As a thank you for all the orders, great Amazon testimonials and support you’ve shown us, we’re conducting a very simple giveaway. The entry is easy and you can win a prize package consisting of 3 packs of OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children, two OZzzz’s t-shirts and two OZzzz’s Sleep Aid sleep masks. The giveaway will end on 4/08/2013. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Look for quality when buying supplements

Before you buy a supplement, you want to be sure that the product is top quality and carefully tested for a number of important things. This is even more true when you purchase a children’s supplement.

Some important questions parents should ask before buying:

• In what country was the product manufactured?
• Are there any common allergens?
• Does the facility where it is manufactured follow GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) procedures?
• Is assay testing performed to confirm the amount of the ingredients is correct to ensure there is not too much or too little of the active ingredients? Recent news about Vitamin D is a good example.
• Does the company do testing to safeguard against dangerous pathogens such as mold, e-coli, salmonella, yeast and other harmful things like heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium)?

Number of Active Ingredients And Amounts Are Important

OZzzz’s takes your child’s health very seriously. Many parents simply use adult versions of melatonin products. However, these products are made for adults and are not specially formulated in amounts for children. Also, remember that OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children is unique in that it is a synergistic mix of natural chamomile and melatonin which have both been shown in studies to be effective.

Many parents report that regular melatonin did not work, whereas our proprietary formulation, in the correct amounts was very effective. Some products contain a multitude of ingredients of questionable nature with unknown interactions between them. OZzzz’s believes that minimal, quality ingredients are important to prevent interactions and possible side effects while still providing an effective product. Why give your child more than what is needed of anything?

 OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children Takes Extra Steps To Ensure Quality,Safety and Efficacy

OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children uses only the highest quality ingredients and is manufactured in the USA at a facility that uses GMP procedures. OZzzz’s is also free of gluten, wheat, dairy, nuts, animal products and other allergens.

Each batch of OZzzz’s is carefully, independently tested to ensure that the active ingredient amounts are not over or under what is listed on the label. Every batch of OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children is also third-party tested for harmful pathogens and for things like mercury and other harmful additives that you would not want to give your children. This is not required, it costs us extra, but your child’s safety is worth the cost.

Example of OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children quality test

When buying supplements that you or your children ingest, be sure to ask these questions. If you have any questions about OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children that have not been answered here, our informed customer service department is on-hand and happy to assist with any of your concerns.

Welcome to all our Canadian Amazon customers! While our Canadian customers can still purchase OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children at our website store and on our Facebook store, we’ve had many parents and grandparents ask us to also sell on Amazon.ca. We’re thrilled to be so popular with our neighbors to the north!

You can find us OZzzz’s on Amazon.ca right here. While all of our incredible testimonials from our U.S. Amazon store do not carry over, you can see those here. We’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all those who have left so many five star reviews.

Don’t forget to sign-up for our newsletter to get the latest news and exclusive discounts from OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children!

Monk fruit is packed with healthy antioxidants and vitamins

Recently, some of our customers have told us that they’d like an even better tasting, sweeter, OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children. We wanted to respond to our customers’ needs, but we did not want to add sugar or artificial sweeteners to our sleep aid. We searched for an all- natural, healthy sweetener that would make OZzzz’s taste better, but also be great for children. With children consuming so much sugar in their diets, we did not want to contribute to poor nutrition and obesity. We found the answer when we found monk fruit!

The natural sweetener extract that OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children is now using is derived from the monk fuit. You may not have heard of this amazing fruit, but it’s been eaten for 100′s of years, mostly in mountainous regions where family orchards in Asia enjoyed this incredible fruit. Legend has it that monk fruit received its name from the Buddhist Monks that first cultivated it over 800 years ago. It’s been prized since then for its great taste, healthy properties, and low (no calorie depending on the amount used) sweetness.

The Chinese have used the fruit for centuries for many ailments and call it a magical fruit. It is said to be a safe sweetener for people with diabetes. The extract has also been shown in animal studies to decrease blood sugar, total cholesterol, triglycerides and improve liver function. In addition, it increased the HDL (“good” cholesterol) while protecting the antioxidants in the animals livers. The FDA has studied monk fruit and deemed it safe as a food additive (GRAS).

