How I optimised my son’s sleep quality- Take 1

I want to take you on a step by step journey through all the things that I did which impacted my son’s sleep quality and ultimately how I improved his quality of sleep. Part two of this blog is going to tell you what exactly I would do if I had my time again.

Arthur was never a good sleeper from about 2-3 weeks old. He wasn’t all that bad but he fought sleep so hard. I knew something was up from the start. I just didn’t feel like sleep should be so hard for a newborn.

My investigations probably, unknowingly when Arthur was just a few weeks old. After eating quiches several days in a row, I noticed Arthur was particularly gassy. I read some foods can cause gassy babies so I chose to avoid eggs.

At 3 weeks old, I had to take antibiotics and this is when I noticed Arthur’s sleep take a sudden downturn, that never came back up. I did take probiotics to try balance out the antibiotics, but the damage was already done.

As the weeks went on, I noticed lots of other symptoms here and there that seemed to flare with certain foods, so I began eliminating more and more foods. Each time his sleep was impacted. It got better, then always got worse again.

From about 4-6 months I also had frequent supply issues. I put it down to my food and water consumption given the elimination diet. At about 5.5 months it suddenly occurred to me that I had a gut feeling from about 6 weeks old that Arthur was struggling with extracting milk efficiently and it probably was that he was actually having trouble. At this time I also learned about how oral restrictions impact sleep.

Off we went to a paediatric dentist to have a tongue and lip tie release. I thought this was it.

After another month of Arthur still not sleeping well, I finally booked in with Jade Rice. She had us further remove foods from my diet.

And what do you know, it did the trick! Things got a lot easier. Only problem is, it left me with just 3 foods.

We went and saw an allergist who confirmed some allergies. We saw a dietician who put in plan a place to introduce foods back. Unfortunately, every single food was a fail. Even if I took supplements or medication. For 8 long months, nothing we did worked and sleep, whilst manageable, still wasn’t great.

At 13 months old we went to a chiropractor who specialises in the vagus nerve. It turns out Arthur had low vagal tone which impacted his digestion and nervous system. It was one big piece of the puzzle that was missing this whole time.

Along with some body work and targeted supplementation, we finally started to get somewhere. We also used phototherapy patches to help Arthur’s body work through inflammation.

This all got a so far, but we were still a little stuck. Whilst Arthur was going well with the introduction of new foods, anytime I strayed into new foods, his sleep would go bad. We had been on a elimination diet for so long, that we both had some serious nutrient deficiencies.

This is where we came across a protocol to replete B12. Arthur had a blood test at about 10 months old, and his B12 was low then. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t do anything about it the entire time.

Just as Arthur turned 22 months old, we started this protocol to replenish B12 in his body. It first starts with co-factors needed to activate B12 before even taking B12. We are about 1 month in now, for both of us and seeing amazing changes.

Arthur’s sleep is much more restful, particularly in the early hours of the morning. He has also become more adventurous in his eating and he has stopped reacting to foods through me!

We are not quite at 100% amazing quality sleep but we are well on our way. We paved our own way to getting to the bottom of what was going on, because, really, no one we saw actually knew what was going on.

We went a very long way to get to the root cause of the problem and in doing so, introduced a lot of other problems along the way. We know better now though, and we do better for other people.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I will tell you exactly what I would do to make sure I have an amazing sleeper without all the pain and tears that I went through!