Re: can poor sleeping be attributed to apraxia?

June 7, 2006

I'd be curious to know this as well..my Apraxic son was also up every hour

until about 3-4 months and then he was up every 3-4 hours gradually

increasing until about 3 y.o. where he finally slept through the night.

That night I thought he had died! I was so used to getting up all the time

that I ran to his room to find him sound asleep! I can't tell you what

triggered it....But I'm very thankful.

--- In

my 3 year old son, since birth, has been a horrible sleeper. as an

infant he was up every hour or two until about 18 months old. now he

suffers from night terrors. has there been any scientific research on

a possibly link to apraxia? any opinions out there?

June 7, 2006

I have not heard of a connection, but I am by no means an expert.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that , who is 3 and apraxic, has

always been a great sleeper (bless her heart). She DID go through about

6 weeks of time at about 20 months old when she had night terrors, but

after that 6 weeks she never had a night terror episode again. I think

night terrors are extremely common in young children, apraxic or not.

Warm regards,

******************

(Rochester, NY)

Mom to , 3.0 years, Verbal Apraxia

& , 9.5 months

________________________________

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of mamakovalcik

Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 9:42 AM

Subject: [ ] can poor sleeping be attributed to

apraxia?

my 3 year old son, since birth, has been a horrible sleeper. as an

infant he was up every hour or two until about 18 months old. now he

suffers from night terrors. has there been any scientific research on

a possibly link to apraxia? any opinions out there?

June 7, 2006

My daughter is 16 with severe verbal apraxia and she has always been a great

sleeper.

Joyce

[ ] can poor sleeping be attributed to apraxia?

my 3 year old son, since birth, has been a horrible sleeper. as an

infant he was up every hour or two until about 18 months old. now he

suffers from night terrors. has there been any scientific research on

a possibly link to apraxia? any opinions out there?

June 7, 2006

I've read that poor sleep can be apart of disorders like autism, but

I've never seen it linked with apraxia. In my case, my 26 mos old

sleeps great, but it wasn't always so. Like most babies, he's had his

sleepless spells. What's worked best for me is being kind of a

stickler about his schedule and having fixed routines that lead up to

sleep. This is not always popular with relatives who think children

should conform to the whims of their elders, but it's made my life

easier (most of the time) and made my son happier and better able to

learn because he is well rested. However, I fully expect we will have

some rough spots here and there as he grows. All the books say this is

normal. You will have to figure out if your child's issues are due to

typical sleep stuff because of your family's sleep habits (I have

friends whose kids never sleep but that's kind of normal in their

homes, no schedules or routines) or if it's because of other issues.

>

> my 3 year old son, since birth, has been a horrible sleeper. as an

> infant he was up every hour or two until about 18 months old. now he

> suffers from night terrors. has there been any scientific research on

> a possibly link to apraxia? any opinions out there?

>

June 7, 2006

In hindsight, my son's sleepless naps and nights all transpired from

his sensory integration disorder. He prefers a weighted blanket and

pressure on his body to feel comfortable sleeping.

Websites you can look at:

http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processing-disorder-checklist\

..html

http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/fall97/sensory.htm

http://www.sifocus.com/sensoryintegration.html

If any of these may send up a redflag have an educational and

medical occupational therapist evaluation. My private ot had

requested if I wanted a medical eval or an educational eval. There

is a difference b/w the two. Just wondering if your OT specified

the difference to you. I had gotten both, due to the school not

providing ot and medically b/c my insurance would not pay if it was

for education.

The actual eval was 90 minutes long and was broken into two separate

sessions. It looked like my son was playing the entire time.

Tools Administered:

Clinical Observation

Therapeutic Handling

Parental Interview

The Burinink Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (fine motor portion

only)

Developmental Test of Visual Perception - 2 (DTVP-2)

A Pediatric ot evaluation was given to me with the results which

inlcuded my son's

-behavioral/communication

-strength

-fine motor/visual perceptual skills

-sensory processing - auditory,visual, olfactory, tactile,

vestibular and procioceptive systems

-self-help skills

-Recommendations for treatment

-goals and objectives

Find certified therapists around the world via this link below:

http://www.wpspublish.com/Inetpub4/w090308.htm

Regards,

Joanne

June 7, 2006

I just thought I'd pass this along as a sleep tip. My son

(understandably) regressed with sleep while we were evacuated for

Katrina. When we got in our FEMA trailer, he surprised us by

sleeping through the night the very first night and continues to

sleep great in there even with construction going on around him. My

husband and I attribute this to the very noisy AC/fan unit (kind of

like a window unit but it sticks out of the ceiling. Charming,

right?) We are going to buy some sort of white noise machine to

duplicate this effect when we get back in the house. I have a

friend who swears by the Honeywell air purifier that she bought at

Home Depot, but a regular fan might work too.

