Sleep apnea and other disturbances Archives

Sleep agents for child

I have a lovely 10-year old daughter who has been taking
imipramine for 3 years. Before adoption she was a victim of
abuse and neglect and she has PTSD.

She's done great on imipramine, but now that school is
approaching, she's very excited (she loves school!) and had
trouble falling asleep. To try to get her back on schedule,
I gave her lorazepam one night last week--her M.D.
prescribed it for occasional anxiety, and she'd only taken
it once or twice before. Well, she had hallucinations all
night--saw little people walking on her aquarium, saw hands
coming out of the closet, all kinds of things. She said she
knew it wasn't real, and she did not panic, but was very
upset by this (not half as upset as I was!). I slept with
her that night and she fell asleep soon after I laid down. I
decided she needed a good night's sleep the next night, and
resorted to good ole Benadryl, which she has taken before
without incident. This time, she stayed up ALL NIGHT with
happy euphoria. I mean, she was awake and happy (told me she
was "up to the task" of doing laundry for me while she was
up!) until 8:30 the next morning!

I'm not a doper-mom, i.e., I don't give my child drugs for
every little thing, but I just wanted her to sleep well and
followed a doctor's instructions. For the last three nights,
I reduced her imipramine from 100 mg. to 50 mg. because I
was afraid she's over-medicated, and haven't given her
anything else. She's been sleeping, and her overall behavior
is terrific, so far. (BTW, the doc had told me at one time I
could reduce her meds if we wanted to see if she could be
weaned off). Why haven't I gone back to her M.D. for this?
Because I know what he'll do--he'll reduce her meds, just as
I have (probably a slower decrease, however, but our pills
don't split well...), and he'll probably try some other
drug, and frankly, I don't want my daughter subjected to any
more drug-induced hallucinations and adverse effects. (In
the past, she has gone hyper on Paxil and Prozac, she gets
tachycardia on Claritin (for allergy), and had paradoxical
reactions with an anti-ADHD drug (she's not ADHD, but was
misdiagnosed once--instead it was depression-induced anxiety
from PTSD).

My questions are these: 1. can a child's system change
suddenly so that she has adverse reactions to everything?
She is "budding" (breasts) and growing very fast lately.
2.Is there anything holistic that will help her get her
sleep patterns under control? (she sleeps, but not till
about 1 a.m., and school is starting soon! Help!) Melatonin
for kids? (I need a doctor's opinion here)

I'd like to add that all the recent news of abductions and
rapes are not helping. She is more clingy in stores, etc.,
than she was two months ago. I'm curious whether any other
moms and dads are noticing fear in their daughters.

Any help on any of

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Re: Sleep agents for child

Re: Sleep agents for child (Archive in sleep.)