Is Melatonin safe? | ADHD Information

My ped also said that it is safe....just call your son's doctor and ask..it should be fineMelatonin is what is in Turkey!!  You know how at Thanksgiving & Christmas after the big wonderful Turkey dinner everyone gets sleepy?  That's Melatonin.  My dd's doctor said it is completely safe for her (she is 7).  They come in 3 mg tablets & he said to just give her 1/4 to 1/2 tablet (they can be crushed) about 1 hour before bedtime!Hi. My son, who is three, was prescribed Melatonin. Before he started taking it, he was up every 2-3 hrs and never got more than 6hrs a night. We started him on half of a 3mg pill and eventually he had to take a whole pill. The first night, he slept straight through for the first time. The next day, he was a completly different boy. He was calmer, was not whiny, and wasn't near as aggressive as before. He started sleeping atleast 10hrs a night. It was amazing. I got 8hrs of sleep for the first time in over 3 yrs! From what I have read, Melatonin is safe, but it never hurts to ask your doctor first, esp if your son has any medical problems. Many parents use it. Good luck.I have been giving it to my 5 year old and it is a God sent!!!  He stil doesn't sleep through the night, but bedtime is much quieter at our house.  However, I have been having some hormone issues myself so I bought a book on natural hormones.  In looking at the index they had a section about the side effects of Melatoni.   My heart just sank.... I thought side effects ... this is all natural...what it is doing to my son.  The side effects are rare and fairly infrequent, but it is a hormone and there can be side effects.  My son takes 2 - 1mg tablets at bed and he is able to settle down for some book reading and drifts off to sleep without much battling with me any more. Our pediatrician also recommended and also mentioned that it was good to
try something natural. Not that it can't hurt you, but may be better for you.
He said to give 1/3 of a pill to a child. My son is 6. I actually split it into
1/4's and give that instead of 1/3. It does seem to help him get a good
nights sleep. Otherwise, he's up every 15 minutes until at least 11:00 pm or
even later.

Our son Jude is prescribed it and is also four the max dose in the 24 hour period fo his age is 6 mg. That is 3 mg at bed time and 3 mg when he gets up in the middle of the night.

The body builds up immunity to it as its naturally produced in the body so we sometimes go to 4 mg to 6 mg at bed time. A medication break is advsed now and again to try to work on a normal sleep patern but so far after his first six week break he returned to four hours max sleep a night again and became aggresive and violent again so back to the melatonin. Which his body had weaned off.

I was reading some of the recent posts about Melatonin being used for bedtime. My oldest son takes Clonidine, but my youngest, whom is four, has not been diagnosed. However, I do have the sneaking suspicion that he may have ADHD just a milder form than his brother.

Anyhow, I spoke to his father about the possibility and he seemed quite ambivalent about it. I told him we don't really NEED to do anything at this point since he is not in school, but I would like to give him the melatonin to help with the whole family getting better sleep. He didn't really want to do that after he read on one bottle not to give to children under 18 years of age and another bottle said not under 12 years of age. So is it safe to give this to younger children?

LonerGirl39034.5094675926

My DD's Neurologist & his nurse practitioner both recommended it for DD when she was 9.  They said it was completely safe.

Since he is only 4, I'd put in a quick call to a Pharmacist or your Ped.'s nurse.  Either of them would be able to give you reliable information on Melatonin.