Using melatonin

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My almost 5 year old has always had a lot of sleep trouble. It seems to go through cycles, and when it's bad, he typically just has a lot of trouble settling down at night, might wake in the middle of the night and not be able to go to sleep or otherwise wakes up really early. We started using a weighted blanket and a lot of times, that helps him settle at the beginning of the night. Sometime early last week, he started back with not being able to go to sleep and waking up super early...even with the blanket. So, starting about four nights ago, we gave him some melatonin. Each time we've given it to him, he is fast asleep pretty much the second his head hits the pillow. He was still waking early, except this morning, when I had to go wake him up (he slept 11 hours!! !!)

So, my question... can you become dependent on melatonin? or can it lose it's effectiveness? I plan to talk to the neurologist about it at our appointment this week. I am just curious of other people's experiences. Right now it just seems amazing to me that my boy can fall asleep like anyone else... he's never been able to just fall asleep right away like that! I'm just wondering what the downsides might be.

Oh wow. My gut instinct is that just seems so wrong. Obviously, young kids who can't sleep for whatever reason can be very frustrating for a parent. But I wouldn't touch sleep aids (even "natural" ones) with a 5-year-old without talking to your pediatrician first.

Well, we talked to the pediatric neurologist about it. He's the one who recommended it. I should be clear that I am only minimally frustrated by his sleep hours. He spends much of that time in his room looking at books while I sleep. I feel awful for him because he's exhausted and still can't sleep. During the day when he's having trouble with sleep, he's so wound up and his sensory issues seem magnified by 100. So, there's a lot more going on than parental frustration. If he seemed rested and was having trouble sleeping, that would be one thing, but he's not.

Looking back at my first post, I understand why someone might think I didn't consult the doc first! I said we were going to talk to the neurologist about it this week. It had been recommended by him months ago and we didn't try it until this week. So, when we were in the office last and he asked us about it, we didn't have any questions about it because we weren't using it.

Anyway, I'm going to be talking to the neurologist this week about how long/how often it's ok to use it, etc.

I was just looking for some other parents experiences with it.

OK, good luck. Here's a link from livestrong with some of the negative side effects of melatonin use in children.

Melatonin side effects

Thanks for the link. I love that website!

Many parents here have used Melatonin quite successfully and without addiction. But ... when it comes to addiction, something doesn't have to be physically addicting to be come psychologically addicting, and the later remains a risk. In the parent child relationship you have the ability to keep the use sparse enough that your child doesn't get to that, but you do have to make sure YOU don't get overly reliant. So ... if you have a tendency towards psychological addiction, or have seen tendency in your child, be aware of the possible issue and see what you can do to keep it from surfacing. I confess, psychological addiction is something I find myself prone to, so that is why I bring it up.

Thanks for your reply! I think that's what I'm worried about... I don't tend to get dependent on things, but I do want to know where to draw the line. His sleep troubles seem to go in cycles. So, i'm thinking maybe it makes sense to use it when it's an issue for a few days, or a week, then pull back and see what his body does on his own.

I guess that's a discussion for the doctor too. I did a search on the forums and did see a lot of people saying they have had success with it. We are using SUCH a small dose... about .25mg and it knocks him out! I saw some people take 3-5 or even 7 mg. That made me feel better about using it.

I use Melatonin with my own daughter. It has been an amazing help to us. Before using it, my daughter would take 3-4 hours before her body + mind would "shut down" enough for sleep to occur. This was painful to watch because my daughter could be overtired and wanted to sleep but her body twitching or mind would keep her awake. The Melatonin lets her fall asleep within 30 minuts of taking it.

We only take 1mg (a VERY low dose) but she is only 50 pounds (age 8 ).

The thing I have noticed is after taking it constantly for a few weeks, it is not effective. When that happens we painfully endure sleeplessness for a few weeks and then go back on the Melatonin. So it's perhaps a month on, then a month off. This helps keep it effective.

You do not have to worry about dependency at all, it is safe and effective and can help a lot, especially when the lack of sleep is causing so many WORSE problems!

Myself and my sons take melatonin with varying frequency. The only negative side effects we have noticed has been vivid dreams (unpleasant if they are nightmares). It has helped enormously with the length of time it takes to get to sleep and sleeping more soundly, however my sons do still wake up at the "crack of dawn" with or without the melatonin.

We find that half the recommended dosage on the label does the trick for all of us.

I have read that many on the spectrum are deficient in their melatonin production. When we 1st visited a pdoc, DS was having horrible night sweats and sleeping badly. The pdoc told us to use the melatonin regularly to get DS sleep in a healthy pattern. He said that using it occasionaly isn't actually good to help with a deficiency.

We use the chewable tabs from Trader Joes, 1.5 mgs after 3 years. DS is about 170#.

I can't say if this is or is not the answer for anyone elses child. I can say that I discussed occasional use with the Dr., and feel like this is one of the better interventions - and he sleeps like a log now, every night!

I take a couple pills of it before i go to bed every night

works great!

Used 1mg sublingual melatonin with our daughter, now 8yo, (AS,ADHD) since she was 4. No side effects, no problems, no 'addiction'. The only controversy for use in children is the lack of an official wide scale stud which will likely never be done because melatonin is over the counter and cheap - aka - no profit to off set the cost of study. There are almost no adverse reported side effects in literature or with the AAP or FDA and it has been in use in the holistic community for over 30 years.

It is often and commonly prescribed by doctor's for kids on the spectrum with sleep problems. Our daughters Dev. ped ok'ed doses up to 3mg when needed. Our daughter has some coordination and motor skills issues as well as muscle fatigue issues and therefore doesn't get the level of physical activity needed to wear her out. Once summer gets here, a day in the swimming pool will replace the melatonin. Otherwise, she can stay up to 1am nightly... and she's good with only 5-6 hours fo sleep a night. If she sleeps over 8 hours nightly, she has an extremely cranky day. Melatonin helped us put a solid workable sleep schedule into her daily routine and has helped immensely.

I tried melatonin for my 10 yr old and it did nothing for him. He still woke up several times in the night. I increased the amount above what was recommended and it still did nothing. I stopped giving it to him.

It works very well for my 7yr old. He seems to have bouts of sleeplessness - he'll go for a long time sleeping fine, and then hit a week or two with lots of sleep problems. We only give it to him when he's having one of those bouts, because I do know people who used it consistently and it did indeed lose its effectiveness.

My son has two side effects from the melatonin - sleep walking (but he always walks into our room) and nightmares. So pretty much every night he takes it, he wakes up once during the night with either a bad dream or sleepwalking. However, those have been preferable to weeks of sleepless nights for him.

Good luck!

We've used melatonin successfully with my son, after I read a research study about it. I discussed it first with my pediatrician and he says it was fine.

Another suggestion for you: Massage (skin to skin contact) at bedtime has also proven very helpful.

Here is a blog post discussing it, if you'd like more details. http://asdhelp.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/catching-zzzs/

Good luck!