Do any of you give your child Mela*tonin to help them sleep? I know some people do because I have read it on their blogs. Haylee has a hard time going to sleep at night. Last year we gave her prescription medicine to help her fall asleep. We were trying to avoid that this school year. Well, she is taking hours to fall asleep. The other night she had been in the bed at least 1 1/2 hours when she got up complaining about not sleeping.
I am not sure what dosage to give her. Does it cause problems in AD*HD children? A few of the articles I read online said to be careful giving to children dealing with AD*HD.
Thanks for the help!
HI There
ReplyDeleteBy all means check with your Dr, but my son took 3mgs,sorry I think mg is what it is sold in whatever it is it is like three and five and he took the three, of Mel he was also taking medicine for AD HD, It worked very well for us and the dr was the one who suggested the Mel. He has switched now and takes a medicine at night that covers ad hd and helps him sleep and actually stops a lot of the kicking he was doing all night. So we do not do the Mel now :) hope that helps
As a person with ADHD myself, I notice that a stimulant helps me better to sleep. The better ADHD is controlled, the better I sleep.
ReplyDeleteI over-react to sedative medications (the day after, I am very drowsy even with a very low dose of sedative).
Also, beware of medicines interactions, even with OTC medicines, vitamins, herbal supplements... Some of them can trigger such a side effect if taken with an ADHD medication.
So, be extra careful.
Did Haylee hit puberty ? It may be a trigger : hormonal changes in ADHD persons can lead to sleep disturbance.
Indeed, when I was given a birth control pill, I did not sleep at all (due to the hormons contained in the pill), so it only worsened my ADHD symptoms.
Does Haylee have anxiety ? Anxiety does not help to fall asleep, and you know it better than me.
I give you ideas about this problem of having difficulties to fall asleep. See if they apply to Haylee.
Take care
We had great results with melatonin when we used it for Hannah. We used it for about 3 years and now she doesn't need it anymore. Her developmental pediatrician recommended it. Unfortunately, dosing is trial and error. It's not based on weight or anything like that. It has more to do with how much melatonin your body is or is not making naturally. Start with the lowest dose you can and then slowly go up from there. We made it up to 5 mg with Hannah in the end. For a long time 2mg worked great, but then she grew. I also take it and I only need 3mg to drift off. Some people can even get by with drinking very concentrated cherry juice because it is naturally high in melatonin. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteNatalie
You have probably read about Jackson's sleep problems on my blog and what we have tried but if not just wanted to say that we tried Melatonin with no results. We have now gone to a prescription med that seems to be helping. We started with 2.5mg of Melatonin and quickly worked our way to 10mg with little to no results. It is a bit tricky with the ADHD so I would ask the Dr. but both of Jackson's Dr. didn't hesitate about giving him Melatonin in combination with his other meds. So relived we have found something that is working, hoping the same for you.
ReplyDeleteMy son has issues falling asleep as well. He is 3 and will be 4 next month. I have discussed it with our pediatrician and she suggested melatonin. She advised we get the gummies at the health food store and assured us its natural, safe, and none addictive. She said if our son wanted to he could take it the rest of his life. We are about to start him on it. It seems like the best answer for a small child especially since doing actual sleep drugs seems kind of iffy.
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