Soaring melatonin use among children is 'serious concern' warn experts
The rising use of the sleep hormone melatonin among children has sparked worry among doctors who have called it a "serious concern".
Recent research reveals that nearly one in five school-aged kids and pre-teens in the US now take melatonin for sleep, including many pre-schoolers. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, has raised serious questions about the safety and understanding of these products.
Dr Lauren Hartstein, the lead author, said: "We hope this paper raises awareness for parents and clinicians and sounds the alarm for the scientific community. We are not saying that melatonin is necessarily harmful to children. But much more research needs to be done before we can state with confidence that it is safe for kids to be taking long-term."
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Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced in the brain to signal the body that it's time to sleep. In many countries, it's classified as a drug and available only by prescription, but in the US, it's sold over the counter in child-friendly gummies.
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To gauge the current usage, the team surveyed about 1,000 parents in the first half of 2023. Among children aged 5 to 9, 18.5 per cent had been given melatonin in the previous 30 days, and for preteens aged 10 to 13, that number rose to 19.4 per cent. Almost six percent of pre-schoolers aged one to four had used melatonin in the previous month, and most of them had taken it for around a year.
Almost 20 per cent of children aged five to nine had been given melatonin in the last month (Getty Images)One of the main risks with these over-the-counter gummies is that their label often can't be trusted. Researchers analyzed 25 melatonin gummy products and found that 22 contained different amounts of melatonin than the label indicated, with one even having three times the amount stated.
In addition, some melatonin supplements have been found to contain other concerning substances, such as serotonin. Dr Hartstein of the University of Colorado, Boulder, said: "All of a sudden, in 2022, we started noticing a lot of parents telling us that their healthy child was regularly taking melatonin.
"Parents may not actually know what they are giving to their children when administering these supplements. It could send a message that, if you have trouble sleeping, a pill is the answer. If this many kids are taking melatonin, that suggests there are a lot of underlying sleep issues out there that need to be addressed. Addressing the symptom doesn't necessarily address the cause."
Experts are concerned about the rising use of melatonin to help children sleep (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Other concerns they found were that giving melatonin to children who are still developing could influence the timing of puberty onset and that the sweet-like appearance is causing children to eat a dangerous amount. From 2012-2021 reports of melatonin ingestion to poison control centers increased by 530 percent, mostly in children under the age of five.
Co-author Dr Julie Boergers added: "When used under the supervision of a health care provider, melatonin can be a useful short-term aid, particularly in youth with autism or severe sleep problems. But it is almost never a first-line treatment. Although it's typically well-tolerated, whenever we're using any kind of medication or supplement in a young, developing body we want to exercise caution."
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]
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