does anyone's kids use melatonin(sp) for sleep??

We've started using it on our 12 year old about a year ago...not every night, just nights where he finds it difficult to sleep. We started with 1.5 mg. We buy the strips and cut them in half. Our son does not have ADHD, etc....just a night owl like his momma. lol I mentioned it to our ped., and he was fine with it. I've never given it to a toddler. Honestly, I'd be worried about giving it to someone that young.

I'd be VERY hesitant to give an 18month old ANYTHING to help them sleep. They are so young, and I'm sure none of this stuff is tested for such young children. I don't care if it's something the body produces naturally, too much of anything can be a bad thing. Why not look at the reasons that might be behind WHY your child is having sleep issues? and what do you mean by sleep issues anyway? I know my children struggled to sleep through the night for the first couple of years. They have SO much growing, changing, teeth, SO much, it's no wonder if they can't sleep through the night. Also maybe look at nap patterns? Perhaps have only one nap a day if they are still having two. Perhaps cutting down on nap times... So many things can make a difference. But that's my opinion.

Try a few drops of lavendar oil in your little one's bath... can work wonders! Can help mamma a lot as well...

Q, we touched on this in my Nutritional Bio class... Though melatonin IS a natural substance, most children produce enough melatonin on their own...when it is administered to younger kids it is generally given to those 10 and older who have issues with things such as ADHD, autism, those suffering from CP, etc. and only in extremely low doses. Studies have been done on children as young as 1, but most are ages 6 and up...but those studies are severely limited and for extremely short durations of time. Now, of course, I'm not a doctor and have only taken 1 nutritional Bio class, so I'm barely knowledgable nor am I pretending to be, haha...I also try to stay out of debates such as meds/vaccinations/etc. because I believe that it's a personal decision that people need to research and decide for themselves. But 18 months seems so young for a healthy child to have this recommended to them.

Thanks love! I was just speaking from my gut!! (obviously). :-) It helps to hear from someone who has some actual knowledge of this.

Having been someone who has spent 1,000 on doctors, sleep doctors, I am very understanding of people, even little ones who cannot sleep. You need just enough sleep to function. I have a sleep diorder that took five years and many meds that didn't work. I am still not 100% but way better than I was. melatonin was given to me, as was bright light (I live FL and always in the sun or so I thought) A body needs 30 mins of bright sunlight a day without sunglasses. This helps to I guess give us back some order into ones lives. Also set daily plan is another way to help with sleep. I would rather see you give the baby melatonin than other OTC meds. I would also see if you can find out why she is not sleeping? Mine like cold, dark bedrooms! I also need to be in the dark and COLD. I hope you find something that works for you:)

Q - we did an overall study on supplements...it really was quite interesting, and it was funny because melatonin was one of the things we touched on since it's popularity has increased over the last decade. mommie, I hear ya on the sleep thing. My youngest only slept 4 hours a night for the first 12 months...He cried the other 20 hours a day (won't even get into THAT, haha). It took a toll on my body, on my health, etc. Can't even imagine what it did to HIM as a baby! And I agree - melatonin is the lesser of two evils when compared to OTC meds... I'm just curious more than anything why the ped. feels a toddler needs it...whether she's a troubled sleeper, or if this is a new development. (Steph - I ask out of curiosity, not judgement...don't know how my posts read, but just want to make sure you know that).

Melatonin is available in smaller increments (like .25 mg and lower) and in pills that dissolve under the tongue, or drops, and I think also a mouth spray. To find the different doses and kinds you would probably have to go to a health food store. It can be used to help develop a good sleep pattern/habit and then stopped.We used this with one of our kiddos. He was about 3* at the time. He had significant reflux and a couple of other issues. This did help. It is of note, though, that it did not act like a drug for him. If he wanted to stay awake, he did. We kept doing the same routine and stuck to it like glue, including giving the melatonin at the same time each evening. It did help, but didn't knock him out.*Came back to add that he'd not had a good sleep pattern for a long time before I finally tried the melatonin. I was also hesitant to use anything having to do with sleep (or a good many other kinds of meds, either) for a toddler. I do wonder if we'd done this when he was younger if he would have developed a good sleeping pattern and not struggled so much with it. He still doesn't always sleep through the night, but just wakes up and needs to be tucked in again...usually. Sometimes more. At least he is no longer getting up at 2 and 3 a.m and PLAYING WITH THE LIGHTS ON for a couple of hours. :hypno: He no longer takes melatonin and seems to be fine without it now.

