Melatonin issues?

[micah_mae_]

I can't decide if we need to decrease DS's dose. He crashes hard 10 min after taking 1.5 mg. His cheeks have been flushed (have no idea if it's because of the melatonin or something else). He does sleep awesome and wake rested so that's good. So I dunno...I guess I feel kind of scared about medicating him. Though it has been a miracle..bedtime used to be a nightmare, it was straining our marriage. It lasted hours. He took hours to fall asleep, woke easily, etc. *shudders*

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

Why don't you try a lower dose and see if that works as well? I am a huge fan of using as little as possible to get the desired affect, be it medication or herbs.

[libertymom]

Your not giving him the adult version by mistake are you? It has alcohol in it.

[MotherWhimsey]

we use the adult version and ours doesn't have alcohol in it.

[askew]

I give my son .5 mg and that works great for him. He is a 35lb 4 year old. 

[APToddlerMama]

yikes.  that seems like a lot.  I give my 35 lb son 0.1mg and it works within 20-30 minutes (versus literally 2 hours).  We've experimented a lot and found that a tiny bit can actually be very helpful.

[queencarr]

My 3.5 yo weighs about 45lbs (yes he is very tall, too!).  He currently gets about 1.4 mg (.45 ml at 3mg/.9ml) at bedtime and if he wakes during the night and has trouble going back to sleep (say at 3 AM).  He gets it at the beginning of our bedtime routine and he is asleep in about 15 minutes.  We titrated his dose up starting with .3mg (.1ml), taking a night or two at each .1ml increase until he was sleeping well. We were hoping that it would help him SSTN, and his overall restlessness improved, but he still often wakes several times.  However, his daytime mood and behavior has improved dramatically.  His attention seems to be better and defiance/tantruming less (and was noticed at his preschool without us telling them about adding the melatonin for sleep).

If you Google the studies that have been done on children, many of them used even higher doses, which makes me feel that this is an ok dose.  For us, it is the lowest dose that was effective, and we were at the point that something had to change.

[MotherWhimsey]

If it makes you guys feel any better, we have been rx'ed 3mg for my 38 lb 4 year old and my 42lb 6 yr old. Neither of them crash hard, it's still hard to get them down but not impossible. It's not uncommon for my daughter to still be awake a couple of hours after going to bed even with 3mg. Without it she just doesn't sleep until crazy insanely late hours and it's a huge disaster. Linden takes about 30 minutes to fall asleep at least on a good night and has a much easier time getting to sleep than his sister. If he doesn't take the melatonin he doesn't sleep. He starts a cycle where he gets 5 hrs of sleep, then the next day 4, so and and so forth and it really really sucks. I don't know why he gets to sleep easier than dd when he takes it, but has a harder time sleeping when he doesn't. And the melatonin only helps you fall asleep, not stay asleep. When my son takes it he averages 12 hrs of sleep a night and a 1-2 hr nap during the day, so when he doesn't have it the 4 or 5 hours of sleep he gets is very very abnormal.

I also know a woman who's 32lb 7 year old with CP has been rx'ed 7mg.

I totally think the smallest amount possible is best, but I really wouldn't worry overly that 1.5mg is a huge amount or anything. Take it down if you can but if you can't, don't worry about it.

[Emmeline II]

My 6yo normally is given 1mg; it doesn't knock him out but if he is laying down he is asleep in about 20 min. If you use the liquid form you can use less. In any case I would try lessening the dose for similar results. Ds's doctor recommended starting at 5mg. From what I had read here that seemed excessive.

We started at 3mg but ds was difficult to wake in the morning. We went down to 2mg (2, 1mg pills), then down to 1mg. Occasionally we have to use 2 or 3mg, but 1mg normally is fine for ds.

[sbgrace]

My kiddo takes .25 to .5 mg. but I wouldn't be worried about 1.5 if he's not waking as it wears off or having issues. It sounds like he's sleeping well. You can try to bump the dose down to see if lower ones work. When you get to where it doesn't bump to the previous and stay there. That's what I would do!

[micah_mae_]

Thanks everyone, it's good to see so many different uses. We use a crushed pill since I couldn't find the liquid kind. The problem is that he is too sleepy during the day towards middle afternoon..he wakes up fine at 6:30-7:30 in the morning though.

[BeautyforAshes]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_ 

 We use a crushed pill since I couldn't find the liquid kind.

I asked about the liquid at my local Walgreen's, because no one else in town had it.  The pharmacist was happy to order it for me, and it only takes a day or so to get.
 

[beachcomber]

Per our pediatrician's suggested dose, our daughter (40lbs 5 y.o.) gets 6mg of timed-release melatonin 1/2 hour before bedtime. We started at 3mg and it did nothing. Increasing to 6mg worked for us. We have tried reducing to 3mg once her sleep stabilized but it didn't work out at all. Though our DD has a sleep disorder, so that may make a difference to her dosing versus other kids. She still doesn't sleep through the night even with this but it's better than it was.

[blessedwithboys]

My 58# 8yo takes melatonin on the recommendation of his sleep specialist.  He is allowed up to 6mg, but I have never given more than 2mg.  Right now, we're using the cherry flavored sublingual tabs from GNC.  He is taking 1mg each night.

I think the brand Sundown makes 300mcg tabs.  For a while we were using 2 or 3 each night, but now he needs more so I just get the 1mg ones.  He falls alseep fine but still has sleep inertia every morning.

[khaoskat]

Wow, I feel horrible.  Our ped recommend 3 mg tablets about 20 mins before bed.  It worked wonders.  He would be fast asleep in about 10-20 mins.  The first week, he would sleep soundly.  Then he started having his normal night wakings.  Come to find out he has RLS with periodic limb movement, through a sleep study.

[micah_mae_]

Originally Posted by khaoskat 

Wow, I feel horrible.  Our ped recommend 3 mg tablets about 20 mins before bed.  It worked wonders.  He would be fast asleep in about 10-20 mins.  The first week, he would sleep soundly.  Then he started having his normal night wakings.  Come to find out he has RLS with periodic limb movement, through a sleep study.

Hmm, maybe we should do a sleep study? We tried .75 mg and it didn't work..back to 1.5 mg.

[khaoskat]

Another common problem is sleep apnea.