A book I found helpful when my son was younger was the No Cry Sleep

Solution. It wasn't entirely NO cry for us but we didn't have hours

of tears like some do either.

Hope this helps. Sweet dreams!!

>

> In hindsight, my son's sleepless naps and nights all transpired

from

> his sensory integration disorder. He prefers a weighted blanket

and

> pressure on his body to feel comfortable sleeping.

>

> Websites you can look at:

> http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processing-

disorder-checklist.html

>

> http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/fall97/sensory.htm

>

> http://www.sifocus.com/sensoryintegration.html

>

> If any of these may send up a redflag have an educational and

> medical occupational therapist evaluation. My private ot had

> requested if I wanted a medical eval or an educational eval. There

> is a difference b/w the two. Just wondering if your OT specified

> the difference to you. I had gotten both, due to the school not

> providing ot and medically b/c my insurance would not pay if it was

> for education.

>

> The actual eval was 90 minutes long and was broken into two

separate

> sessions. It looked like my son was playing the entire time.

>

> Tools Administered:

> Clinical Observation

> Therapeutic Handling

> Parental Interview

> The Burinink Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (fine motor

portion

> only)

> Developmental Test of Visual Perception - 2 (DTVP-2)

>

> A Pediatric ot evaluation was given to me with the results which

> inlcuded my son's

> -behavioral/communication

> -strength

> -fine motor/visual perceptual skills

> -sensory processing - auditory,visual, olfactory, tactile,

> vestibular and procioceptive systems

> -self-help skills

> -Recommendations for treatment

> -goals and objectives

>

> Find certified therapists around the world via this link below:

>

> http://www.wpspublish.com/Inetpub4/w090308.htm

>

> Regards,

> Joanne

>

June 7, 2006

>

> my 3 year old son, since birth, has been a horrible sleeper. as an

> infant he was up every hour or two until about 18 months old. now he

> suffers from night terrors. has there been any scientific research on

> a possibly link to apraxia? any opinions out there?

>

My son will be 11 and I believe he hasn't slept through the night for

11 years. We first had an up to date speech eval by a different

therapist and she mentioned his enlarged tonsil. I then brought him to

our E.N.T and he then sent us to a " Sleep Clinic " . My son had severe

sleep APNEA. We had his tonsils removed. He is still getting up!

We went back to the sleep clinic and the tech said that he does not

have Apnea anymore(tonsils removed did help)but, he didn't go into R.E.M

That is the last stage of sleep where you are supposed to get the best

part of sleep. Now wer're going back to the E.N.T for the results. I

will have a CAT scan because he does suffer from sinusitis also since a

newborn.Does your son get sinus infections?

Our situation might be different but when I saw that someone else with

a child that has a speech disorder isn't sleeping I had to reply.

Have you considered talking to your doctor? Usually there is a medical

reason why someone isn't sleeping. It is not normal not to sleep.

Insurance covers these sleep clinics. It isn't bad. I picked one that

was not in a hospital.YOu are able to sleep in the same room. We

brought DVD's,popcorn and made it into a party. It's fine.

Good luck

June 8, 2006

My son has always been a good sleeper.

Miche

At 09:32 AM 6/7/2006, you wrote:

>My daughter is 16 with severe verbal apraxia and she has always been a

>great sleeper.

>Joyce

> [ ] can poor sleeping be attributed to apraxia?

>

>my 3 year old son, since birth, has been a horrible sleeper. as an

>infant he was up every hour or two until about 18 months old. now he

>suffers from night terrors. has there been any scientific research on

>a possibly link to apraxia? any opinions out there?

>

June 9, 2006

Hi

my sons diagnosis included autism and apraxia but actually his sleep

problems are always related to food. I realised that his very poor

sleep improved MASSIVELY as soon as i removed dairy from his diet but

he still was very late to go to sleep at night in spite of my

insistence on a good sensible night time routine.

I then used a food diary and spotted several things that adversely

affect his sleep . Apple juice was a nightmare for him ( no pun

intended) as are chocolate or blackcurrant. One of my friends has the

same problem with chocolate and her daughters sleep even though her

daughter is perfectly nt. Even though his diet is really clear ( none

of the additives and coke etc that can cause any kid sleep issues)

still he needs to keep these other things low or he has a problem.

