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Caroline Hemmingham says her youngest child Alf has never slept past 4am despite turning two recently. When Caroline and her partner got him a “big boy bed”, he didn’t want to stay in and often shared a bed with his parents.

So last month Caroline googled “how to get a two year old to sleep” and stumbled upon Sleep Well milk, a new product which combines Jersey milk with valerian, a herb proven to help people relax and get a good night’s sleep.

It’s primarily designed for adults as its website states family GPs should be consulted before the milk is given to children, and babies less than 12 months old musn’t consume it.

But it’s a natural product and, as Alf is “fit and healthy and has no allergies”, Caroline decided to give him half a carton each night for three evenings.

Caroline, a journalist, told Hull Live: “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.”

Caroline’s full testimony for the publication reads below;

Night one

“Alf always has a bottle of milk before bed. He doesn’t always fall asleep on it but he likes it. In fact he loves his milk so much he has several bottles a day. And for those saying “he shouldn’t still be drinking milk from a bottle”, I know. That is a challenge to tackle another week.

“So up we went to bed.

“On this particular night I was tasked with putting the kids to bed alone as my husband was working late, so knowing what a challenge it can be getting a two-year-old and a three-year-old to bed solo I let them both have their milk in my bed with the TV on to get them as sleepy as possible. More bad habits, I know, I know.

“With them both comfy I opened the sleep milk and poured it into a bottle for Alf. The first thing I noticed was how lovely it smelt. I knew he was going to devour it.

“They say the milk should be consumed around half an hour before going to bed and after about 20 minutes Alf was looking pretty sleepy. ‘It’s working’, I thought to myself.

“And he did go off to sleep pretty well that night. But unfortunately we ended up having one of the worst nights in a long time. He was up a lot crying and then up for the day at 5.30am the next morning.

“I really do not think him being awake crying that night had anything to do with the milk as I think if that was the case he would have been sick. So on with the trial…”

Night two

“On night two I wasn’t alone at bedtime so my husband gave Alf his sleep milk and put him to bed.

“Once again, he drank it all then settled off to sleep, in his bed, absolutely fine.

“He did wake a couple of times in the night but very quickly resettled in his bed. And the next morning he didn’t wake till 6.30am – a new record for Alf in his big boy bed.”

Night three

“Again, my husband put him to bed and he actually fell asleep on his bottle of sleep milk that night. Again, he was up a couple of times in the night. One of those times he’d rolled out of his bed but he is still getting used to being in a proper bed so that’s going to happen.

“At around 5am Alf ended up in our bed but then slept ‘till gone 7am. I will happily take that.

“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.”

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