the problem then it will stop when baby comes. Thanks for the Pinky references I will check them out.

Last night was a better night and today was a better day - I dosed her up on brauers teething relief yesterday and last night and continued today, she has had two sleeps today one almost 1.5 hours and so far another hour and still asleep.
Last night she went to bed at 10pm, woke at 12:30am settled her easy, she woke again at 1.50am settled really quickly and woke again at 4:30 Iet her grizzle and she settled herself and woke at 7:45am.
I have also brought some huggies nappies just for nighttime (she is in black and gold during the day) I thought she might be feeling wet and that huggies might help a bit more and not wake her up.
Wish me luck for tonight, although family are back staying here after 4 days away so hopefully it wont stuff everything up.

Good luck :hug: :hug:

This sounds sooo familiar. DS2 was like this for a number of months. I kept taking him back to the Dctor and saying something was wrong but they couldn't find anything. A few Doctors later I requested a referral to an ENT specialist who discovered he was suffering from chronic ear infections. I was told that he had glue ear and had probably been like that for 8-12 months. At least three doctors had given him a clean bill of health during that time.

So basically what I'm saying is get a second opinion. Does she hear ok? We thought our son was ignorant but turned out he couldn't hear us! He had grommets put in and problem solved! If you think this may be her problem try sme Auraglan in her ears before bed and maybe some nurofen (works better than panadol for ear infections- on my kids at least :)). It wont hurt and if she does have an infection it will give her a great sense of relief.

Good luck - hope you get some sleep soon!

Hey Salad, I caught up with my MG friend on the weekend and asked about the tests she had done - basically she had some blood tests done for food allergies, not intolerances. Apparently there are no tests you can do for intolerances - it just comes down to diet and what you can pinpoint.

Hope that helps!

How is DD going?

Hi OP thanks for that info, i thought that would be the case.
DD is much better since cutting out certain foods in particuar the grapes. I have also been giving her Brauers teething relief which is great. I made the mistake of giving her panadol orange flavour last night and she went nuts at 3am throwing herself around the cot again - i wont be giving her that again in a hurry.
Thanks for asking