Hi everyone,
Im sooo glad ive found you again,its been so long since ive been on i forgot the new name of the site!Anyway,i found you and i hope you're all well.
Some of you might remember my ds is 6 and autistic.Hes never been a good sleeper,he might have one or two goodish nights a week but mostly hes up late and still bouncing and slamming about.He wakes and wanders and is still awake early in the morning. Today his teacher spoke to me about this as she feels its affecting his bahaviour at school ,she is very understanding though.I ve been thinking about trying ds on melatonin for some time and this has sort of made my mind up to go and speak to a GP about it.I was wondering if any of you guys had any experiences with melatonin and your thoughts on it,i would really appreciate any advice .Thanks in advance.
Annis x
Melatonin
Tue, 09/02/2010 - 19:07
#1
It's a life saver.
Without melatonin I'd either be in a mental institute or prison.
Hi Annis glad you found your way back
Melatonin is a godsend as Jacqui says it's a real sanity saver #:S
It isn't a generally recognised med but is widely prescribed for sleep,it works naturally no nasty stuff,we had to get it specially from our local hospital our GP wouldn't prescribe it.
Sadly for us our son's body became used to it and even the highest dose ceased to be effective.
Cat x
It is great stuff. My GP now prescribes it but our pead consultant first did it.
It helped us all when I was falling apart. It was hard to get cos GP wouldn't prescribe it, but DS was being assessed by CAMHS so I got them to give him some. It got him into bed before 11!!!! He only uses it from time to time (every night for a couple of weeks) to reset his body clock as I don't want him to get too used to it.
I think it makes a big difference to his concentration and reduces his depression loads, but had little feedback from school to confirm what I see.
Definitely worth a go so you can get some I)
Try it- many people swear by it. Alex learned to sleep before I got to breaking point, but if he hadn't, I'd have tried it.
Because I don't give it every night I've been able to use it for over 4 years and it really has saved my sanity
Thanks for that guys.Hes had a good few nights this week,hes been asleep by midnight and slept well until the morning.I dont know how long it will last though,we might be back to sleepless nights again tonight .I think i would only use it at those times when he really needed it too.We're a big family and when he's up everyones up!Im going to make an appointment at the docs and see if we have any luck there.Thanks again.
My son has had it on and off for several years. I've finally managed to get my GP to prescribe it, but he does keep wanting to withdraw it....My son has it 5 days a week. He has break at the weekend and also during school holidays.
I've known for a long time that melatonin can be prescribed for children on the spectrum and I understand what it is and how is works but my question is - is it prescribed because people on the spectrum don't produce enough of their own melatonin or is it used as a top up for people with bad sleep patterns. My DS (tourettes) has terrible sleep patterns and now he is in secondary school it is really beginning to cause problems. I have always assumed that it wouldn't be suitable for him because he has different problems but having thought about, I don't really know why it is used for people on the spectrum so I don't know if it is a possibility or not.
WR - C wasn't diagnosed with ASD when he was prescribed melatonin.
Your DS 's paed should be willing to prescribe it for your DS if you ask
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