A sleep-deprived mum has kept a diary of her efforts to get her toddler off to sleep by feeding him a natural bedtime drink.
Caroline Hemmingham gave little Alf Sleep Well over three nights and documented the results in a bid to help other parents in a similar predicament.
The proud mum told how she hoped the experiences with her first-born and some dedicated research while expecting Alf would mean no sleepless nights.
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But alas, she was in for a shock as the tot started stirring in the early hours - and so a new approach was needed.
Caroline documented her approach for Hull Live - here's her storey in her own words.
It’s the one thing that probably every new parent finds themselves obsessing over at one time or another. Sleep, or lack of it.
We thought we had it cracked with our first born. From very early on, we got her into a good routine, she napped in her bed at the recommended times of the day and she self settled at night.
Not that hard really is it?
That was what we thought until we met our second born, Alf.
Even while pregnant with him, I was reading a baby sleep book that promised to have them sleeping through from about five weeks, or something daft like that.
So with all our experience with our daughter and my new found knowledge from this sleep bible I was super confident that sleep was not going to be an issue with Alf.
And in those early days things were great - well they always are when you’re in that newborn bubble aren’t they?
But, from around four months in, when the dreaded four month sleep regression hits, things took a bad turn.
Alf is now two and he’s never slept through. Well, unless you are counting sleeping through until 4am. I’m not.
We thought we’d finally cracked it a couple of months ago. He was happily going to sleep in his cot, by himself, even telling us "bye bye" in his sweet little voice as we wished him goodnight and left the room.
But very quickly things took a turn for the worst and Alf was busting out of his little sleeping bags. We also realised he could now climb out of his cot and was not so happy to go to bed.
So we got him a new "big boy bed" but of course, he didn’t want to stay in that and we found ourselves sharing our bed with him from about midnight every night.
I know lots of parents co-sleep and enjoy it. But I don’t. Our standard double bed is just not big enough for the three of us.
So once again, last week I found myself googling ‘how to get a two year old to sleep’ and the first thing that came up was an image of something called ‘Sleep Well’ milk. A quick click and I see good reviews. I’m sold.
What’s in it?
The Sleep Well milk says it’s made with Jersey Milk, honey, vanilla flavouring and valerian - which is said to be a natural ingredient that can help you fall asleep. It states on the product’s website ‘Valerian root has been relaxing people and helping them get to sleep for nearly 2000 years. Our valerian herb is grown and harvested in the UK and is of the highest quality.’
It does state on the website that that for children under three parents should always check with their GP or other medical professional and consider giving a smaller serving of 100ml. It does also state that the milk is not suitable for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
I decided to take my chances and give Alf just half a carton. He’s fit and healthy and has no allergies so I didn’t think I needed to consult a GP first.
So did it work?
I got a pack of three cartons of the sleep milk and I’m going to give you an account of what happened on the three consecutive nights that Alf had it before bed.
Night one
Alf always has a bottle of milk before bed. He doesn’t always fall asleep on it but he likes it. In fact he loves his milk so much he has several bottles a day. And for those saying "he shouldn’t still be drinking milk from a bottle", I know. That is a challenge to tackle another week.
So up we went to bed.
On this particular night I was tasked with putting the kids to bed alone as my husband was working late, so knowing what a challenge it can be getting a two-year-old and a three-year-old to bed solo I let them both have their milk in my bed with the TV on to get them as sleepy as possible. More bad habits, I know, I know.
With them both comfy I opened the sleep milk and poured it into a bottle for Alf and the first thing I noticed was how lovely it smelt. I knew he was going to devour it.
They say the milk should be consumed around half an hour before going to bed and after about 20 minutes Alf was looking pretty sleepy. ‘It’s working’, I thought to myself.
And he did go off to sleep pretty well that night. But unfortunately we ended up having one of the worst nights in a long time. He was up a lot crying and then up for the day at 5.30am the next morning.
I really do not think him being awake crying that night had anything to do with the milk as I think if that was the case he would have been sick. So on with the trial…
Night two
On night two I wasn’t alone at bedtime so my husband gave Alf his sleep milk and put him to bed.
Once again, he drank it all then settled off to sleep, in his bed, absolutely fine.
He did wake a couple of times in the night but very quickly resettled in his bed. And the next morning he didn’t wake till 6.30am - a new record for Alf in his big boy bed.
Night three
Again, my husband put him to bed and he actually fell asleep on his bottle of sleep milk that night. Again, he was up a couple of times in the night. One of those times he’d rolled out of his bed but he is still getting used to being in a proper bed so that’s going to happen. At around 5am Alf ended up in our bed but then slept ‘till gone 7am. I will happily take that.
So in conclusion to my very brief and basic experiment, would I say the sleep milk worked? Maybe. He enjoyed it and he went to sleep quite soon after drinking it. We also had two nights of him sleeping longer in his new bed than he had done previously.
