The Great Melatonin Debate

Connor has never been a great sleeper. It's all we can do to get him to go to bed, let alone stay asleep. Since the day he was born, he's just never been a restful child. We've done everything to soothing music, activity to 'wear' him out, to a consistent bed-time routine. Nothing works. We've been given the suggestion to try Melatonin by both is pediatrician and his doctors at the Behavioral Clinic. They both expressed concern that possibly Connor's body wasn't able to regulate his sleep patterns properly. That Melatonin was a naturally occuring hormone and that it wasn't like taking a medication with side-effects. It would either work or it wouldn't. So, we chewed on the idea of Melatonin for awhile. And finally decided to take the plunge.

The first week, we gave Connor a very low dose. I'm talking 1/2 a mg. It seemed to make him fall asleep pretty quickly, but he would wake up throughout the night. He didn't know where he was, he was basically walking and talking in his sleep. This was a little alarming. We finally got a dose that we think works. He falls asleep about a half-an-hour after taking it & stays asleep....at 2mg.


The thing is, that I sort of feel like Nurse Ratchett. I mean, we took our time making the decision. We're doing it at the advice of many doctors. We're giving him relatively low doses, but we've had family members express their opinions on it & when asked to administer it to Connor one time, they refused.
The other night, we ran out of Melatonin. I called the health food store where we get it from, to see if they had it in stock. Even the worker there went on listing the concerns regarding administering Melatonin to a young child - under the age of 18.

Is something that occurs naturally in our own bodies that dangerous? Would the pediatrician & the therapists at Behavioral Clinic recommend something that was harmful? I understand there are risks with everything. We've gone four years with interrupted sleep. That's not good for us & it's not good for Connor. He needs his sleep. When he doesn't sleep, he is a mess. Emotionally & physically. I hope people realize that in doing this, we're trying to help him. Just as if he had a cold, cut, burn or disease. We would want to give him something that could potentially help him. Not hurt him.

Is it wrong to give him 2 mg. of Melatonin to help the sleep along??

Do any of you give your children Melatonin?


*****Added on*****
I found this here:

"Sleep disturbance is common in childhood, and is particularly problematic in children with neurological problems such as learning difficulties, cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorders and epilepsy, as well as children with visual impairment (partial or complete). This is probably because these children have difficulty recognising and attuning their sleep cycle to the outside world's sleep-wake cycle"