Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C0QoBvZLimM/ Nearly one in every 5 children are taking melatonin for one to nearly two years on average.  This troubling result comes from pediatricians at the University of Colorado who surveyed the parents of 993 children 1 to 13 years of age.  The children were separated into 3 groups: preschoolers; school-aged kids; and preteens. Melatonin was given consistently to 5.6% of preschoolers, 18.5% of school-aged children, and 19.4% of teens.  The median duration of use was 1 year for preschoolers, 18 months for the school-aged, and 21 months for the preteens.  This level of pediatric use is a problem, since we know little about the safety of long term melatonin use.  Yes, melatonin is a natural hormone our bodies produce, and, yes, it does promote sleep.  Problem is that this over-the-counter so-called food supplement is unregulated by the FDA.  The available commercial melatonin preparations contain widely divergent amounts of the hormone ranging from 74% to a whoppin