Sleep therapist for a 9 yr old
My 9-year old daughter can’t go to sleep by herself. Either my husband or myself have to sit by her bed until she falls asleep, which often takes a very long time. She also wakes up every night and comes to us. We have tried just about every suggestion we’ve been able to find online. Nothing works.
I wonder if someone else on this forum happened to have a similar issue with their child and was able to find a therapist who was able to help with this specific problem? If so, I’d love a recommendation.
Thank you!
Aug 31, 2019
Parent Replies
Hi
My name is Jackie and our daughter has struggled with sleep for as long as I can remember, she is now 15. We have consulted with several doctors on this challenge. Although we have not consulted with a sleep specialist. I would love to share what we have learned. Every doctor has recommended a consistent sleep routine. This is what our daughters sleep routine looked like at 9. Dinner at 6, epsom salt bath followed by warm milk and melatonin by 8pm for a 9pm in bed time. While in bed she listened to sleep sounds on the Alexa pod in her room and we kept her room as cold as possible with a fan. This did not always work but it helped a lot. We also had to sit in her room until she fell asleep when she was 9. What helped with this is every night we would move our chair closer to the door until we were out of her room. This process took sometime but we were eventually out of her room. Good luck and please reach out if you have any other questions.
Our daughter is a poor sleeper and really likes snuggling, which we were happy to provide for a long time. Ultimately we borrowed the idea of giving her a dollar every time she fell asleep on her own -- she was 11 or 12 at that point. Problem solved, mostly. She takes melatonin -- the key here being that it works fast but also wears off fast. I still snuggle her to sleep once in a very long while, and I hear her sometimes raiding the fridge in the night.
Even if your child suddenly started sleeping independently, you may want to check out issues related to poor sleep. Our kid has ADHD, which often has a component of poor sleep.