Melatonin for Children

My 8 year old takes it with no problems. He had to have his dose upped when his ADHD meds were upped but still had no problems. If he doesn't take it he is up ALL night. I asked a question about melatonin on here before I started giving it to my son and the first few responses were kinda nasty but the last few helped. If you want you can go through my answers to see if any of them help you out.

Our son has ADHD and can't calm his body enough at night to fall asleep on his own. His doctor recommended melatonin years ago. He's been taking 1 mg. a night ever since. Works great and no side effects. Some people can get nightmares/vivid dreams from taking it, but we've never seen it. I've even taken it myself at times and it works super ... you just feel naturally sleepy. Just give it about an hour before the targeted bedtime.

My son has been taking melatonin, on and off, to help him sleep for years. He is 15 now and I think the first time I ever gave it to him he was about 5. We have never had any side effects, he falls asleep easily once he takes it, and sleeps normally - meaning normal REM and sleep patterns.

If he does not settle down in bed within 15 to 20 minutes of taking it, then it does not work for him. At 15 he occasionally takes it on his own when he knows he has to get up early and is having trouble settling down to sleep.

:)

My girls have never had a side effect. My middle daughter was put on it by a neurologist (who also does children sleep studies) b/c she wouldn't sleep (adhd) and the fact that she was up until 3am then up again at 6am - and she was 4!!!! So we did that plus some sleep training/relearning. Anyway, even her Pedi has said to use it when the girls just can't sleep - too much going on - not feeling well. It works and helps them to relax - without using benedryl or stuff like that.

It might depend on the age and size of the child. I once gave a 1 mg. tablet (still considered a pretty low dose) to my then 8-9 year old and it totally knocked him out. It was kind of scary actually. I was reluctant to use it after that although I have given him 1/2 tablet (.5 mg) maybe 2-3x since then for special situations. He is now almost 12. FYI, I had to give it to one of my elderly dogs on the advice of my vet. I was surprised to learn that dogs metabolize it very differently from people. The normal dose for my 15 pound dog was 3 mg. For VM asking about sleep issues, my son doesn't usually wake up once asleep, but he's always had a hard time winding down and getting to sleep. I tried it as an option to just help him calm down and settle down at bedtime. The usual methods like warm baths, quiet reading, no TV/video games after dinner, etc. did nothing for him. After the experience mentioned above I gave up on the melatonin except in special situations (a red eye flight from Hawaii, for example). For sleep issues, I always recommend Mary Sheedy Kurcinka's book, "Sleepless in America."

I'm interested in this, I also want to know how people are defining sleeping problems. my kids probably woke up 1-2 times a night at ages 4/5 but bed time was 7:30pm and wake up was 6:30am. i was able to deal with it, I'm wondering if that is why people are using metatonin or if it's much worse.

Wow these answers are very intersting. sounds like a Huge help with no side effects. Awesome.