You can see what health experts think of this incredible fruit in this short video and learn more from monkfruit.org.

Please let us know what you think of OZzzz’s with monk fruit and visit monkfruit.org to learn more about this amazing fruit.

Poor sleep is an epidemic say experts

We hear almost daily experts telling us the dangers of not getting enough sleep contributing to serious health ailments like obesity, diabetes and heart problems to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety (see below for a savings code on OZzzz’s). Even many behavior problems such as ADHD have been linked to poor sleep as we’ve written about before. But sleep is also vital for setting up your child for academic success and learning.

It has been widely cited that over 2/3 of all children have some type of sleep disorder. Consider the following from a WebMD article:

“More and more research studies demonstrate that daytime sleepiness from chronic sleep deprivation and poor quality sleep has significant impacts on daytime behavior and academic performance, as well as concentration, attention, and mood. Even 20 fewer minutes of needed sleep may significantly affect behavior in many areas.

One study showed that those students with C’s, D’s and F’s got about 25 fewer minutes of sleep and went to bed an average of 40 minutes later than A and B students

One study showed that those students with C’s, D’s and F’s got about 25 fewer minutes of sleep and went to bed an average of 40 minutes later than A and B students. The pediatric research findings are startling and alarming:

• Poor sleepers reported being significantly more depressed, without energy, tired, tense, moody, stressed, irritable, and less rested and alert than good sleepers. Interestingly and importantly, they were also more likely to have a negative self-image, which, in light of the above, is not surprising.
• Insufficient sleep has been associated with daytime fatigue, inability to concentrate in school, ADHD, a tendency to doze off in class, problematic behaviors, and lower levels of social skills. One study showed that teachers believed that some children with sleep disturbances were hyperactive and less attentive.
• Persistent sleep problems are associated with learning difficulties throughout the school years. In fact, several studies suggest specific academic deficits, including poor school performance.
• Poorly performing first graders with sleep disordered breathing showed significant improvement in their grades after treatment.
• Poorly performing seventh graders were 2-3 times more likely to have frequent and loud snoring.
• Poorly performing middle schoolers were more likely to have snored in early childhood.
• Poor sleepers were more likely to display type A behavior patterns.
• Teenage insomnia has been related to anger, depression, difficulty with school adjustments, and stress. And studies suggest that insomnia often begins early in life and persists into adulthood.
• Sleep-disturbed elementary school-age children may have poorer coping behaviors and display more behavioral problems at home and in school.
• Several studies report that more total sleep, earlier bedtimes, and later weekday rise time are associated with better grades in school.
• Those with poor grades are more likely to sleep less, go to bed later, and have more irregular sleep/wake habits.
• Failure rates on exams for medical students were markedly higher (42%) for frequent snorers than for non-snorers (13%)”

We want your child to get off to a great school year by sleeping better. To help, we’re offering you a $5.99 savings on OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children until the end of September 2012 when you use Coupon Code septblog .

We wish you and your children a great school year!

New OZzzz’s Packaging

We have lots of good news to report.  We are introducing a new, improved product with EZ Melts technology. We also have redesigned our packaging. Our relaunched website now has even more information and includes pages for parents with children with ADHD and Autism.

We also now have a better shopping cart for easier ordering.To celebrate, we’re offering a 15% discount on this site when you use the code OZZZZSEZMELTS, for a limited time (offer expires on 5/15/2012, so use it now!). 

Here are some of the advantages of EZ MELTS™:

• Tablets dissolve very rapidly in the mouth
• Technology provides rapid delivery of active ingredients
• Tablets dissolve with a smooth mouth feel
• Great tasting
• Easier for children to use

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please like us on our Facebook Page  in order to get the latest sleep news and specials, some of which will be exclusive to our fans. Visit our store on Facebook for easy purchasing and savings. We also invite you to follow us @OZzzzsSleepAid on Twitter and watch for our newest 30 second video on our YouTube channel. We’d appreciate it if you could take a second to tell us where you heard of OZzzz’s so we can help other parents and children get the rest they need! And please continue to send us your testimonials and feedback.

Thank you for your support of OZzzz’s.

