A mum who says she was 'forced to live off caffeine' due to her baby struggling to sleep found a solution in a very peculiar food item.
Claire Brown, from Falkirk, Scotland, was getting an average of two hours sleep per night for four months when her little boy Jamie, four, started struggling with his sleep.
But when the little one became attached to a melon Claire had bought from Aldi, the mum gave in to his request and let him cuddle the fruit in bed.
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An adorable snap shared by Claire shows Jamie sleeping peacefully next to the melon, which he fondly named Mel. Claire has now hailed the melon a miracle and 'the best 99p she's ever spent'.
Claire said: "I've gone from getting two hour's sleep per night to getting a full night. it's a magical melon in my eyes. It's the best 99p I've ever spent.
"Jamie used to sleep like a baby up until the beginning of lockdown but then he'd struggle to settle. He'd wake up six or seven times per night. I had bags under my eyes, I was living on caffeine and looking like a zombie.
"I was exhausted and my daughter Evie was just over one so I'd get one to sleep, then the other would wake up and my husband was away."
The mum-of-two, whose husband Jackson Brown, 43, works offshore for half of the year, has since been flooded with comments admiring her 'hilarious' photo, with other mums hoping to give it a try.
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"Jamie would sleep in my bed or I'd have to sleep on the end of his while he slept and we'd spend our nights moving between rooms. The vast majority of the time he was beside me but he wouldn't actually sleep," Claire continued.
"One day he picked up a melon at the supermarket, then he had it on the back seat with him and when we got home he wandered around with it. He'd be playing with it or playing with his toys with it alongside him.
"He said he was going to bed with the melon and as a mum you know when to pick your battles and I was too tired to fight that one.
"It was the first night in months he'd even got into his bed to begin with because usually the night started off in my bed. I was thinking he'd probably be up in ten minutes and we'd go through the same as usual.
"When I walked in to check on him Jamie was sound asleep with the melon. I was so shocked and I was actually frightened of moving it in case he woke up and it wasn't there. It was like a eureka moment.
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"I took a photo to show the family that he was actually sleeping for the first time in so long. Jackson couldn't believe it and thought it was hilarious. Then the next few days were the same. He took his melon everywhere.
"It went in the bathroom and into the garden with him. It was like his best friend and he drew a face on it. It was weird but he was happy, and if he's happy I'm happy.
"After five or six nights I decided the melon had to go because it was looking a bit soft. I was scared he was going to roll over and it was going to explode over the bed.
"It vanished in the night because I threw it away, but he was fine the next morning and by then he'd settled back into a sleeping pattern, so thank God for the melon."
Claire, who also has a two-year-old daughter Evie Brown, believes lockdown interfering with Jamie's routine caused his sleepless nights.
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Jamie now goes to sleep on his own between 7.30pm and 8pm then sleeps right through until around 7am, giving Claire some much-needed rest.
Claire said: "The melon put him at ease, so I think after five or six nights of good sleep he was able to go to bed and get back to normal on his own. It was like a miracle.
"Any parent who's lacking sleep over the course of a few months will try anything and sometimes it's not things that are the norm. It was worth it for us. Everything's fine now."
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media