Melatonin

I have been going back and forth for about a year wondering if we should help Mitchell with his sleep or wait until it works itself out. As far as kids with Autism he is considered a good sleeper. Many kids on the spectrum only sleep 2-3 a night, every night. He goes in spurts where he wakes up in the middle of night for hours but it is inconsistent and the same is true for his bedtime which fluctuates between 9pm & 11pm. Several months ago he was in the routine of putting himself to bed at 8:30pm. So due to the changes in has sleep patterns I wasn't sure medicating him at night was the answer, he just seems to need a different schedule every so often.

Well in recent months we have all become tired of not sleeping like normal people. Mitchell will stay up sometimes until midnight and wide awake too. Fighting him doesn't do any good, he's either going to sleep or he's not. Steve does not have the patience to lay with him for hours and if I do then I fall asleep with him and have to get up early to get Grace when she wakes and wants to be moved to another room (whole other issue.) It's just easiest to let him tire and want to go to bed, plus he gets all the sleep his body needs, not lethargic during the day at all -hence nicknamed energizer bunny.

I had heard of melatonin about 9 months ago and thought it was crazy to drug your child to sleep but have since changed my view. After researching it myself and talking to parents who have used it I warmed up to the idea. Today I called the health food store and they were out so we went to CVS & Walgreens before we found the liquid form. I decided we should try it before school starts in case there were any adverse affects or we need to adjust the dosage.


So how did it go? At 8:26pm I added 1mg to Mitchell's juice and watched him slooooowly drink it. He tossed it to the side a few times so I tried it in case it tasted bad but it was fine. With half his cup left at 9:11pm he grabbed my hand to go to bed! Beginners luck? I'm not sure but I'll take it with a smile. I'll let you know how it goes.

Supposedly it only take 20-30 minutes to set in and it seems pretty accurate. My only concern is that Ethyl Alchohol is the preservative used in the liquid form. I looked it up and it appears to be a safe common preservative. I read most liquid forms of melantonin contain this but I'll check the health food store when they get their supply in. I also read melantonin supplements have been known to stop the beginning of Alzheimer's which I found interesting because Autism and Alzheimer's have many similarities. Could it be a lack of melantonin? Could be a start in the right direction. Of anyone has anything to add about melantonin let me know.