3 year old anxiety

My ds and dh are doing their nightly feud right now. Ds is a terrible sleeper. He has been since before he was even born. He turns 3 next month and has never slept through the night. Dh is blaming me saying that ds is picking up on my anxiety and that's why he can't sleep. Ds is in constant motion. When he is trying to fall asleep he is wringing his hands or sucking on his fingers.

He was having major behavioral issues. I cut out dyes and msg from his diet and he is like a new kid. But he still doesn't sleep. He will nap int he afternoon but dd and I nap with him. I work nights and need a nap in the afternoon since I only sleep a couple hours at night. I put both kids on bed with me and we an 1.5 hour nap daily.

Is it possible for an almost 3 year old to have anxiety? Please don't tell me to cio. It only makes it worse. Then he gets separation issues as well. Does anyone have any suggestions? Dh is going to lose it soon and won't let me just take over and put him to sleep. He says I get little enough sleep and need what little I get. I can't be getting up with ds and dd.
Sorry for the book I just don't know what to do.

Re: 3 year old anxiety

When you say he has never slept through the night - can you be more specific? Is it problems getting him to sleep? Is he waking frequently? How frequently? Does he have nights where he sleeps fine through the whole night? How many hours per night does he sleep?

I'm only asking b/c I have a terrible sleeper on my hands too so maybe I can help (and I am pretty sure its not anxiety - in fact, I never even thought about that!).

Re: 3 year old anxiety

Thanks for the reply. He is turning 3 next month and has never gone from bedtime to morning. It takes about a half hour of reading books and laying with him to get him to sleep. Once asleep the most he will go is 3 hours but it's usually 2 hours. He is just not a sleeper.
He finally falls asleep at about 8pm and is up by 10pm. Dh will get him back to sleep and he is up about every 3 hours and up for the day by 6am. He is also a very restless sleeper if not with me. His arms will be flailing and legs kicking. If he has his arm on me he will sleep soundly. Maybe once or twice he has made it 4 hours in his bed but that's it. Dh is losing his patience and blaming me. He just seems like he is too busy to sleep.

Re: 3 year old anxiety

Any ideas?