am so annoyed! lack of sleep, right who knows anythng about meatonin?

[dsrplus8]

dd4 was up at 4 o'clock again! arrgh im so teird, cant think to remember. dd4 education key worker came for a home visit yesterday, guess what i forgotten she was comming and went back to bed when dh got up, he let her in.there i was (dragged through the hedge backward look) ds4 still in pjs(chocolate cerial covered) dd4 naked,running in cicles with potty on head, house trashed, ds4 rubbing banana into carpet and tv. utter mental. key worker says oh how are you? i just start laughing at her( can she not see what shes walks into?)any way subject is dd4 and ds4 havent been back at nursery yet so , she wnts to know why?( im knackered, sleep in too long and if i do get twins up in time 50% dd4 goes into meltdown(havent a clue what at)so leaving house is nigh impossable) any way key worker is trying to get a shift in nursery times for us to afternoon! , she mentioned asking dd4's peadi about melatonin, for her sleeping(or lack of).so help me out girls please, i thought it was the stuff that gave you a suntan?????

Bumping for you.

Hiya,

My little boy has melatonin! its a hormone that we all have naturally in our bodies but some people (apparently its common in autistic kids - my son is autistic) dont have enough of it. You give them melatonin about half an hour or so before bed - everyone is different but you soon work out what works best. It is not a sleeping tablet and is natural as its found naturally in body anyway. Basically it makes them feel tired (this is whats lacking hence why they dont sleep!) and providing there are no over stimulants like giving them sweets, watching tv that would keep them interested, playing over excited games etc etc they get tired and sleep!!! its not foolproof and doesnt work for all kids and they can build up a resistance to it im told! You can get it in normal just to settle them to sleep) and slow release (tries to keep them asleep!) different types like t5ablet, medicine, capsule i know all exist not sure of any other ways of giving it though. We got it last july for ben but he appears to be getting very used to it as the dose has been increased a few times and changed from normal to slow release without much improvement but others it works really well for. Im not sure if thats everything but im sure if i have missed anything someone will come and add it, or ask away! though bens portage worker and ed psych coming soon so might not reply for a while!

you can also split the dose and keep some in case they wake during the night - can be tricky to work out dosages so ask paed...

In the US it is available over the counter, and I used to take it myself a lot as it helps reset your body clock and get you a good night's sleep if you are flying and have jet lag. My DH takes it to get him to sleep and it gives him a good, unbroken night. It's a pain that it's still on prescription here, but I'm sure you can get it from the US on the internet.

Ds2 was prescribed melatonin by the Paed to help with his sleep difficulties. It takes a bit of trial and error to find the right dose for your child.

It comes in different forms: soluble ones that can be hidden in drinks, some that can be hidden in food etc.

Ds2 used to be awake until around midnight or later most nights. He had his melatonin about 20 minutes before bedtime.

Melatonin can help to make a child sleepy but won't necessarily make them sleep - so it's not like a sleeping pill. The idea is to somehow keep your child relatively quiet and still so that they are more likely to drop off. If ds2 is running and jumping about it won't work, but if he's tucked up in bed it generally works for him.

The other thing to remember is that melatonin won't necessarily keep a child asleep. There's a slow-release version you can use but it comes in a capsule which ds2 couldn't swallow. The Paed said that you can empty out the contents of the slow-release capsule and still use it but it's the capsule itself that makes it slow-release.

The melatonin helped to change ds2's sleeping pattern. He's still awake later than a lot of children his age (about 9.30pm on a typical night) but it's a vast improvement. Once ds2 got more sleep his behaviour improved too and he was a little less hyper.

thanks for the info, sorry i took so long to get back on mn was filling in the dreadeddla form. lol. finally got it done , its only taken me about 3 weeks !,

The slow release come in capsules but if you open the capsule, there are lots of tiny balls (for want of a better word!) which I always thought made it slow release, rather than the capsule itself. Crushing the balls makes it non-slow release and you can play around depending on what effect you want - e.g. crush a bit and leave a bit to be slow-release.

My son's doctor recently refused to prescribe slow-release because she said that recent research suggested that it doesnt't work any better. However, yesterday, he went back on the slow-release and slept all night for the first time in weeks. Let's hope NICE don't get their hands on it!

There are other drugs/sleep options to explore if Melatonin doesn't work. I think the Handsel Trust is good on sleep issues.

slow release comes in tablets too and they arent too big, i manage to get mine down ben by mixing the whole tablet in a spoonful of yoghurt!!