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My son is 3.5 years old and since he was a baby he needed movement to fall asleep. When he was younger we would rock him or walk around with him until he fell asleep but he is 42 pounds and almost 4ft now. The only way we can get him to sleep is a car ride. If we try to lay him down or just let him finally pass out it is not until 2 or 3 in the morning! Any suggestions on alternate ways to get him to fall asleep.
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Members connected over the challenge of getting a young child with autism to sleep without lengthy car rides, sharing creative solutions they... Read more
If you want to get at the root cause of your son's sleep problems check out Kerri Rivera's book Healing the Symptoms Know As Autism. She is coming out with another book soon. Yeast, bacteria, and parasites cause sleep disturbances in children and adults on the spectrum. www.cdautism.org Mainstream pediatricians do not know anything about this.
Have you considered a weighted blanket? Maybe the answer is to go the other route...minimizing movement. Also, there has been some recent research (University of Missouri) that talks about sleeping with a dog or cat is very comforting to autistic children.
We used to have a similar problem, though it wasn't with movement. Our son just couldn't turn his brain off. We started giving him 3 mg of melatonin about 1/2 hour before bedtime. Within 20 minutes, he was OUT! He would wake at 2 or 3 and terrorize the whole house almost every night, so just a few months ago, we added Valerian Root to his bedtime routine. He now sleeps through the night and goes to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. Both melatonin and valerian root are natural supplements. They've been a real life saver in our house!
Maybe a hammock? They now have much sturdier versions than the nets I grew up with.
Perhaps a message chair pad. the ones you plug in and you get a message with, also melatonin will help with sleep. the movement can be a steming process he uses to self comfort.
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