3 yr old terrible sleep

We have a three year old that potentially has adhd (too young to diagnose officially but his dad has it and a lot of the signs are there). Since he was two he’s always been difficult to put to bed. We’d have a consist bedtime routine, he wasn’t overtired, checked off all the boxes of all the tips u see online to get him to sleep. But he would still play around or toss and turn in his bed for an hr, sometimes 2 hrs, before falling asleep. Now that he’s in school, he’ll go to sleep much quicker, but there are some nights where we have to give him melatonin just so he can fall asleep. Even tho he was hard to put to sleep, he would at least always sleep thru the night. Now lately he is waking up in the middle of the night EVERY NIGHT, just cuz he’s trying to get into our bed to sleep. I don’t wanna reinforce this and let him it’s okay so we try putting him back in his toddler bed and I watch him on the baby can actively try to fight off sleep. I don’t think it’s cuz of nightmares or separation anxiety. I really just think he doesn’t like sleeping lol At my wits end here cuz it’s really starting to affect my sleep. I’m tired all the time. Idk how to get this kid to start sleeping thru the night again.
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Don’t do melatonin. Try sleepy time tea I do the vanilla one or try tart cherry juice. Cut tv off 2 hours before bed and go for a walk let him run around, jump, and climb. That’s what I do with my son and it helps we co-sleep and we still have rough nights where he will wake up and scream and cry for hours we just let it pass then he is right back to bed

Can i get more info on sleepy time tea what brand?

Melatonin is definitely not a good idea. Developing a dependency will not help his sleep skills develop naturally. Waking up in the middle of the night is very developmentally normal at this age. My nephew always slept through the night since he was a newborn, but started waking up and walking around at 3years old. Can you change the bed situation in his room so that one of you can lay with him to fall back to sleep when he wakes if you dont want him in your bed? If his sleep is truly restless throughout the night with many wake ups and tossing and turning, granted he’s getting enough activity in the day, I would explore any medical red flags like low ferritin. I love heysleepybaby on instagram for sleep support ideas 🫶🏽

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