How do you give melatonin?

[lucysnowe]

Hi all DD has been diagnosed with ASD and we have been prescribed 3mg melatonin, the non-slow release version. As DD may freak out a little about it I want to make sure we get the whole bedtime routine absolutely right. Can anyone tell me about your bedtime routine, tips and tricks etc?

Hi zzzzz, she is 8. Normal going to sleep time is between 12-1!

Dd3 takes her tablet at 8.30 to be ready to sleep for 10.30ish!
She tried without it last week but was awake until 12.

Good luck

I am thinking that I shouldn't make it too early, or it may take her too long, and she may get agitated? Maybe 9 pm for 10 pm, and then make it earlier as she gets used to it??

DS (also 8) has his at 8pm, we go up for a story at 8.30 and he's asleep now by 9 (sometimes struggles to keep his eyes open during the story now).
Before melatonin it would take at least 2 hours for him to fall asleep. It's been amazing for us.

6 yr old DS still has melatonin, but 8 yr old DS has now stopped. It's still quite tricky getting DS2 to take it - we normally give him a half-cup of 'bedtime milk' and have to feed it to encourage him to drink it. He normally has it Sun-Thursday with Fri/Sat night off.
If you can get her to have the tablet, fine, but there's no way we can get him to take a tablet, as he won't even have a spoon of calpol. Drizzled on food can work, but obviously it has to be quite close to bedtime, as the non-slow action one usually takes about 30 minutes to take effect. WIthout it though, he's up all night, so it's a real life saver for everyone.

We use liquid melatonin in a dropper. We just squirt it into DS's mouth about half an hour before he heads up to bed. He's 12 and his bedtime is 9pm so he gets the melatonin at 8.30, he takes himself up to bed at about 9 and he's lying down quietly by 9.15 and generally falls asleep quite quickly.