I have just joined in order to get support my grandson who’s 2 has strong Autistic traits and we are waiting for diognonsis. He’s a wonderful boy and we all adore him.
He doesn’t sleep at all well and my son and his wife are exausted any advice would be wonderful
Get your son to see the family doctor about getting some help and respite from the social services dept of your local authority as I have written here before.
He should eventually get a diagnosis from a pediatric team of specialists certainly by the age of 3.5 if he is autistic.to get there he would have to be referred in turn, by GP., to Hospital Pediatrician, to a specialist Pediatric team. and not just a health visitor.
There are many things that could be affecting your grandchild not getting enough sleep. Digestion, sleeping during the day, Parents, being exhausted. noise etc.. He might be getting medication that affects him The list must be long, obviously his parents are the best people to try and track down anything with the help of their GP. I wish them good luck and that your grand son does not have many problems, he has got over the 1st hurdle, being born.
Hi
Welcome to the forum! I can entirely sympathise with the exhaustion your son and his wife must be feeling, my daughter is 8 and still awaiting diagnosis she has suffered with severe sleep problems since 18 months old, unfortunately you will get little to no help with this from your family gp.
You have stated that you are waiting for diagnosis so when he gets the appointment with paediatrics or the multi disciplinary team which ever comes first I suggest stressing how bad his sleep problems are it may prompt them to do something.
Until then check the sections on this site in regards to sleep it does have some suggestions you may find helpful the service directory also has links to specialist places that deal with sleep problems in autistic children.
It may sound silly but have they looked at the sensory side of it? Meaning are his clothes or bedding bothering him so he can't get comfortable weighted blankets can help some children as they feel more secure, maybe it's the dark or something else? I would suggest that they start keeping a sleep journal as this can help identify patterns and highlight what the problem is. They are also very useful to show to professionals so they can see exactly what is going on.
Good luck to you
Thank you ! He gets to sleep ok but wakes up and won’t go back to sleep sometimes for hours. I will deffinately look at sleep posts on this forum, do you search for sleep or is there a speacial forum for sleep ?
Hi,
I will find all the links for sleep problems and post them shortly for you, my daughter also wakes repeatedly during the night for hours at a time but it takes us hours to get her to sleep as well!
I have problems sleeping as well, I try to sleep, but I just get very tired.
Here is the link for sleep problems, page also has more links to further sites
https://www.autism.org.uk/about/health/sleep.aspx
Good luck
Thank you so much ️
No worries x