Funnily enough my husband used to have some difficulty sleeping at

times until i pulled cheese when we all went gfcf. And without doubt

of all the kids at my daughters nursery rtthe ones who are the worst

sleepers are the ones who still get milk at bed time. My friend

alison has a boy who still wakes three times a night to have milky

drinks and he is four. I can't decide if that is because of his

reaction to the milk or the 'reward' he gets when he wakes LOL

Madeliene very swiftly learnt that if you wake at night for a drink

you only get water - and that ain't worth waking up for !!! What a

mean mum I am !

best wishes

Deborah

> >

> > my 3 year old son, since birth, has been a horrible sleeper. as an

> > infant he was up every hour or two until about 18 months old. now

he

> > suffers from night terrors. has there been any scientific

research on

> > a possibly link to apraxia? any opinions out there?

> >

>

June 9, 2006

Hi -

Just thought I'd add my two cents - my daughter didn't sleep through

the night until she was 3 and it was up and down constantly all night

long. Then we discovered she has Celiac (gluten intolerance) and she

now sleeps 12 hours a night. It took about 3 months of being gluten-

free but what a change, so I'm echoing the other post about food issues.

Good luck,

Kim

June 9, 2006

I didn't see the other posts on food issues, but I can tell you that both of

my boys had sleep issues that were directly related to food allergies (and

likely celiac too - but outside of the HLA testing, I won't giving them

wheat for a few weeks to make them sick and get them biopsies). The food

allergies triggered reflux, abdominal pain and asthma symptoms...any and all

of which kept them up at night. Zantac helped a little for the reflux, but

it wasn't until the food allergies were identified and eliminated that any

of us started to get sleep at night. And the night-time symptoms quickly

return if either of the boys get into some food they shouldn't have eaten or

are inadvertently fed something. My nearly 5 year old tells me now - just

how bad his tummy used to hurt. As a result, he is so good about not eating

forbidden foods. But he spent much of his first 3 years of life ill or in

pain. My little apraxic guy had the path paved for him, since I went on my

son's restrictive diet once he started demonstrating similar gut and

respiratory symptoms to avoid passage in the breastmilk of suspect proteins

and the baby did much better. Interestingly milk and soy definitely passed

through breastmilk and affected the baby, yet I was able to add back wheat

without consequence. Yet the baby gets very ill if given wheat - so at least

for us, the wheat did not seem to pass through. I know there's a debate as

to whether gluten passes through breastmilk and whether it has effects the

celiac baby. -

[ ] Re: can poor sleeping be attributed to

apraxia?

Hi -

Just thought I'd add my two cents - my daughter didn't sleep through

the night until she was 3 and it was up and down constantly all night

long. Then we discovered she has Celiac (gluten intolerance) and she

now sleeps 12 hours a night. It took about 3 months of being gluten-

free but what a change, so I'm echoing the other post about food issues.

Good luck,

Kim

June 10, 2006

, have you though about doing the fecal celiac serological tests from

enterolab.com

that they say work even on a gluten-free diet?

Peace,

Kathy E.

>

> I didn't see the other posts on food issues, but I can tell you that both of

> my boys had sleep issues that were directly related to food allergies (and

> likely celiac too - but outside of the HLA testing, I won't giving them

> wheat for a few weeks to make them sick and get them biopsies).

June 10, 2006

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked into that and the IgG testing for food

allergies a while back - urgency greater before we eliminated everything

making my older son ill. The problem is that the sensitivity/specificity of

those tests are not ideal. So false positives or false negatives would not

really be helpful for us. Clinically both boys have a severe wheat/all

grains allergy among other things (I tried giving them grains I had never

even heard of before, with no luck). Thanks to your help, we've figured out

that at least my older boy has the genetic make-up of a celiac (ph

hasn't been HLA tested)...so in the end it wouldn't change anything. The

boys are and will remain gluten free. We may try to reintroduce milk in a

few years, but for now with ph's apraxia issues, I don't want to give

him another " can of worms " to quote . He's already got enough going

n. -

[ ] Re: can poor sleeping be attributed to

apraxia?

, have you though about doing the fecal celiac serological tests from

enterolab.com

that they say work even on a gluten-free diet?

Peace,

Kathy E.

>

> I didn't see the other posts on food issues, but I can tell you that both

of

> my boys had sleep issues that were directly related to food allergies (and

> likely celiac too - but outside of the HLA testing, I won't giving them

> wheat for a few weeks to make them sick and get them biopsies).

June 10, 2006

Also for those kids with reflux - orange juice or anything acidic (ie pizza

for dinner/tomato sauce) at bedtime really worsens the heartburn. Milk (if

you aren't allergic) makes heartburn feel better. When in my 3rd trimesters

will all kids - I has such bad reflux/heartburn that I would wake up 3-4

times a night for a nice glass of soothing milk + tums (the only way I could

get back to sleep). -