A tired mum has shared her experience of using a new type of milk to help her toddler get a full night's sleep. Mum of two, Caroline Hemmingham, experimented with feeding her son Alf Sleep Well milk for three nights.
Caroline, who writes for HullLive, where she first shared her experience, had at first thought that Alf would have no problem getting to sleep at night. Her older daughter had always managed to get a full night's sleep and Caroline had been planning how to get Alf to sleep even before he was born by reading a baby book.
But unfortunately, nothing went to plan. Alf is now two years old and still struggles to get a full night's sleep. He has even realised he can climb out of his bed making nighttimes even more difficult.
Looking for any helpful tip she could find, Caroline then went online to look for suggestions on how to get a toddler to sleep. She immediately found out about Sleep Well milk, a milk-based drink that had great reviews online. So she decided to give it a try.
What is Sleep Well milk?
According to its packaging Sleep Well milk is made with Jersey Milk, honey, vanilla flavouring and valerian - and it is this last ingredient that the company says is key.
Valerian is an ingredient made from the valerian plant, which is thought to help people fall asleep. It has been used for nearly 2000 years. Sleep Milk sources the herb from the UK.
The company's website does state parents should check with their child's GP if their son or daughter is under three years of age before giving the drink to them. It also states that they may wish to use a smaller portion of just 100ml. The drink is also not suitable for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
With this in mind, Caroline decided to give Alf half a carton of the drink.
Did it work?
Caroline tried Sleep Well milk with Alf over three nights and documented what happened. Here is how it went:
Night one
On the first night, Alf was given half a bottle of Sleep Milk before bed. Caroline said it smelt lovely as soon as she opened it and knew he was 'going to devour it'.
The milk should be drunk around half an hour before going to bed and after 20 minutes Caroline noticed Alf looked pretty sleepy. She thought it was going to be a huge success straight off the bat.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. While Alf got to sleep fairly quickly, she found he 'ended up having one of the worst nights in a long time'. He cried a lot during the night and then woke up at 5.30am.
However, she doesn't believe his crying was caused by the milk.
Night two
On the second night, Alf had his milk and managed to settle of to sleep pretty easily. He did wake up during the night a couple of times but he resettled very quickly.
He then didn't wake up until 6.30am, which Caroline said was a new record for him in his big boy bed.
Night three
On the third night, Alf actually fell asleep on his bottle of Sleep Milk.
He woke a couple of times during the night, but one of the times it was because he'd rolled over and fallen out of bed.
He woke up at 5am and then slept in Caroline and her husband's bed. He went on to sleep in until 7am which the couple took as a win.
Conclusion
So what did Caroline make of the Sleep Well milk. She said: "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."
Have you tried it? What did you think? And any other sleep tips? Please share in the comments.
