Sleep Affecting School
Bedtimes were a trigger point for battles and stress as eight year old Oliver would refuse to go to bed and repeatedly reappear downstairs with a whole range of excuses; “I’m hungry, I need a wee, I have a headache…”
The Problem
Jo, 38 year old, working mother of three children, was desperate for help with Oliver her 8 year old son’s sleep problem. As a baby Oliver had always had one of his parents in his bed with him as he fell asleep at bedtime, but over the last two years Jo had managed to encourage Oliver to stay in his bed by himself. However bedtimes were a trigger point for battles and stress as Oliver would refuse to go to bed and repeatedly reappear downstairs with a whole range of excuses; “I’m hungry, I need a wee, I have a headache….” Eventually Oliver would fall asleep when his parents came to bed, 10.30pm! Every day Jo had to literally drag Oliver out of bed to get him to school, and he spent the first few hours tired and grumpy.
Teachers at school were concerned about Oliver falling behind the rest of his class mates and his temper tantrums in the play ground. Oliver was expressing anxiety and fears over his inability to fall asleep at bedtime and how hard he was finding school work.
My husband and I dreaded the evenings as we had no time together and were spent arguing over Oliver’s sleep problems. I was desperate for help as I could feel Oliver’s behaviour getting out of control. Life in our household was very stressful and it was having an impact on my other children and my husband.
Oliver had always done very well at school, but we were finding ourselves regularly having meetings with the teachers about this behaviour in the class room and playground. The school wanted Oliver to be assessed by their Educational Psychologist. This was the catalyst I needed to get professional sleep help for Oliver and us. My GP suggested I contact Millpond Chil
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The Solution
Before our initial consultation we kept a sleep diary for a week so we could record what time Oliver fell asleep each night and woke in the morning, including weekends. We also filled in a sleep questionnaire with further details for our sleep therapist.Our first consultation was a conference call so both my husband and I could be involved. It was a relief that our sleep therapist, Mandy Gurney, had dealt with hundreds of children with sleep problems just like Oliver and we felt we were in safe hands.
Mandy suggested we needed to take the heat out of the bedtime routine as she said; this was causing Oliver anxiety that was raising his cortisol levels and stopping him falling asleep. We were to start a quiet bedtime routine focused around Oliver’s natural falling asleep time with a relaxation technique that we were to teach Oliver.
Amazingly the new steps of the bedtime routine worked very quickly and all of us stopped feeling stressed at bedtime. This helped Oliver to be more relaxed and he stopped coming back downstairs, he was actually asleep within minutes of me staying goodnight to him!
He was very tired at first but we gradually moved his sleeping time earlier and earlier and after six weeks he was happily falling asleep by 8.30pm.
My husband and I now have our relaxing evenings together and our lovely bright boy who can’t wait to get to school in the morning!
We can’t thank Millpond for turning all our lives around and our therapist enough for encouraging and supporting us through this.
See what families say about us
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This training day has been very positively received by all members of the health visiting team. Staff feel better equipped to assess and provide advice on interventions that are evidence based to support parents. I strongly recommend that all clinical staff attend this extremely valuable training.”
Carol Adams, Clinical Educator Health Visiting. Lewisham NHS Trust -
Within my role as Infant Feeding Specialist – we have a large volume of mothers worried that their child is not sleeping, often equated to feeding concerns – this workshop has provided me with more in-depth strategies to support families with sleep issues. Lots of interesting research to follow-up and incorporate into my practice.”
D Wilson, Infant Feeding Specialist -
The HSE National Programme ‘Nurture’ engaged Millpond to deliver an extensive number of sleep workshop to registered public health nurses in the Republic of Ireland during 2018/19. Millpond provided an excellent professional service. They were open and willing to engagement and adaptation of the UK sleep programme to local needs. Feedback from the workshop participants was excellent. The Millpond trainers were flexible in developing the programme timetable and workshops were delivered over a wide geographical area in a timely and efficient manner.
Virginia Pye, National Lead for Public Health Nursing, HSE -
The landscape around children’s sleep is increasingly expansive and changing. Millpond’s up-to-date training meets the need to adapt to growing trends in child sleep challengers. Fully comprehensive and nurturing in their approach; encompassing all essential holistic and trending aspects in fully supporting a child’s emotional wellbeing to maximising a child’s sleep potential.
