Hi all, thanks to matts mom from Nakusp for your posting for the secretin . And to Gail for your information.
We are wondering if anyone has had any success in helping there kids to sleep Nick is up every night for 3 to 4 hours and we have tried everything. Melatonin, Gaba, and nothing works any ideas please, thanks .

Hi lilnicks dad,

My son doesn't experience sleep problems through the night but when I run across articles that may help him with behavioral problems in the future I save them (not that I'm asking for trouble, mind you! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif ) and I will share with you something that I saved recently that was printed in the Autism Reseach Review International.

Massage therapy aids sleep, attention

A simple massage each night can significanlt reduce sleep problems and stereotyped bahaviors and improve autistic childrens classroom performance, according to a new study.
Angelica Escalona and colleagues randomly assigned 20 autistic childrden betwen the ages of 3 to 6 to a massage group or a control group (which was read bedtime stories each night) A massage therapist trained the childrens parents to perform a 15 minute, moderate pressure massage of the childrens arms and hands, legs, front, and back. After one month, the researchers compared the behavior and sleep patterns of the two groups.
The children receiving massages became more attentive during classroom work and exhibeted lower levels of fussiness, crying, self-stimulating behavior, and out-of-bed episodes during the night.
The researchers say that while the reasons for the benefits of massage aren't known, "massage therapy has been noted to enhance parasympathetic (vagal) activity, which is highly correlated with attentiveness."

This makes perfect sense to me. We all know that brushing and joint compression benefit difficulties with the vestibular system so maybe this is the way to go before any medications are even considered.

It must be very hard to deal with lack of sleep. Sometimes Tristan goes through a phaze of sleeplessness but the episodes are few and far between, thankfully.

I hope this helps you and I really wish you the best.

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Leslie, Mom to Tristan 5 ASD and Lucas 8 NT

Originally posted by LeslieC:
Hi lilnicks dad,

My son doesn't experience sleep problems through the night but when I run across articles that may help him with behavioral problems in the future I save them (not that I'm asking for trouble, mind you! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif ) and I will share with you something that I saved recently that was printed in the Autism Reseach Review International.

Massage therapy aids sleep, attention

A simple massage each night can significanlt reduce sleep problems and stereotyped bahaviors and improve autistic childrens classroom performance, according to a new study.
Angelica Escalona and colleagues randomly assigned 20 autistic childrden betwen the ages of 3 to 6 to a massage group or a control group (which was read bedtime stories each night) A massage therapist trained the childrens parents to perform a 15 minute, moderate pressure massage of the childrens arms and hands, legs, front, and back. After one month, the researchers compared the behavior and sleep patterns of the two groups.
The children receiving massages became more attentive during classroom work and exhibeted lower levels of fussiness, crying, self-stimulating behavior, and out-of-bed episodes during the night.
The researchers say that while the reasons for the benefits of massage aren't known, "massage therapy has been noted to enhance parasympathetic (vagal) activity, which is highly correlated with attentiveness."

This makes perfect sense to me. We all know that brushing and joint compression benefit difficulties with the vestibular system so maybe this is the way to go before any medications are even considered.

It must be very hard to deal with lack of sleep. Sometimes Tristan goes through a phaze of sleeplessness but the episodes are few and far between, thankfully.

I hope this helps you and I really wish you the best.

hey leslie, we all DON"T know about the joint suppression stuff.. please tell me more..cindy holden

Cindy, I'm sorry about the untimely response to your question and most likely you have done alittle research already on joint compression but you may find it interesting to read books and papers authored by Temple Grandin, PHD who is an adult living with autism. For instance, a paper she wrote entitled My Experiences with Visual Thinking, Sensory Problems and Communication Difficulties touches apon vestibular stimulation is revealing and is written from her point of view. It does help (sometimes) to give me insight into my own child.

Hope this helps

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Leslie, Mom to Tristan 5 ASD and Lucas 8 NT

I just signed up, hope that you get this. We found that a strict bedtime routine in combination with removing all lite sources helped our son (at age 4) greatly. His bedtime (evening)routine starts with a bath then supper followed by 30 min. of play time. Then he sits on the couch with his comfort blankie with one of his parents with the TV on Jeporty usually. Then he goes to bed with the same story and music tape. He is usualy asleep between 8:30 and 10 and sleeps through to 6 to 7:30 and does NOT take a nap durring the day. If he does Forget it.