Should you give your kids melatonin gummies to help them sleep?

More parents are doing it, but opinions are mixed on the matter.

“It’s so widely used, it is astonishing to me,” said Dr. Judith Owens, the director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, tells The New York Times.

“Pediatricians have kind of glommed on to this as being the answer to children’s sleep problems.”

The newspaper notes that melatonin use among young children isn’t well studied, nor are there any universally agreed upon standards on how much should be taken or for how long.

What’s more, side effects can include morning sleepiness, nightmares, agitation, headaches, and increased urination at night.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/parenting/melatonin-sleep-kids.html?action=click

My two cents as a kid who had difficulty falling asleep in Elementary school? A small dose of melatonin worked wonders for me and my mom, after I stopped waking her up in the middle of the night to tel her I couldn’t sleep. She did lots of research and I consider melatonin my miracle drug.

Thanks for reading!