How long has your child been taking melatonin?

[Sunflower1650]

Just that really.
DS is 6 years old. He was diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia a year ago and has awful anxiety which was particularly bad at bedtime. He wasn’t falling to sleep until 10-11pm on school nights because of his anxiety despite seeming physically exhausted. His paediatrician prescribed 2mg melatonin a week ago, for one month. I know not everyone has positive experiences with it but it has been like magic for us and it’s taking him just 10 mins to fall to sleep at night in comparison to 2.5 hours of constant talking/crying and in the daytime his mood has improved so much.
The paediatrician discharged us at the same appointment that she prescribed it, simply saying to stop taking it if he gets side effects or if it doesn’t work, and to ask the GP to put it on a repeat prescription if it does work.
Now we know that it works - how long do children tend to stay on this for? Forever or is there a point where we need to stop? Will he develop a tolerance to it and it stops working? Although it’s been a life saver for us I’m so scared about being reliant on it and things being even worse if we have to stop.
I should have asked the paed more questions at the time. On the instructions leaflet it says to only take it for 13 weeks max.

Some take it short term to break the cycle. Some take it long term.

DS1 has been taking it for over 10 years. He takes it all the time. DS3 has been taking it for nearly 10 years. He only takes it term time (even though he doesn’t attend school)l

Within the NHS, we have come across differing opinions on if regular breaks should be taken. Some say you can take it all the time. Some suggest regular breaks.

Thank you. Getting to sleep had been a huge issue for my DS for almost 2 years. Do you find the melatonin is just an effective 10 years down the line as what it was when they first started taking it? Presumably they’re now on a higher dose as they’ve grown?

With melatonin, many don’t need to increase dosage as DC grow.

DS3 takes prolonged release melatonin and hasn’t increased his dose. It works just as well.

DS1 takes prolonged release melatonin and immediate release melatonin (and other medication to aid sleep). The dose of the latter has increased but the former hasn’t. Difficult to know if it works just as well. He is complex and there are a lot of other things going on. Nights are still difficult.

Like you mine has been taking this for just under the month on prescription, 2mg slow release. I already knew it was a game changer as I used to live in the U.S and there you can buy melatonin sleep aids in the pharmacy (usually as a sleep vitamin, 1mg) and it absolutely changed our life in the evenings.
Mine has always had trouble falling and staying asleep but it gets worse when he is anxious and stressed and like you we would have long evenings of worrying and being unable to settle and the anxiety getting worse. Some nights it would be after 1am before finally falling asleep exhausted which obviously did not have a good knock on effect for getting up and being in a good place for school the next day. The melatonin really helps him to fall asleep within an hour. We have been told to have 2 nights off a week - so Friday and Saturday - and on those nights we're up till 1am again! I have let him take one once or twice on those nights as it's just been so bad and he cannot fall asleep. Not sure what we'll do during the summer, take a complete break maybe.

DS is 25 and has been on melatonin since he was 8. I have to admit I've never read the instruction leaflet! He seems fine on it and I've always assumed he'd stay on it forever. It doesn't seem to have any aide effects or long term issues.

Ds has been on it for around a year due to ADHD meds

he only takes it term time , not even on the weekends otherwise he does develop tolerance and we end up increasing the dose

i will say though the Pukka sleep tea has been as effective as the melatonin for us (2 bags min), it’s fantastic stuff, worth trying