ADHD meds + melatonin

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> Parenting our children -> Our Challenging Children (gifted, ADHD, sensitive, defiant)

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

BrachaC

Sun, Jan 30 2011, 10:40 pm

My 7 year old has ADHD. She was on Focalin XR for the last 1 1/2 years and the teachers saw some improvement, but she has still really struggled to develop fluency in reading (both languages). Our pediatrician reccomended switching to Adderall XR. The change is INCREDIBLE. She was able to sit down and actually read a book over Shabbos. She actually enjoyed it. But unfortunately she is having a lot of trouble falling asleep. I google searched this topic and saw some people that said that the sleep disturbances eventually worked themselves out. Does anyone have any experience with this? Should I try a melatonin supplement- I am going to ask our pediatrician about it, but I was wondering if anyone had any experiences to share? Thanks.

amother

Sun, Jan 30 2011, 10:52 pm

We started with melatonin LONG before we started ADD meds.

My dd has a retina dystrophy disorder, and the retina is one of the places in the body where melatonin is naturally produced. She had a hard time falling asleep as long as I remember. We reluctantly started melatonin on the advice of our Ped. Before melatonin, she could toss and turn for up to 3 hours and woke frequently. We started with 0.25 mg of liquid and several years later she takes 1mg melochew at bedtime. She also takes 1 pill of regular adderall 3x day. (She metabolized XR too fast).

Unless you have a compelling medical reason, I wouldn't use melatonin long term. There are no long term studies in children and it is a hormone, even if it is a synthetic one.

Hatzlacha.

Aribenj

Sun, Jan 30 2011, 11:03 pm

I don't know about its interaction with ADD medication, but we did use melatonin to help DS (age 3 at the time) to fall asleep. He had ADHD-like symptoms and it would take him 2 hours to fall asleep. (As in, he would be IN BED for 2 hours, struggling to fall asleep.) We started giving him 1/2 a 1mg tablet of melatonin. It was awesome. He would fall asleep within 10 minutes!

We stopped it because at the time he was potty trained through the night, but the melatonin was making him sleep so deeply he wasnt waking up to go to the bathroom anymore, and I didnt want to deal with washing his entire bed every day... (and yes, I used a pad)

Because of this, he is no longer potty trained through the night. We weaned him off and B'H hes been falling asleep in about 10-30 minutes, but we had to put him in diapers at night because he got used to not waking up to go to the bathroom...

greengrapes

Sun, Sep 25 2016, 7:13 am

Withought melatonin my boys would never fall asleep. Especially at night when the meds wear off that would translate into jumping off the bunkbed till they fell asleep. No choice by us

imasinger

Sun, Sep 25 2016, 7:26 am

We use melatonin to help with sleep after Adderall.

It's not perfect, but I think it helps.

amother

Olive

Mon, Sep 26 2016, 1:16 am

I also use melatonim
my son even without ritalin has sleeping issues - and with ritalin all the more so

My dr. told me it's fine
He needs sleep to function so I feel that we have no choice

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Sep 26 2016, 8:47 am

We also started melatonin long before vyvanse. I don't see the meds making his sleep issues worse. He is a kid who hates to/can't sleep.

Page 1 of 1