Regards,

Darcy and Sam Osborne
Founders (and Parents)
OZzzz’s Sleep Aid for Children
www.ozzzzs.com

Source: http://frugaldad.com

Poor sleep may be a cause for ADHD

I have already mentioned in previous posts that the symptoms of sleep disorders may be misdiagnosed as ADHD.  We all know that when our kids are exhausted they don’t typically act like we do as adults.  Where we would be exhausted, they might have the opposite reaction and become overly excited and active.  Those children also have extreme difficulties turning there “on” button to an “off” position when it comes to lying down and actually falling asleep.

There hasn’t been enough evidence to completely link the two together as a whole, but there is enough research out there to prove that sleep loss on a daily basis can affect a child’s ability to learn which could lead to ADHD like symptoms.  ADHD is one of the most prevalent problems today and numerous sources suggest that 25-50% of those children suffer from some type of sleep disorder.  Improving the sleep disorder could help decrease the symptoms of ADHD.

The prevalence of sleep disorders is becoming such a phenomenon that pediatricians are becoming more aware that this can be an issue with children.  The difficult part is figuring out what kind of sleep disorder your child has.  There are three different categories that pediatric sleep disorders have been classified into which are dyssomnias, parasomnias, and medical-psychiatric disorders.

These categories might not mean much to a lay person but through my research I found the “BEARS” sleep screen might be something that every parent can relate to. (found in Judith Owens MD MPH The ABC’s of ZZZ’s: Common Sleep Disorders in Children)

• Bedtime problems
• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• Awakenings during the night
• Regularity and duration of sleep
• Snoring

If your child has any of the above symptoms then you also might want to look at the overall picture and how this can be really affecting your child.  There is a high correlation with sleeping disorders and ADHD (like I mentioned in the last post).  The correlation is so prevalent that there are some studies debating what is causing what.  Is it the ADHD that is causing the sleep disorder or vice-versa?  A good percentage of these children with sleep disorders are also known to have conduct problems in school or aggressive behavior, not to mention depression and self esteem issues.  Of course , there is also the concern of the overall affects of the immune system with sleep disorders.

It would be safe to say that I  fully support sleep studies for children if they have any of the above symptoms.  It may make a significant impact on both your child’s and families life.

Yes, there are more than one type of sleeping disorders with children.  Some can be a bit alarming when witnessing them.

Sleep Terrors are interesting in the fact that they make you feel like something is psychologically wrong with your child, when really there is nothing wrong at all.  My daughter did experience these for a short period of time.  I wanted to video tape her and send it to a psychologist.  It was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen.

Sleep Apnea is probably one of the most common sleep disorders.  It is usually caused by enlarged tonsils and/or adnoids.  Something I didn’t know was the effect this can have on your child during school.  They aren’t getting the required sleep they need because they don’t reach the adequate amount of REM sleep.  They usually are falling asleep in class and have difficult paying attention.  In fact, sometimes these kids are misdiagnosed with ADHD.  However, as for my son, enlarged tonsils or adnoids may not be causing the sleep apnea.  This is a situation where surgery is not a quick fix.

Bedwetting is also a type of sleeping disorder with kids.  Another new piece of information I learned because although I knew it occurred, I never knew it was a diagnosed sleep disorder.

Restless Leg Syndrome can also occur with children although it isn’t as common.  This is very similar to sleep apnea in the fact that they don’t get enough REM sleep because they are constantly waking up throughout the night.

Some children just have a hard time falling asleep because they are too worried about the everyday events that occur. Also there are many disorders that prevent childen from actually being able to fall asleep.  Refer to this article for all the signs and symptoms for sleeping disorders in children.

A good bedtime routine is never a bad idea but sometimes no matter what you do, your child isn’t getting a good night’s rest.  It is something that I never thought to tell my pediatrician until I had what you call a lightbulb moment.  I know when I am lacking sleep, I am very sensitive and overly grumpy.  Why couldn’t this be what my son’s problem is?

When I addressed the problem with my pediatrician, she thought a sleep study was a must in the full spectrum of his symptoms.  Just an idea to inform people that children should be sleeping at least 10 hours a night and if they aren’t discuss it with your pediatrician.  They might have a sleeping disorder.