Melatonin

[twainiac]

DS struggles to get to sleep - most nights he is awake til 11 and then I have to wake him and drag him out of bed in the morning. He looks shattered!
Community paed said he gets enough sleep ( though he has got worse since then) and I forgot to mention it to the developmental paed.
So, I have bought some melatonin over the counter in America. It's 1 mg, the lowest dose they had. But I am now wavering over using it...... Has anyone else done this?

DS1 has a prescription for melatonin liquid, and he is given a regular dose every evening, with the possibility of being given more during the middle of the night if he is really struggling.

We have almost the opposite problem here. DS1's paed is pushing for me to give him higher doses and SR tabs so he sleeps completely through the night, but DS1 (7yo) is finally starting to be dry at night, and I don't want him so knocked out that he ends up wetting the bed again, so him waking up during the night is okay by me. I'm also trying to get him into a self-soothing routine to allow him to (eventually) get back to sleep on his own, and just dosing him with more melatonin in the middle of the night isn't going to help him learn to do this.

Are you worried it will be dangerous or unhealthy for him? Or just worried about going against paed's advice (something I sometimes do if I feel the paed has the wrong end of the stick)? I'm quite happy to tell paed when I don't agree with her - she sees him for 15 minutes every couple months - I see him every day. I know DS1 much better than she does.

Thank you Alice.
That's interesting to hear about your DS. Has he been on melatonin for long? Obviously your paed is not concerned about prescribing it :-/ I guess I'm kind of worried about whether it might be dangerous for him, or what the long term effects might be. And without the backing of a professional I'm panicking a bit. However, as you say, the professionals don't always get it right either.....

I'm curious. You say you forgot to mention this to the developmental paed. Have you considered bringing it up to them and asking for an RX for it from them? Tell them that you absolutely feel that it warrants a trial basis, even of a month or two to see if it has a more positive effect on your DS.

I had mentioned it before, to the community paed, but last time we saw the dev paed and there was so much other stuff happening that I forgot to ask - even though it was on my list. What's an RX? Sorry to be dim...... I must admit I hadn't thought of trying to contact him outside of appointments, I did mean to bring it up at the last appointment but got distracted!

Sorry RX=prescription. Habit of writing it that way.

I would just contact the dev paed's office and ask if he/she could ring you back as you wanted to discuss something over phone that you forgot during appointment. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The worse they could do is say no, right?

Yes, very true! I'll give it a go....... Thank you Alice.