Re: Head Banging / Melatonin

[Guest guest]

> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 14:37:10 EST

> From: bmj9116@...

> Subject: OT Head Banging HELP!

>

> I've been giving the Melatonin with Magnesium before going

> to bed at

> night, but he is still waking 4-5 times a night. When he does wake

> up he

> doesn't get out of bed but instead bangs his head or takes his fist

> and hit

> himself in the forehead or chin. What can I do?

> Bridgett in KY

> Mommy to two cute boys

> (9) Autism

> (7) ADHD

>

It may be too high a dosage of melatonin for your son as an individual,

even though it's a very safe dosage for others his size. My mother used

to complain of headaches when she lived at my brother's as my

sister-in-law gave her melatonin to help her sleep. Knowing my

sister-in-law and Mother had used melatonin I used it a few times when I

had a really stressful day the next day but found I got horrendous

headaches from it. I hadn't associated the two until a lady commented

that she'd Never take it as it gave her such bad headaches. I had

thought my headaches were from the stress, not the melatonin so I tried

it when it wasn't a really stressful time and discovered I can't handle

it personally, even in a small quantity. Because our son banged his head

before we removed gluten I have been very reluctant to use it for him and

when we get to the chelation process I'm hoping we can do it without

melatonin but it may very well be that our son can tolerate it much

better than I can.

Visit www.kirkmanlabs.com and look up GABA under " Specialty Products. "

It helps one sleep. Children can use up to 8 capsules a day. We had been

using 5HTP to help our son along with Evening Primrose oil capsules (it

seemed he slept better with the combo of them) but now we're finding GABA

is helping move his bedtime up and we're cutting back on the 5HTP and

EPO. GABA has to be given on an empty stomach to be successful (we

didn't see any difference when we gave it to him with meals and then

noticed it is to be given on an empty stomach). Our son's refused to go

to sleep before midnight most of his life and now that he's sleeping 9 or

more hours, it's become really important to move his going-to-sleep time

up and we're finally having some success since he started taking 2 GABA

on an empty stomach in the afternoon :-) It used to be he was up before

the sun even though he wasn't asleep until after midnight so I never

dreamed we'd have this problem of him sleeping until 9:30 am!

(Thankfully we homeschool but it's hard to get much accomplished when the

day gets started when it's half over!)

Carol in Oregon