Rozanne Hay, UK Representative & Director of Continuing Education for the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants -
“Our health visiting service will enable us to support children’s sleep using Millpond as accredited and suitable in conjunction with BFI.”
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“An excellent training course with informed and sector-leading practitioners who have a wealth of knowledge and relevant experience.”
A Williams, Early Years Pathfinder Staff Development & Training Officer, Flintshire -
Really great to leave with a sense of a Tool Kit to support the children and families I work with.”
T Harold- School Health Nurse and Community Practice Teacher -
I attended the workshop you did at Oakleigh special school. I wanted to say it was wonderful. I learned lots of new things and was impressed by your extensive knowledge about sleep, especially that it was backed up by research. Thank you.”
T Nicholls -
“As part of Mothercare’s community programme, Mandy hosted two 2 sleep workshops for parents. Parents were tremendously keen to attend and to get the best advice about good sleep practices for both babies and young children. Mandy’s sessions met the parent’s needs, resulting in parents feeling more confident and empowered afterwards.
Mothercare's Parenting Consultant, Liz Day
I have no hesitation in recommending Mandy to host a workshop on children’s sleep whether to parents or professionals.
It’s thought provoking, interesting and contains good practical advice that works, so making sleep times easier and less stressful for both the child and the parent.” -
I worked for 15 years making science and medical documentaries for BBC television. In 2011 I created my own digital company; Essential Parent (EP) to support new parents.
Diana Hill, Essential Parent
EP works with the NHS, maternity hospitals, children’s centers and local authorities around the UK.
We chose Mandy Gurney as our sleep expert from many other possible candidates, since she was the only one who combined enormous authority, experience and knowledge, along with common sense and warmth. It’s a very rare combination of qualities and one which has served our parents, midwives and health visitors really well.
We’re enormously proud to be working with her – and we know just how lucky we are!” -
I felt this course was really child-centered which is very good to see in something that could easily become behaviour focused.
Amanda Kendrick, Therapist, Western Bay Adoption Service -
Excellent workshop. Delivered by trainers who a passionate and very, very knowledgeable. Very easy to listen to with relevant content on PowerPoint and handouts.
Faye Jeffs, Family Support Practitoner -
I attended the Understanding Babies Communication and Sleep Workshop today.
Having attended past training and finding the evidence-based techniques effective and helpful with clients I work with, I was interested in gaining more information around supporting the younger baby.
Jade Atkins, Perinatal specialist Nursery Nurse -
I have attended a Millpond course before. I found this workshop, Understanding Babies Communication and Sleep to be an excellent, well-informed research-based tool which I can use in my role to support mothers to understand their babies sleep needs using kind, gentle and responsive methods.
George Sibthorp, Specialist Perinatal Nursery Nurse Health and Well Being Ambassador -
I have attended training from yourselves before and really wanted to ensure the Nursery Nurse team with whom I now manage have the same tool belt of vital knowledge and skills when supporting Mum’s and families on the MBU to transition into parenthood.
Amy Daddow, Lead Nursery Nurse Mother and Baby Unit -
“Thank you both for delivering the fantastic sleep workshop. I now feel more confident and motivated to support families that are struggling with sleep issues.
I will use my knowledge to support families at home struggling with sleep. I can already think of 2 families that I think will be keen to help.”
Amy Sullivan Southern Trust Northen Ireland -
“I deliver the Incredible Years Speech and Language Delay program to parents of children with Autism. Parents shared during the session that their children often don’t go to bed until late in the evening and they are struggling with their bedtime routine, I registered for the training to gain more knowledge and information with the view to offer additional support to families.
The training exceeded my expectations.
The presenters made the session very interactive. Provided great insight to the topic and the passion to offer support to other professionals and families who require support with sleep difficulties was evident. Both ladies were amazing. What I liked about today’s session was that there were real-life examples provided and discussed.”
Bernadetta Viana Southern Trust Northen Ireland -
“There was a huge amount of information but the trainers were amazing, never had training with people so passionate and knowledgeable and they don’t read from the slides they just talk with so much information being relayed.
I enjoyed all elements of the course both as a mother to 5 and as a student who wants to help others, there was so much information and I feel really enthused to learn more and provide parents with this information, my only regret was I didn’t know this when my twins were younger! (could have saved myself 3 years of sleep deprivation!) “
Need sleep? …call us today direct on: 020 8444 0040
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