My heart goes out to you. It is hard enough to deal with a toddler, especially one who is not sleeping and is going through some difficult times, but to be doing it with MS, wow, how exhausted you must be.

I can really relate to the sleep problem. My son learned to crawl out of his crib at Christmas so we had to but him in a regular bed. We went all of January with no sleep. I thought I was going to die.

The doctor prescribed Tenex. It helped tremendously. I am certain this medication saved me from a nervous break-down. He slept very well compared to what he had been doing. He only took the tenex at night but it made him really mellow the next day. He also wanted a nap each day while he was on it. While these daytime effects were nice for a very sleep deprived mommy, I did not like them in general--my son is not overly aggitated or hyper in general so I did not like the sedating effects.

I am glad that we were given this prescription. It did not solve all of the sleep issues but it made it so we could function. However, we no longer use the Tenex. In April my son started on the Casein Free diet (which I do not think I could have handled if we had not been having at least some sleep-so again I am grateful for the Tenex.) After three days of being completely casein free he slept soundly for the first time in his life. He has been sleeping great ever since then except when he has had a few dietary infractions.

You said that you are signing with your child. I just wanted to mention that I had great success with the Signing Time videos. My son was only using a few signs when I purchased them last fall and he had to have alot of prompting to do so. In under 2 weeks he began signing spontaneously and he was using over 30 signs.

I wish you lots of luck and lots of sleep.

Tenenx? I have never heard ** this. What were his sleep or lack ***re**, symptoms before *** meds? We struggle with no sleep so much. I am at my breaking point.

Tenex is actually a blood pressure medicine. The generic name is Guanfacine. It is very similar to Clonidine. Although it's primary use is for high blood pressure, docotors also prescribe it as a sleep aide and in the managment of adhd symptoms and in treatment of behavioral issues in autism.
My son was on an extremely low dose, .5 mg

From day one my son never slept well. He had a hard time falling asleep. He was a very light sleeper, just poking a head in his room to check on him would wake him. We functioned alright while he was in his crib. Luckily he was pretty easy going. So even when he would wake up he would usually play in his crib, get bored after awhile and go back to sleep. We usually only have to get up with him once or twice a night, which was managable.

Once he learned to climb out of the crib our lives changed. The only way I could get him to go to sleep was to forcibly hold him on my lap and rock him for 45 min. to an hour while he screamed and fought and finally colapsed. It was horrible. I felt like I was torturing him. I just wanted to cry along with him. He rarely stayed asleep for more than an hour at a time. And once he woke up he was alert, energetic, and ready for the day. If we let him stay up he was happy and pleasant. To get him to sleep we had to go through the rocking ordeal all over. If my husband or I slept with him in our bed we discovered he would stay asleep for two and sometimes three hours, but he climbed on our heads the whole time.

The first few nights on the Tenex he slept like the proverbial baby. Once he started to catch up on his sleep he didn't sleep as well, but still it was such an inprovement that we were at least able to function. When he was taking the Tenex his sleep seemed fitful. He would toss and turn and climb on our heads all night. He would not stay in his bed. He would stay in our bed with either my husband or myself. He would wake several times during the night but it was fairly easy to coax him back to sleep.

A little boy in my son's toddler group also started taking Tenex. He actually had better results. He slept soundly without waking in the middle of the night and his sleep was restful. It also did not have a sedating effect on him the next day.

I did not think that my son had any abdominal distress because he generally was pleasant and did not ever seem to be in pain. In retrospect I think that his climbing on our heads helped his stomache feel better. He was just not ever content in bed unless his stomache was pressing on one of our hard heads. While on the Tenex he was very sleepy but still not sleeping peacefully. Going casein free has pretty much solved his sleep issues. My entire family was very resistant to the idea of having a milk free home. After my son started sleeping so soundly they were all on board.

Shue, have the weighted blankets made any difference in your daughters sleep?

Sorry this is so lenghty. I get long winded when I relive my traumas.

My daughter has been taking Clonidine for a few years now. We also tried Tenex as well but we couldn't get her to swallow the tablets. For some reason, the Clonidine tablets taste better as she has no problem chewing it. The clonidine has worked great! She goes to sleep in about 1.5 hours. She's up to .6 mg per evening now (she's 9 years old so the higher dosage was required). W/o this, she would and could stay up all night or would not go to sleep until well after 2 am.

My daughter never did drink milk so I guess that's a good thing. She rarely has dairy products except one spoon of pudding that I give her with her meds which has a little milk in it. I'm thinking about putng her on the CF/GF diet pretty soon after I've finished conducting this other experiment first.

Good luck with the new meds. Hopefully it works out for her and you can get your sanity back so that you can try other things and eventually get her off the meds. That's my ultimate goal.

[QUOTE=U. Thomas]I don't understand this need for medication.

Over here in UK I've never heard of anyone taking medication for autism. Doctors have never been offered it for my children or any other parents I know.

Sleepless nights - we suffered for over 10 years until I repainted the bedroom walls, woodwork and radiator with aqua greeny/bluey paint.

The house is silent now. Hope this works for you too!

My need was survival. I was not functioning. The other members of my family were not functioning well. I am so grateful that I did not kill or seriously injure someone in an auto accident. I am sure that I would have if I was not given Tenex for my son.

I am glad that my son no longer needs to take medication. However, without using it for the short time that we did I would not have had the ability to research or implement the diet that has actually solved his sleep problems.

Our quality of life has definetely improved since we all have been sleeping. My children are all learning and growing, which does not happen as well without sleep. And I am able to nurture and care for them.

About painting the room. This is very interesting. Please share more about this. Did you have other items in the room of different colors?