Guest guest Posted August 25, 2000 Report Share Posted August 25, 2000 ><< I have some questions about melatonin. Any comments will be > appreciated. I recently started giving my son 1 mg melatonin > at bedtime. Within two days, some symptoms got noticeably worse... > My son also has a bad reaction to melatonin. The next day he is more > easily upset. He also has a difficult time with tryptophan or should > I say tryptophan doesn't work on him the way it should. I got a Rx > for it and thought it would help him sleep or at least get sleepy in > the evening so he would go to bed before midnight, but no matter how > much I gave him it didn't work. Then I tried 5HTP and still no > shuteye. Maybe because melatonin is made from tryptophan there is > some connection. CNS (brain) serotonin is abnormally elevated in many (but not all) cases of autism. CNS serotonin can be increased by either dietary tryptophan or 5-HTP. However, in these cases, the already-elevated CNS serotonin does not need additional elevation. Similarly, melatonin is normally made from brain serotonin. Giving additional melatonin could cause some of it to revert back into serotonin. Reportedly, negative ion generators can help reduce brain serotonin. (The Ion Effect, Fred Soyka with Alan ; Bantam, 1978.) In extreme cases, various degrees of " serotonin poisoning syndrome " could result: " The symptoms of the serotonin syndrome are: euphoria, drowsiness, sustained rapid eye movement, overreaction of the reflexes, rapid muscle contraction and relaxation in the ankle causing abnormal movements of the foot, clumsiness, restlessness, feeling drunk and dizzy, muscle contraction and relaxation in the jaw, sweating, intoxication, muscle twitching, rigidity, high body temperature, mental status changes were frequent (including confusion and hypomania -- a " happy drunk " state), shivering, diarrhea, loss of consciousness and death. (The Serotonin Syndrome, AM J PSYCHIATRY, June 1991.) ----- Serotonin syndrome arises most commonly from a combination of medications which are strongly serotonergic. Serotonin syndrome begins with restlessness, tremors, anxiety, muscle stiffness, hypertension, diaphoresis, shivering, hyperreflexia, and hypomania. It can quickly progress to agitation, severe autonomic instability, hyperpyrexia, oscillatory nystagmus, positive Babinskis, rigidity, myoclonus, confusion, ataxia, obtundation, seizures, asystole, and death. This rapid and catastrophic progression is controlled with difficulty through immediate institution of intensive care, removal of the offending substances, and symptomatic treatments which are of uncertain efficacy. Serotonin syndrome is a complication to be carefully avoided. (from PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG INTERACTIONS, Copyright 1995 M. Rathbun.) ----- Elevated 5HT (serotonin) levels [are associated with] : #1 schizophrenia, psychosis, mania, etc. #2 mood disorders (depression, anxiety, etc.) #3 organic brain disease - especially mental retardation at a greater incident rate in children #4 AUTISM (a self-centered or self-focused mental state with no basis in reality) #5 Alzheimer's disease #6 old age #7 anorexia #8 constriction of the blood vessels #9 blood clotting #10 constriction of bronchials and other physical effects Source: http://members.aol.com/atracyphd SEROTONIN - THE KEY TO THE PSYCHADELIC EXPERIENCE ----- Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 25, 2006 Report Share Posted November 25, 2006 Has anyone tried giving their child melatonin to help him/her sleep? Results? Has anyone tried Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 25, 2006 Report Share Posted November 25, 2006 I have tried it, but unfortunately, it did not work for my sons. However, everyone's different, and even our pediatrician said it couldn't hurt to try it. --Suzanne -----Original Message----- From: tmmckenna@... Sent: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 8:28 PM Subject: [ ] Melatonin Has anyone tried giving their child melatonin to help him/her sleep? Results? Has anyone tried Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 My 8 yo son has been taking melatonin for over a year now, with wonderful effect. When he was little, he would fall asleep late, but sleep through the night. But as time went on, he would fall asleep later and later. One night, it was past 11 pm and I was exhausted and went to sleep when he was still awake. I didn't like doing that, but really didn't have a choice. The next day, we bought cherry flavored 1 mg melatonin from GNC. 1/2 tablet was all that was needed to help him fall asleep - given 30 minutes before bedtime. On melatonin, he falls asleep shortly after his bedtime story. Without it, he is still bouncing off his bed and walls at 11 pm. Also, it is perfectly safe. Shortly after starting melatonin, I came home late one night only be greeted by my husband saying, "Don't be surprised if Poison Control calls!" What's going on?, I thought. Turns out, my husband mistakenly thought he put the melatonin out of reach of our preschool daughter. She had opened the bottle and spilled the contents. He didn't think she ate any, but counted the pills to be sure. There were 7 pills (7 mg melatonin) missing. Since we had recently bought the bottle, we had probably given the 7 pills to my son over the course of the week, but Rob decided to call Poison Control just be be sure. They did call back to say that if she had consumed 5 grams (5000 mg) of melatonin, she wouldn't have been poisoned, but if she had eaten 7 mg, she'd probably sleep well that night. No worries. We've recently changed Bobby's melatonin dose. He's on a ritalin type medicine, which does leave him wound up at bedtime, so we've increased his melatonin to 3 mg. Actually, my husband has fine tuned it to 2 and 1/2 mg, but cutting a tablet in half is a bit of a hassle. It's just easier to give him 3 pills. Does your child stay up late or not sleep through the night? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Yes! We give our son 5 mg. of melatonin every night. It almost always helps him to fall asleep. He usually sleeps from at least 9-1:00 am. right now he has a lot of yeast issues so often gets up, but the melatonin has helped a LOT and is relatively safe and inexpensive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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