opinions & experiences of melatonion

[imawigglyworm]

Ds (15months) has been perscribed melatonion for his sleep problems and we tried it for the first time last night. He feel asleep quite quickly but woke up about 3 hrs later and spent the rest of the night half asleep grizzling. He wakes frequently anyway but last night was completely different. He also had a serious case of diarehha (sp) today and was wondering if it could of been the medication?
Didnt want to try it again tonight just incase, but might give it another go tomorrow to give it a proper chance.
Anyone used this for their DC? what were your experiences?

It is our lifesaver. Seriously. DD1 has had it for around 18 months, and it is so good to know that she will go to sleep for at least a few hours following the medication.

Very unlikely to be the cause of the diarrhoea.

thanks lougle will give it another go then. Maybe just a bad night.
As for the diarrhoea, I hope hes not coming down with a bug then cause he has a MRI on wednesday!

we have been using melatonin for about four years now and haven't had any problems. We did find that it really only helps with the falling asleep bit rather than keeping them asleep unfortunately!

When ds takes it, he is asleep within 30 minutes, something that can usually take hours.

If i give it to him too early, it wears off and still takes hours and he gets very stroppy.

So bedtime is now 11pm instead of 1am - 3am, an improvement, but still not an appropriate bedtime for a 6 year old.

never worked for ds

Works for both my dd's (99% of the time), dd2 still wakes in the night but is asleep a lot earlier.

I think you need to keep a sleep diary (recommended to me by someone on here). That way you can get a picture, in my experience it's been trial and error on dosage and timing and we are still working it out a few months down the line. But it definatly does help.

We've been using it for a couple of years now and it really helps dd get off to sleep, and I think to get into a deeper sleep so will sleep longer into the night.. She frequently wakes later on in the night sometimes for hours on end but it gave us our evenings back.. Does seem an unlikely culprit to cause diarrhoea..

We've been using it with varied success for a while now. It's never caused diarrhoea (could it just be a tummy bug?).

I seemed to work best when he just started on it, but now, even at a higher dose he very often doesn't sleep. It was 8am one day last week before he dropped off! It's not a miracle cure but it does help I think. I'd persevere with it if I were you. Good luck!

Abdominal cramps are on the list of adverse effects.

No mechanism likely for causing seizures.

On the contrary, it has been looked at as an anti-seizure medication.

We first went through a sleep programme to help with any behavioural issues, there were some but not loads then went on to melatonin. The dosage took a while but eventually it worked :).
We use 1 instant and 2 slow release tablets and it is wonderful.. We feel much better and so does DD2 her development came on brilliantly as soon as she started to sleep. :0
Never heard of upset tummies, maybe unrelated.