Not to say he will experience these possible side effects... but I would be concerned. Headaches, ear pain, stomach pain, mood changes, the list goes on and on. Many of our autism team families have mentioned having used lavender bathes, massages, different oils, just to name a few. Maybe you should try either one of these, or a combination of these methods first. He's so young yet. I suggest trying a different route. If neither works, then maybe, maybe I would consider meds; and that's a big maybe! Much blessing and all the best.

My son took clodidine for a year. At first it really helped then it seemed he needed a higher dose (getting older and growth spurt). I loved that he mostly slept when it worked, but didn't like how out of it he would be in the mornings. I wanted to give alternative methods a try so I researched and tried tons of different ways to help regulate his nervous system during sleep. This is what I found that worked: we bought wetsuits from eBay (shorts and short sleeve) the compression helped regulate his nervous system to decrease the muscles twitching that would wake him every 2 hours. We did this for 3 years and slowly decreased the amount of nights he wears the wetsuit to bed. He is 7 now, maybe 1 out of 10 days he wakes for a couple hours during the night this is compared to him not sleeping for more than 3 hours before.

My little guy at the age of 2 had issues going to sleep and we cut out naps.. that helped.. At the time I didn't know he also had ADHD (he is 6 now) If its the going to bed that is an issue, alternative would be more activity during the day OR a neat trick.... give them a piece of bread. But if its the they are not staying asleep all night, that's different. Medication may be needed or to regulate sleep, but only if it disturbs their sleeping cycles.

Im not for meds but if u have tried everything else and u feel comfortable with giving ur child meds. Try it. My son is two and he goes to sleep therapy once a week and we also use a sound machine at bed time white noise only. There is an app u can try on ur phone as well. He has his reg bath schedule with lavender baby wash and i spray his bed, sheets, and pillows lightly with lavender linen spay. It really has helped him. He has insomnia disorder so i didnt think it would work but it has. See if u can get ur kid in sleep therapy in ur area. Good luck to u hun. I know the struggle.

I asked what are the long term effects of this.. and she assures me that there is none. She says every medication has risks but they will monitor his blood pressure once a month. Just sounds so overwhelming to me.