Freaked out about melatonin...

[Sahkoora]

I belong to a local SN group and a few days ago, one of the admins posted this.

Now everyone is commenting saying how they are taking their ASD kids off melatonin because of it and how they are all going to tackle the local paediatricians about prescribing it in the first place.

I have googled about and can't find anything else that backs it up. But it's freaked me out. DS is on 4mg and it's been fantastic. He now gets tired for the first time in his life, so clearly he is lacking melatonin. The article doesn't mention autistic kids at all, and seems to be aimed at the US, where I believe it's prescribed more freely?

It's given me and DH an adult evening for the first time in our lives. DS still wakes frequently in the night but OMG we need that wind down time.

I know that sounds selfish and ofc I would take DS off it immediately if it caused what it says it does in that article. But I don't want to take the advice of a single article on the internet against that of our peadiatrician without knowing a hell of a lot more.

Has anyone here heard this before? Can anyone point me in the direction of more evidence?

Can I ask what you mean by not prescribed or funded here in the UK? I'm in the UK too and it was prescribed to DS by our paediatrician. I certainly didn't have to buy it online from the US, every branch of Boots I've cashed the prescription in has had it in stock.

We use it in the way it was prescribed, every evening half an hour before bed. DS has had six-monthly reviews over the two years since it was prescribed, and neither paediatrician has mentioned that it should not be used long term. They have upped the dose once and my GP has issued repeat prescriptions once a month without question.

I trusted my doctor on this, the same way I would with any drug I was prescribed. As a layman, relying on Dr Google to decide whether or not drugs are safe for my kids fills me with horror!

When I spoke to the Paed who diagnosed my DT2 with ASD, I detailed his (lack of) sleep. He suggested melatonin for him as a short term measure to help regulate his cycle. I asked him about precocious puberty and he said that in the hundreds of cases he's dealt with he's never come across a child with it. It's rare and so I will probably go with melatonin as lack of sleep is so damaging to my son.

I think you can easily frighten yourself to death looking at medication online. Most of what my son has been prescribed over the years has been off licence for children (he has chronic pain syndrome). He's a teenager now and has just gone on melatonin as he'd become almost totally nocturnal. I can't say all is hunky dory on the sleep front but it's much better and he is able to function for at least half of the day now. I don't think he's expected to be on it long term though.

This sounds like the wording of a scientist writing a grant application and desperately trying to make their work seem important ( I may have done this myself although not usually successfully ). Give anything in sufficient amounts to some cells in culture and you will kill them. It does not mean that if you give the drug to humans in tiny amounts it is not beneficial. One of the main differences is that in the whole animal the drug is destroyed or cleared from the body pretty rapidly. All drugs carry risks and you have to balance the benefits versus the risks for each individual. If the sleep issues are severe then I would continue.