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My Child, Since Birth, Has Never Slept Through The Night

by Cecilia
(El Paso, Texas)

My child, since birth, has never slept through the night and still at 2 and a half takes almost 2 hours to fall asleep every single night.


I would like to know if the above description is normal. He takes two hours or more to fall asleep and it doesn't matter weather he has had a busy day or not. It doesn't make a difference if he has napped during the day or not or whether he stayed up late the prior day and did or didn't nap. Weather he has ate late or not, nothing seems to work. He fights his sleep and even though his eyes are red or he has circles under his eyes he takes very long to fall asleep.

Could this be a sleep disorder and what could it be? What type of specialist should I take him to?

Comments for My Child, Since Birth, Has Never Slept Through The Night

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May 27, 2012
 Make it stop!
by: Erin

Wow, I know the feeling. I'm in the same situation that you are. My son turned 2 in March and has been doing the same things as your child since he was around 9 months old. Nothing I do makes any difference in his sleep pattern. Literally NOTHING. Like wtf?! It takes him hours upon hours to fall asleep. He does sleep in my bed right now because he has to. His room is being re-done so for now, I don't have a choice. He is driving me nuts as we speak! He is really hyped up and will not stop fidgeting and moving around. Oh my gosh I am ready to pull my hair out. I'm trying not to give him any attention, but he keeps putting his feet on me and he won't stop moving his legs. He is also fiddling with the blanket as well as fiddling with his hands. Last night I had to tell him over 200 times to stop touching me because if I don't, he will keep doing it all night long. He is relentless. I tried everything you have tried, but to no avail. To be honest, I'm starting to think he has ADHD. This is just not typical toddler behavior. Toddlers are super hyper by nature and are always on the go, but this is way beyond that. I wonder if toddlers can have restless leg syndrome. Anyway, it sounds like your child could very well have ADHD. I mean, you know your child better than anyone else, so if you think it's more than just a typical toddler phase, you're probably right. I can only imagine how exhausted you must be. Do people ever tell you stuff like "oh, that's normal for a toddler to be doing at this age."? I hear that alot and quite frankly I just want to tell those people to shove it up their ass. It's like "uhh okay, then YOU try living with him for one week and THEN tell me it's just normal toddler behavior. See how you like it!"
Jun 20, 2012
 Non sleeping toddler
by: Anonymous

I think you should really read the delayed sleep phase disorder article. This for my family seems to be genetic. My mother was a "night owl", I am and so is my daughter. My grand daughter is just over 18 months old and I fear she has the same. It took her forever to start sleeping thru the night and now she likes the same schedule as us too and not for lack of trying to make her different. I don't know how they treat it in children though. I haven't gotten that far yet. Good luck and just have patience and take them to the pediatrician and see what they think.

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