Melatonin for Kids Sleeping Probs

[Christmasfairy07]

Has anyone got experience of this? DD10 is finding it so hard to get to sleep & at worst it’s the early hours before she drops off. We had tantrums & tears tonight when her tablet was taken off her ( she was supposed to be only listening to music but it was too much of a temptation) so we’ll try meditation CDs, audio books etc but I was wondering if melatonin works for everyone?

It took three hours to settle my two last night, and that’s normal! Unless that’s your norm, you wouldn’t get it.

My son had terrible nightmares on melatonin x

Quite Blue ,my son has severe autism and although he actually sleeps quite well.now , we went through an awful time when he was younger .

No experience of giving it to kids but my own experience is that it gave me incredibly vivid, weird dreams and I felt a bit groggy the next day. I've taken it a few times.

We've used melatonin when our child was going through a really difficult time (anxiety/autism related) and it helped restore a sensible bedtime. We actually only needed it for 3 days and it was enough of a break to give our sanity back. So it doesn't have to be permanent. Use it for a few days to set up a good bedtime routine and then keep going with the routine without the drug.

We have always been really strict about no screens after tea, and we do have calming essential oils and a story etc as well so we did have a good routine to restore.

Gentle music such as Tchaikovsky at bedtime
Hahahahahahah
Sure a Russian political romantic period composer is calming.
Better with some Bach or Debussy.
Bloody hell, judgemental much? Clearly not a musician though.

I’d also try getting your DC as much sunlight and exercise as possible - not only will it help with sleep but exercise is a good for anxiety.

my kids have all been prescribed it.
Eldest ds just has it on college nights. Dd has it every night, and ds2 has it occasionally.
Weve not had any issues really unless too high a dose, in which case vivid dreams and nightmares happen. As low a dose as possible is best

It's something to discuss with your paediatritian. I believe Gps can't prescribe it to children? Though I may be wrong there.

We initially refused it as didn't like the idea of drugging DS to sleep. But when we had our next appointment 6 months later we bit the paediatritian arm off for it.

He was falling asleep at school and absolutely exhausted. He's a different boy now

Melatonin has been a life saver for us but ds is autistic. It's a hormone replacement medication because autistic people don't produce melatonin naturally. I don't think it's a good idea long term for NT kids and in any case it generally stops working.

There are other ways. Use them.

I have taken it over the counter from France and it is ok.
In the absence of any other issues, such as autism, I would say increasing levels of activity and no screen time before bed help more than melatonin. It is normal to have difficult sleeping if you are sedentary.
Social media may well be stressing out your daughter too.
I’d try tweaking a few other things before giving her this as it just helps reset your body clock - if she is on a tablet late and taking melatonin the blue light from the tablet will be suppressing natural hormone production anyway and the pills may not be as effective.

Yes, it can only be prescribed by a paediatrician.

Ds has it as he has a genetic condition, part of which means he finds it very hard to go to sleep. Pre melatonin he would be hysterical at any attempts to settle him or get him in a sleep routine, we couldn't even get him upstairs! Then he woud become more and more hyper....spinning round, jumping off things, throwing himself on the floor...either laughing or crying hysterically. We were eventually at a point where we took it in turns to take him out (in his special needs buggy) for a walk, every evening, for hours. If we didn't do this this sister's would also be kept awake as he made so much noise. Eventually he would fall asleep in bed with us about midnight....unless he didn't...we had quite a few awake all nighters.

On top of this he wakes through the night with reflux, and is a very early riser. Melatonin doesn't help these 2 bits, but he now at least goes to sleep at a reasonable hour (after a long settling down and one of us has to be there until he falls asleep!) and gets a few solid hours.

our GP was able to prescribe 14 days worth.

So jealous of people who have actually managed to get it prescribed for their children. We have tried for years and years to get help for our daughter's sleep problems. No one takes it seriously.

We were prescribed through Camhs, has helped enormously for my DD15, as previous posters have said it’s not a sleeping tablet!
Harsh words on here about parenting - the fact the poster is asking for experience shows it’s not a light decision. I will get over it but quite offended to think people would consider our decision, taken with my DH AND Dd and health care professionals would be considered poor parenting. Consider all and everything poster to regain some control over all your lives and help you to find a way forward.Good luck x

Ours was on prescription initially but we moved house and I got fed up of the palava of getting it prescribed so now we just buy it online.