One of the other issues that was brought up with Dr. Sanger a few days ago was that of Hannah’s lack of sleep. Including naps, she averages about 8 hours of sleep a day. Rarely more, sometimes less.
We explained to him that sometimes when she is sleeping and wakes up in the night (just as many people do for a few seconds or so), her movement disorder kicks in and she can’t fall back to sleep. Also, her movement disorder is so constant that it is also hard for her to initially calm down enough to go to sleep, and it can sometimes take hours (no joke!) before she finally crashes.
Dr. Sanger believes that Hannah’s condition also could start to improve with just the addition of getting more and better sleep. When a body is in constant motion like hers, it is constantly wearing her out. Without good sleep, she doesn’t let her body get a chance to rejuvenate energy and muscle.
He wants to consider putting her on a sleep aide such as Lunesta or something. Even though it isn’t prescribed for kids, he believes it would be safe enough (another thing he is checking with his Pharmacology group). We have been so afraid of sedatives because we thought her movement disorder was caused by oversedation, but if he is right and it isn’t, this may be just the thing for her!
When we told my parents (whom we were staying with in LA) about this, they suggested why not try chamomile tea.
So that night, we got out my parents tea and gave her some instead of some of her nighttime water. She was out in less than 60 minutes! However, she still woke up about 5 hours later.
The next night, she happen to fall asleep on her own at 10 pm, but I gave her some tea instead of her nighttime water at around 1:30 am. She slept until 6 am!! She was a little restless at around 1 am before I gave her the tea, but all in all, that was almost an 8-hour stretch of sleep for her!
So tonight, we are going for three nights in a row. I gave her some tea (2 oz) around 10 pm, and she fell asleep around 11 pm. I’m going to give her some more at around 2 am (instead of her 2 am water, 3 oz), and I can only hope that she sleeps in again.
I’m not getting my hopes up just yet, but it would be wonderful for her (and me) to not wake up at 3 am in the morning anymore and let her get a REAL sleep!!
Could it really be as simple as chamomile tea?
It is wonderful to have a natural alternative to meds. What a sweet surprise. I used to give my kids chamomile tea as babies- is soothes the stomach and has no contraindications. Love that you guys got more sleep!
wow i hope it works for her. I was going to say why don’t you try some Melatonin before a script.
I swear by herbal teas. My mum would give us fennel tea for gas, peppermint tea for upset stomach and chamomile tea to relax. I give it to Jobyna too. I also use a lot of fruit teas instead of juice for daytime drinks. It’s healthier and tastes so yummy!
Hopefully it continues working! Good luck and good night 🙂