Melatonin and toddlers

[Anonymous]

Parent of a 3.5 year old here. She was a great sleeper as an infant. Short of some periods of sleep regression, she was a good dependable sleeper. Then she turned 3.

She’s become so difficult to get to sleep and can stay awake (but still clearly tired) and bedtime can easily extend to 10/1030. She then wakes up cranky and is cranky all day. We’ve tried most everything: dropping naps, easing into bedtime, wake baths, being firm at bedtime etc. we never had to deal with this with our older child so this is new territory for us.

The ONLY thing that actually works is a melatonin gummy. She will fall asleep quickly, get a full nights sleep and wakes up happy and is a happy girl all day. Our Ped does not recommend using too often so it’s only a break the glass option.

Does anyone use melatonin to help with their kid’s sleep? What are the reasons you shouldn’t? I never asked the ped why she doesn’t recommend it (but will the next time we are there).

[Anonymous]

Our 4 year old has never been a great sleeper. Gave up naps at 2.5, and even without a nap we struggled to get her down before 9 pm, then she was up at 7 am latest. We did the bedtime routine--warm bath, warm milk, story, white noise machine, weighted blanket. Then, she would wake at least once between midnight and morning. She was cranky, and it was slowly killing me and my husband. I hadn't had a full night sleep in years. She finally started sleeping through the night about 3 months ago on her own, but with the 'extra' sleep at night, wasn't going down until closer to 9:30. So, a few weeks ago we started her on a half of one gummy of melatonin (Vicks pure zz's). The dosage on the bottle was 2 gummies, but I wanted to do the lowest effective dose. A half a gummy works great. She's down by 8 pm most nights, sleeps through until 7 am and the attitude change is fantastic. And the whole family dynamic has improved because everyone is getting more sleep. From what I've read, there are two problems with melatonin. The first; since its not a regulated substance by FDA, every time a study is done, the dosages contained in each gummy vary wildly and don't necessarily correspond to what the bottle says. So your child could be getting more of less than the recommended dosage. The second is there aren't any long term studies on impacts of melatonin on children. We're going to keep going with it for a month, and see if that is enough to reset her sleep habits without melatonin. I don't know what the long-term effects are, but the short term effects of a 4 year old not sleeping are, you know, adoption.

https://time.com/6274507/melatonin-sleep-supplement-dosage-off/

[Anonymous]

Personally I would never give this to a kid, I had such a horrible experience with melatonin when I tried it for a bout of postpartum insomnia with my first that I wouldn’t touch it again.

[Anonymous]

Our ped wholeheartedly recommended. Not sure why but clearly a divergence of opinions here.

[Anonymous]

Yep we have a kid about this age and used melatonin for a bit and it was either great or a heck of a great placebo! No concerns.

[Anonymous]

I haave heard that if you give a child this, they will not produce their own, or produce less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haave heard that if you give a child this, they will not produce their own, or produce less.

The problem is that no one knows the long term effects. OP, there’s probably no real harm in using melatonin as a break-the-glass option, but I wouldn’t use it more often than that. Sorry you’re going through this. Parenting is hard enough and not sleeping makes it nearly impossible!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haave heard that if you give a child this, they will not produce their own, or produce less.

Well...my kid doesn't produce melatonin anyway. So I'm kind of screwed either way. At least this was she's actually sleeping.

-NP

[Anonymous]

I think it’s helpful to think of it as what it is: a hormone. It’s easier to imagine that there could be long term impacts of hormone therapy on a toddler/young child. As a parent that scares me and is enough not to use it until and unless long term studies are done to understand how it impacts the body. And as others have mentioned, I don’t like the idea of giving unknown and unregulated amounts of hormones to anyone let alone my kids. I’d like to see medicine find a way to test the levels of melatonin in the body at certain times of day then determine an appropriate, prescription dosage based on individuals’ needs.

[Anonymous]

Our pediatrician has no qualms about using melatonin long term. With our first, we used it from about 2-4 and then again briefly around 9. Very hyper kid (ADHD diagnosis at 4) was clearly totally exhausted but just would not settle down to sleep. Middle child never needed it. Younger took it from like 20 months to 4ish. We use the Zarbees chewable and cut them in quarters, so it’s .25 mg

[Anonymous]

Is she napping? And what time are you expecting her to fall asleep?
I wouldn’t continue with melatonin. It’s fine to break a habit, or adjust for jet lag, but not just to get your kid to sleep.
If she’s not napping she should be in bed by 7/730. If napping it’s not realistic to expect her to fall asleep before 9.

[Anonymous]

Natural melatonin production is stimulated by early morning exposure to natural sunlight. Can your kid play in the yard for 15 minutes every morning? Or go for a walk with you? The fresh air and exercise will also be beneficial in promoting natural sleepiness as early evening approaches. And obviously turn off the TV and other screens for an hour before bedtime.

[Anonymous]

Don't give your toddler melatonin. There is a reason it's only available in Canada, UK, Europe, Australia by prescription for adults. It's not safe, and the melatonin you can buy here over the counter is not regulated. Studies have shown that amounts contained can vary by as much as 450%. If you don't believe me, Google it.

[Anonymous]

It’a fine if used for short term use. Try it for a bit but don’t continue the habit more than a week.

She may get used to having a gummy before bed. Slowly switch to a vitamin gummy or something else that’s harmless.

[Anonymous]

Id consult ped.

Occasionally should be fine but as a nightly routine it can cause her body to stop producing its own memento in. Also apparently the dose needed would be 1/4th of what’s marketed.