My son is almost 3. He has severe sleep problems. When he was confined to his crib the rest of us got some sleep. We knew he was safe and despite waking up frequently he would get bored and go back to sleep eventually. Well, he learned to climb out of the crib at Christmas. Life as we knew it ended. After a month of almost no sleep we desperately called our pediatrician. He prescribed guanfacine (I think the brand name is tenex). It is actually a blood pressure medicine but it works. He will still wake up a few times at night but it is fairly easy to get him back to sleep. Before the medicine it was almost impossible to get him back to sleep. He is also much calmer during the day. I have been able to get him to take a 2 to 3 hour nap every day without much trouble. This was such a wonderful thing. However, tomorrow we are going to start our process of nap elimination. We are hoping that if we get rid of the nap he will sleep more soundly at night. Although the medicine has not eliminated his sleep problem completely it has made such a tremendous difference. I feel like I can once again function.
I believe it saved my life. It sounds silly but I really felt that I was literally going to die of exhaustion. We also got approval from the ped. earlier this evening to increase his dosage. I am hoping that will help his sleep more soundly with less wakings.
Even though the medicine is working well, I would appreciate any sleep advice that may help the situation even more.

Hi,

Our daughter was diagnosed as Autistic and ADHD so she had trouble getting to sleep at night. This started when she was 4 years old and she's now 8 years old. For that time period, we have been giving her Clonodine - which is also a heart medicine like tenex. Of all of the meds we are giving her, this one has been the most effecive in doing its job - that is allowing her to sleep at night. Depnding on your child's age and body weight and the amount of hyperactivity and sugar in her diet, it could take one to three hours for the child to eventually fall asleep. W/O those tablets, she would literally stay up through the night (yes, pull an all-nighter) and be as energetic as someone who had 8 hours of sleep.

As usual with these type of drugs, there are a number of side effects advertized however our daughter doesn't experience any of them. For us, this has been great although occassionally, she may wake up in the middle of the night to find something to eat, but this is due to another problem that may not apply to your child (lack of an appetite due to the adderall she's taking for autism). Lately however, we had to increase her dosage as she grows and gains weight and the past week, she has slept through the night - usually falling asleep around 8:30 (giving her the clonodine at 7 pm).

Hope this helps! Of course, since this is a controlled substance, you'll need to have this prescribed by your doctor or pychiatrist.

My son has been on the casein free diet for 13 days and is sleeping well for the first time in his life! I am completely amazed. After 3 days of being casein-free we were able to stop giving him tenex for sleep, we were able to put him in his own bed and he stayed there all night long.

Before we started the diet a really good night would be- tenex by 7:30, asleep by 11:00 in parents bed, waking up only 2 or 3 times, going back to sleep within 30 to 45 minutes after each waking, only sleeping on moms head for about 1/2 of the night.

The difference in his sleep is so dramatic that there is no way it could be coincidental. I was not really expecting the diet change to have much effect on my son. He didn't really show any signs of abdominal distress. When he was awake in the middle of the night he was not in any discomfort or pain he was just very alert and ready for the next day. I would not have tried the diet if I had not taken my son to the DAN doctor. A trial of the diet was a prerequisite for doing detoxification. I am so glad that we have implemeted the diet. Being able to finally get some sleep is enough payoff for the work required in implementing the diet. We have had 10 nights in a row of very peaceful sleep -- I did not believe that I would ever have this luxury again.

If any of you are considering possibly implementing the cf/gf diet, do it. If it doesn't make any difference for your child you can always go off of if after a test run.