My daughter takes it.(11) She is ADHD and has trouble sleeping. I take it as well. I find it helps me fall asleep, not knock me out to sleep all night.To be honest, 18 months seems awfully young.

I am a little late to this. I have been out of town. Cameron began taking melatonin when he was 2 1/2. He took hours to fall alseep and woke numerous times at night. He also outgrew the nap at about that time. He has had pretty severe developmental delays and sensory issues with feeding. The developmental / genetics specialist told us to start the melatonin because if his body is not getting enough sleep, he is just suriving, not thriving and developing. I was a little uncertain, but thought it was worth a shot. Within three months, his vocabularly had tripled and he was completely off baby food! It was amazing how much he thrived once he began sleeping. We have tried not giving it to him and he does not sleep as well. If we go several weeks without melatonin, he regresses. the last time, we did about a month's trial without it. By the end of that month, he was back on baby food... We started at 1mg and increased until we got to 3. We have been there for about 8 months and it works like a charm! Most nights he is asleep by 7 and sleeps until 6 or 6:30 in the morning. If you have questions, feel free to PM me!

This is such great timing because we are having sleep issues with our 4 year old and one of our best friends mentioned this last night and his boys take it. We are headed to GNC tomorrow to find some and give it a try.

Paxton is 4 and he's been taking Melatonin for a couple months now. He started having some major sleep regression when we adopted Ambrose. We're talking falling asleep around 10-11pm and waking up around 2-4am. No, I'm not joking. We started with 1mg, sublingual from GNC, moved to 2mg and are now at 3mg in pill form. We give him a dose at night to get him to sleep, and if he wakes up early we give him another dose to get him back to sleep. Essentially we're trying to retrain his body on when it should be sleeping and how much it should be sleeping, and it is to working. He's sleeping usually closer to 6am in the mornings (woohoo!) and even when we mess up and forget his melatonin at night he's falling asleep closer to 8 or 8:30. Melatonin has seriously been a wonder drug for us!I also have to say, I'm a chronic insomniac. My entire life, from infancy onwards, it's taken me literally hours to fall asleep. My parents don't have sleep problems and never thought it was a big deal. It is, truly, a very big deal! I was exhausted most of my life. Now I take 5-10mg of Melatonin at night and it only takes me about an hour to fall asleep. It's kind of sad that I'm much better rested as a mom with young kids than I was as a kid myself :)

Barksmum, I could have totally written that a couple of years ago. PLAYS WITH THE LIGHTS ON! My kid had sleeping issues until he has around 3. He seems to be over it but I recently started taking Ambien because he messed up my already shakey sleep patterns so much. I can attest to how much better I am with sleep. I went from an average of 3 hours of sleep a night to an average of about 7 hours. I don't know how I managed to keep a job during my non sleep years. My vocab has definately increased, I can excercise again and I am way more emotionally stable. Never again will I put myself through that. I would try the melatonin and don't hesitate to try it yourself or get something stronger if your sleep patterns are messed up.

Hi guys- sorry... didn't mean to start a thread & then disappear- it's been a crazy week :) Anywho- M's dr didn't actually recomend it. I started researching online somethings to help with todler sleep & that came up. I asked her doc about it & she said that it's typically given to people with sometype of delay but that it would be safe for her. However- now seeing other things on it I'm starting to think twice on it. Her doc doesn't think she really needs it but she does seem to have some sleep issues all of a sudden. I talked to her doc again the other day & she said that it may be more because of the holidays & all of that. You know- it's hard to stay on the same routine with all the parties & that sort of thing. So- for know I think I'll try the lavendar oil in her bath & see how that does. Thanks again for everyone's feedback!!

Yes my nephew takes melatonin gummies, earlier he had no sleep, irritability, loss of appetite, we were really upset. Then I read about Livsgummies.com and ordered 1 bottle from it. My nephew got a lot of comfort after taking those gummies. Now he is sleeping well and is also feeling hungry. They are completely plant-based/vegan, made with natural flavors, no GMOs, and 100% organic ingredients. Plus they are all Kosher, Halal, and gluten-free, making them a perfect fit for nearly anyone.