When can toddlers take melatonin?

Question

At what age can I give my toddler melatonin? No judgement please I just physically and mentally cannot bear bedtime anymore. My 18 month old who was a PERFECT sleeper as a newborn and most of his life has just made a complete 360 in the past 2 months as far as his sleep schedule goes and stays up all night long every. single. night. I live completely alone so on top of doing all the chores, cooking, bills, etc. all by myself I just can’t do it anymore. I’m seriously falling into a bad depression I feel like every time I blink I’m sitting in my pitch black bedroom for hours and hours crying my eyes out wanting to go to sleep from pure exhaustion after the day is over while my toddler just runs buckwild. My body is 110% burnt out from trying to keep up every day and night like this. My brain feels scrambled all day long and I can’t help but dread night time knowing I’m gonna be doing this again and again. Idk why he’s not sleeping we have had the same routine for almost a year, I have no car so we stay home and do the exact same thing EVERY single day. Wake up, breakfast, snacks, lunch, 1.5 hour long nap, wake back up, snacks again and play time, dinner, bath, play some more, then start winding down for the night. I keep all the lights off in my room and keep it dead silent but literally nothing works or helps I am at an absolute loss. Like I said no judgment I just cannot continue to function properly with no sleep because if I don’t get up and clean cook etc. and take care of us during the day nobody will. I have no parents, zero friends, none of my siblings or any family members at all speak to me, none of them even know where I live, my child’s dads family don’t speak to me, I am pretty much completely on my own right now so asking for help isn’t an option unfortunately.

Answer

Talk to your pediatrician. Is your toddler still napping? Schedule staying the same? Your child shouldn’t be up all hours of the night, they should be playing outside eating well and sticking to a good schedule. Talking to therapist could help you tremendously as well

Answer

Melatonin should never be given unless a dr prescribes it. It can can night terrors, cause sleep to be more disruptive etc etc. it’s not a Med to mess with. You need help and from a medical professional, for your child and yourself. 
And most definitely change up what you do during the day. Being outside helps a lot for sleep.

Answer

Melatonin is only meant for short term use and should not be considered for long term use. It shouldn't be given to children under 3yrs old and should be discussed with a doctor. Melatonin is a hormone, not a vitamin or supplement which is why you need to take care in dosage and term of use.

Answer

I absolutley sympathize with you so deeply that it hurt my heart. Truly.
But no.
Here's the thing. Even though its OTC, in absolute truth, it really shouldn't be. It should be regulated by a doctor and only available by prescription. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the body and is regulated very carefully. If you begin supplementing with this medication it will signal to the brain that it no longer needs to produce it on its own, causing PERMANENT disrupted sleep. Problem is that you can't keep baby on it forever, at some point you will need to stop. You will literally never sleep again. By supplementing you are essentially disrupting the natural hormones in your child's brain. 
Based on what you've said I firmly believe that what you are experiencing is temporary. Likley a leap or change in development....it won't last. If are truly concerned about this being a long term problem then take the child to the pediatrician and voice your concerns. They can pull a blood panel and see if there is a legitimate deficiency there. If there is, then you can administer but only under the watchful eye of the Dr and with frequent panels being pulled. 
I wish you luck, I think it will turn out OK. It's just a rough patch. Don't complicate it further by doing this.
All the best.

Answer

You can’t have anyone watch your little one while you get some rest? It’s not recommended to give them melatonin at an early age.

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You should look into sleep training him, try only let him sleep maybe 1 hour for nap time and then when he goes to bed lay him down and leave him in the cot if he cries go in and settle after 5 minutes don’t pick him up just lay him down or pat his back then leave him again for another 5/10 minutes until he settles. If he’s sleeping with you you probably need to put him in his own bed so he can learn to settle on his own. Also it would benefit him to get outside sometime during the day take him to a park to play and use some energy maybe try the library or a playgroup, swimming lessons.

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Well technically even the kids melatonin says not to give it to them before 4 years old but my 2 year old has been taking it since before he was a year old. Since he was 18 months we've been giving him the 1mg melatonin gummies and now we've upped it to 2mg because he does well with It. We are considering giving it to our 18 month old as well. My mom has been giving both my brothers (who are 7 and 5 now) melatonin since they were 2. We don't talk to the doctor about it because they are just gonna say it's not recommended. My brothers doctor's knew they took it, but they didn't like it. It's just like how they say not to give a kid under 2 years old oragel, even if it's natural, because it's not FDA approved. It's your decision but if you do give it to him, they gave liquid melatonin you can get on Amazon that only has 0.5mg in 5mg I believe. Or you can get the 1mg melatonin gummies from Walmart. Make sure it says kids on it. Best of luck!

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I feel you for sure but I wouldn’t give it to him that young. I won’t even give it at all anymore. My almost 4yo is a horrible sleeper so we tried it with her and it honestly just made her worse. After a couple weeks she wouldn’t even sleep after taking it.

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He’s probably going through a sleep regression. I put a movie on for my son at night, even though I know screen time is bad, it keeps him in his room & helps him fall asleep. You cannot drug your child to sleep, as much as it sucks, you just cannot. These things happen, kids cannot sleep sometimes.

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Does he get outside enough?