Melatonin gummy for a 27 lb 2 year old?

[Anonymous]

Melatonin is not regulated so I'm a little skeevy on that. My kids have had benedryl (allergies, stuffed heads to dry them out so they can sleep). And they do sleep. You just have to know your kids.

[Anonymous]

I recently saw these gummy melatonin for kids and thought it was a bit much.

[Anonymous]

Our ped recommended melatonin for our DD. She takes the Zarbees brand. Benadryl makes our DD hyper and found that out the hard way on a flight. It makes some kids sleepy and others not so much.

[Anonymous]

First, drugging a child before flights is not a new thing... my mom gave us all grape flavored decongestant before every flight (dimeatap) as kids after my older brother hurt an ear on one flight. Later (teens) she’d hand us all sudefed. As an adult I started flying without sudafed. On one hand I can sleep on planes now but on the other I often get a lot of ear pressure, sometimes painful.


We have a toddler (same weight as Op’s Child) who perforated her ear drum on a flight and has twice picked all over me during flights. She gets really motion sick in cars. For her the pediatrician said we should absolutely give her Benadryl before flights if she’s at all congested and it “doesn’t hurt” that the side effect may be that it helps her sleep.

For home use we’ve been given the go-ahead before for up to 3 nights. But of course you should ask your ped.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. That should be “puked”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it fine for occasional use like overnight flights and adjusting to jet lag (as does our pediatrician). We use a non-gummy brand called Tired Teddies which is a much smaller dose than most gummies (I think 0.3 mg). It ha so made my child much more well-rested and this happy on international trips.

Just an FYI, but 0.3 mg is the recommended dose for a full grown adult, not a 2 year old. Melatonin is regulated as a food supplement and not a drug, so the most pills you see are super high doses, because consumers don't know better and think that "more is better".

What? Adults typically take 2-5mg to start, not 0.3. Perhaps 0.3 could do something in someone very sensitive, but it isn't true that it is a typical adult dose. 1+ is usually where children are at risk. I would be fine with my child taking 0.3 if necessary, but probably wouldn't do so for this reason.

[Anonymous]

OP I have never done it but I have a friend whos son wasnt falling asleep til after 10 so she started giving him one and now he falls asleep between 8-830 ( 5yo)

WE have been to England 3x with DD who is now 6 and while she sleeps on the plane it is only for about 5 hours. If you can get an extra 2 hours out of her by giving her a gummy I say go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it fine for occasional use like overnight flights and adjusting to jet lag (as does our pediatrician). We use a non-gummy brand called Tired Teddies which is a much smaller dose than most gummies (I think 0.3 mg). It ha so made my child much more well-rested and this happy on international trips.

Just an FYI, but 0.3 mg is the recommended dose for a full grown adult, not a 2 year old. Melatonin is regulated as a food supplement and not a drug, so the most pills you see are super high doses, because consumers don't know better and think that "more is better".

What? Adults typically take 2-5mg to start, not 0.3. Perhaps 0.3 could do something in someone very sensitive, but it isn't true that it is a typical adult dose. 1+ is usually where children are at risk. I would be fine with my child taking 0.3 if necessary, but probably wouldn't do so for this reason.

All the medical research says that these doses are too high and probably work worse than lower doses.

2. What is the right dose of melatonin?

0.3 mg.

“But my local drugstore sells 10 mg pills! When I asked if they had anything lower, they looked through their stockroom and were eventually able to find 3 mg pills! And you’re saying the correct dose is a third of a milligram?!”

Yes. Most existing melatonin tablets are around ten to thirty times the correct dose.

Many early studies were done on elderly people, who produce less endogenous melatonin than young people and so are considered especially responsive to the drug. Several lines of evidence determined that 0.3 mg was the best dose for this population. Elderly people given doses around 0.3 mg slept better than those given 3 mg or more and had fewer side effects (Zhdanova et al 2001). A meta-analysis of dose-response relationships concurred, finding a plateau effect around 0.3 mg, with doses after that having no more efficacy, but worse side effects (Brzezinski et al, 2005). And doses around 0.3 mg cause blood melatonin spikes most similar in magnitude and duration to the spikes seen in healthy young people with normal sleep (Vural et al, 2014).

Lots more information here: http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/