melatonin for aid in sleep disorders?

Question

anyone know about the herb melatonin and how it works?
my daughter was just put on it for her sleep related seizures she is 3 yrs old and has had night terrors since birth now we found out they have been seizures the whole time she is epileptic

we were told by the nerologest and developmental specialist to use this because of the seizure activity she gets too much sleep in the day and because of her meds she sleeps little during the night

she is on 450mg tegretol 10mg clobazam

Answer 1

Melatonin has no effect on seizures in a theraputic way! It does affect sleep and general feelings in adults!

Seizure disorders in 3 yr olds is normally controlled with phenobarbital in a liquid form! You need to see your neurologist or even a family practice doctor! The phenobarbital may initially cause sleepiness until she becomes tolerant to it. But it does control the seizures and she will soon be normal!

UPDATE:

You might want to ask your neurologist to consider changing her medication to TOPAMAX because of the the side effects of her present TEGRETOL on her! Again is she experiencing any unusual weight gain? That drug that she is on right now had my daughter who was in her late teens where she gained weight and really wanted to lay around all day! Until she went on TOPAMAX! Also the dosage seems high but I know that must be necessary to control her seizures! See I have a convulsive disorder also and up until a couple of years ago I was on Dilantin and Phenobarbital now I am only on TOPAMAX and have zero side effects! My daughter took it first 10 years or so ago and has had a wonderful history with it! All the other drugs have had bad side effects! While teens and your daughter's changing into womanhood is far away look at the long term effects of the drug on the girl!

TOPAMAX has allowed my daughter to live her normal social life, she has now graduated from college and is now out in the world and has been seizure free for over 10 years!

The antiseizure medication (TEGRETOL) that your daughter is on just did not work out nicely with the long term with our daughter that yours probably cannot express! There was leathergy, weigh-gain, facial hairs, and others, things that affect girls and women more than boys! Ask someone else besides me about the comparison of the two medications!


Good Luck and thanks for the updated information on her medication!


///////////ALEW ALEW ALEW ALEW ALEW ALEW/////////////

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE POINT .... THAT TEGRETOL HAD OUR CHILD PUT ON WEIGHT AND WANT TO LIE ABOUT THE HOUSE LIKE A LETHARGENIC BUM IS WHAT IS SCREWING AROUND WITH THE SLEEP PATTERN OF YOUR DAUGHTER ! OUR DAUGHTER IS NOW A BEAUTIFUL ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CITIZEN LIVING INDEPENDENTLY OUT IN THE WORLD! YOU REALLY NEED TO TALK IT OVER WITH YOUR DOCTOR AND SWITCH TO TOPAMAX OR ANOTHER DRUG, JUST SLOWLY UNDER HIS GUIDANCE! IT WILL CHANGE HER WHOLE LIFE I PROMISE YOU! GET THE PAPER OUT OF THE BOX OF TEGRETOL AND REALLY READ IT! THERE ARE BETTER DRUGS FOR GIRLS TO BE ON THAN TEGRETOL !!!!!!!
TEGRETOL IS YOUR PROBLEM

DADDY OF FOUR GIRLS
APS

Answer 2

Melatonin is not an herb but rather a hormone made naturally in the body. It usually not advisable to give to very young children. Melatonin production declines w/age so kids produce a lot of it unless there is something very wrong. Too high a dose in anyone can give you nightmares and sometimes headaches. If a child sleeps w/a nite light it can deprive them of melatonin because the body need darkness to produce it.
I love Melatonin and swear by it myself for insomnia or jet lag but I'm in a grown up. I'd be a bit wary of using or A) for a child or B) for seizures.
I've heard of it sometimes helping autistic or ADD kids w/insomnia but never seen/heard of it being prescribed for seizures and rarely for very young kids.
I'm all for natural methods but for seizures you need to be getting her to see a neurologist. Do you have health care for her?
If not call your health dept. See what options exist. There's also a national (US) child health care initiative.
Good luck!

Answer 3

I took it for the first time a month ago. I started with 1/3 of a mg. not so good. next day tried 2/3 of a mg. a few days later I tried 1 mg. the advice that I read seems to agree that up to 5 mg is the safe and effective dose. At 1 mg I got better sleep than lower doses or none at all. I only take it a few times a week but I still seem to sleep fine now each night. Go figure!

Answer 4

I had hear that also about melatonin. so i researched and found this information and site

" Evidence suggests that melatonin is not effective in treating most primary sleep disorders with short-term use, although there is some evidence to suggest that melatonin is effective in treating delayed sleep phase syndrome with short-term use. "

this site report is a clinical report, the
date on this report is Nov. 2004

Answer 5

Don't ever take the sleeping pills route!!

1. They will damage your liver big time and you can get into serious health problems.

2. You will get hooked up on them and you won't be able to have a normal life any more if you don't take your pills everyday.

The sleeping pills industry is damaging our health by capitalizing on our ignorance, and by distracting people from effective and natural ways to deal with this problem. I had been taking prescription sleep medications [Ambien] for over 5 years. It stopped working and I simply took more. Still did not work. Nights were very difficult - medication put me to sleep but I would wake up after 2–3 hours with a strong sympathetic response (fast pulse, pounding heartbeat, wide awake alert). It was a very difficult cycle to break. I was really in bad shape due to lack of sleep.

After years of struggling I was able to cure my insomnia naturally and pretty fast. I followed the Sleep Tracks sleep optimization program, here is their official web -site if you want to take a look: http://www.insomniacure.net

Ohhh..and Good Luck!

Answer 6

melatonin is supposed to help you go into deep sleep as opposed to light sleep that most meds induce. i never heard of using it for epilipsy but if it works then its better than the alternative. i go off and on melatonin myself for cluster headaches. it helps me sleep when nothing else does.

Answer 7

Actually Alew you did not ask the question properly because seizures are a whole different thin and the best to consult on this is a pediatric neurologist/constance RN