Melatonin

[nutleywombat]

Hi just looking for others experiences of being prescribed Melatonin for their children. My DS was recently diagnosed with Autism, we had to go private as we were told it was a 3 year wait and had already been waiting 18months. He has issues with falling asleep, we have sought help and tried many strategies to try and help and have always had a good bedtime routine in place. Several times we have been prescribed medication by the GP to help him fall asleep when things have got really bad, but these were just short term prescriptions to help ease situation. He is also awaiting assessment for ADHD. We contacted GP who agreed to refer him to paediatrition. Got a phone call from hospital saying they have looked at the referral and won't see him, told us to get our private clinician to give us a prescription (so we would have to pay for it as not NHS) or to speak to our GP about other possible solutions. I'm so frustrated as I imagine it is because we have a private assessment, will this mean we will never be able to access NHS support for him? How easy did you find it to be prescribed Melatonin for your children? He is not in a good place right now and his sleep issues are affecting the whole families mental health and wellbeing.

My son has been on melatonin since he was three. It has to be prescribed initially by a paediatrician or CYPS as it isn't a licensed drug for children. Once my DS had it prescribed, we were able to get repeat prescriptions from local GP.

It was trial and error with a few types, until we got the right one as there is a quick release for those who can't go to sleep, and a slow release for staying asleep. My DS has the slow release, which comes in tablet form so trickier to get into a 3 year old. He's 16 now and still takes it.

In your case, I'd ask the private clinician to prescribe it, and to write a letter to your GP to ask them to prescribe it from then on.

You can ask for a referral to a sleep clinic.

Ours was the same as Additional, we discussed sleep issues with the paediatrician who diagnosed him and she prescribed melatonin which the GP then gave on prescription. Our ds has issues with staying asleep but sadly the slow release melatonin didn’t work for him.