Melatonin Dose

[Guest guest]

My son is 6 years old. We are only giving him half of my 300 mcg pills. It

taist somewhat like powered sugar so I just crush it up and put in in an oreo

cookie. So he's been getting only 150 mcg which is the same as 0.150 mg. So far

the positive results from that and the Omega 3 nordic naturals gummies we give

him in the morning have really been helping a lot. He seems to be able to focus

better and has less anxiety.

The first thing we noticed was that his warm up period to social situations has

been reduced a bit. His teacher which for about 4 weeks straight at school had

been telling us his focus/attention hadn't been very good started telling us he

was having some good days. Caleb then had his first truly good game of soccor

ever followed by two more games where he really worked hard. In fact at

tonights game he was RE-focusing himself with out having to have as much verbal

cues. This weekend he has sustained verbal communication and play at a friends

house. It was the most sustained play I had seen.

So my question is this. What experience do others here have with Melatonin with

regard to dosage? For myself it usually only helps me fall asleep the first

night or so. But we haven't told Caleb and basically getting info from him or

any 6 year old is hard to do reliably when you are talking about something so

subjective. I've read all kinds of articles and have bascially started with a

dose that is at or below what most articles suggest. Plus the research that has

been done has been used with 1 to up to 3 FULL grams.

Just curious as to what other are doing? For right now I think we are just

going to do what we have been doing since the results are good. Then we'll take

a break over the Christmas holidays starting up again with the Spring Semester.

Thanks for any tips,

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the reply . Yeah so he is on a pretty low dose right now. He has been going to sleep in general faster without so many trips out of bed. Plus he seems to be sleeping more soundly through the night and thats at 150 micrograms versus your 500 mcg. Right away he seems to be less anxious in social situations and seems to have less of a required warm up period.

I can say from my own experience with it that I dream more. Nothing unusual but I dream more. Lots of times these days I'm not sure if I dream anything. And usually it only helps me if I take it from time to time. On about the third night in a row I don't even notice it. Check out this link on its effect in dogs. Though its not a sleepy pill for them it is used to treat anxiety. Probably helps with us humans too in this regard.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/melatonin-side-effects-in-dogs.html

Compared to the studies they are doing where they use like 1 to 3 full grams our microgram dosages are pretty small. Just curious if anyone has ventured up into the higher realms. My 300 mcg is probably higher in terms of mcg per body weight than your 500 mcg per 13yr old body weight.

Thanks for the response

From: <kristenwallen@...>Subject: ( ) Re: Melatonin Dose Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 12:16 PM

We've always used chewable melatonin from Trader Joes. They're peperment flavored and come in .5 mg doses (which I believe is 500mcgs)We've been using it off and on since my son was 7 (he's now 13)He doesn't like melatonin because of it's short acting properties. It helps him fall asleep but after about four hours he's wide awake. I have found extended release melatonin but it cannot be crushed so it probably wouldn't be useful for a six year old, unless he can swallow a pill.I myself use it from time to time and it causes bizarre dreams every time. It also does this to my son but he's also bipolar and suffers from bizarre dreams anyway.We've found that a low dose of generic Atarax called Hydroxyzinehelps my son fall asleep at night. Hydroxyzine is used primarily as an antihistamine for the treatment of itching, allergies, hyperalgesia, motion sickness-induced nausea, and insomnia, as well as notably for

the treatment of mild anxiety. Even though it is an effective sedative, hypnotic, analgesic, and tranquilizer, it shares almost none of the abuse, dependence, addiction, and toxicity potential of other drugs used for the same range of therapeutic reasons.

[Guest guest]

My son is 3, and we have been giving him 1/4 of a 1mg tablet, so about .25mg

dose nightly. It has worked very well for him. At first we tried a 1/2 tablet,

but he was waking up in the night - from the vivid dreams, we think. With the

..25mg this has not been a problem, and he still goes to sleep quickly (it used

to take him up to an hour to fall asleep). We also started using a weighted

blanket around the same time as the melatonin; we can't say for sure the blanket

works because we started using it at the same time as the melatonin, but it

seems to be a good combination.

Bridget

>

> We've always used chewable melatonin from Trader Joes. They're peperment

flavored and come in .5 mg doses (which I believe is 500mcgs)

>

> We've been using it off and on since my son was 7 (he's now 13)

> He doesn't like melatonin because of it's short acting properties. It helps

him fall asleep but after about four hours he's wide awake.

> I have found extended release melatonin but it cannot be crushed so it

probably wouldn't be useful for a six year old, unless he can swallow a pill.

>

> I myself use it from time to time and it causes bizarre dreams every time. It

also does this to my son but he's also bipolar and suffers from bizarre dreams

anyway.

>

> We've found that a low dose of generic Atarax called Hydroxyzine

> helps my son fall asleep at night.

>

> Hydroxyzine is used primarily as an antihistamine for the treatment of

itching, allergies, hyperalgesia, motion sickness-induced nausea, and insomnia,

as well as notably for the treatment of mild anxiety. Even though it is an

effective sedative, hypnotic, analgesic, and tranquilizer, it shares almost none

of the abuse, dependence, addiction, and toxicity potential of other drugs used

for the same range of therapeutic reasons.

>

>

>