What to give toddler to sleep on plane
Should You Give Melatonin to Children - Sleep in the News
hi Xavier was sleep well and this is
sleep in the news and today I want to
cover an article that was in People
magazine on April 24th it's an article
that was covered by parenting magazine
and it's what it is is it's a article
about what we know or what to know
before giving your child melatonin
gummies as a sleep aid so I didn't even
know that this was an option it's such a
bad idea that I can't begin to tell you
what's where I can't even know where to
start on this so and the thought the
article is written by about a dr. Judith
Owens who is a director of the Sleep
Center at Boston Children's Hospital so
basically what's going on is a lot of
doctors are prescribing melatonin to
children with ADHD a DD and autism and
other neurodevelopmental what happens is
it makes the child feel tired therefore
getting more rest so the causes here are
number one a lot of the symptoms of ADHD
AED are the same symptoms as sleep
deprivation for children inability to
focus and ability to control oneself
inability to remember things things like
that because remember when a child gets
tired it's not like an adult that kind
of slows down and gets sluggish a child
is excitable doesn't know how to handle
it and it can come across as an ad
symptom so doctors are telling parents
to take these melatonin gummies and the
child will rest more will be able to
control themselves more well it sounds
like a good idea
because it helps them with those
symptoms it actually upsets the child
sleep pattern so a little bit about
melatonin melatonin is a hormone
secreted by your body that helps you
fall asleep faster and helps you rest
better okay so we have this thing called
a circadian rhythm the circadian rhythm
is actually
the governing cycle in our body of when
to be awake and when to be asleep as the
Sun sets more melatonin gets released
into our system our body temperatures
lower we get tired it's been like a
trigger for a sleep time okay so as you
add melatonin to the system it does make
you groggy it can upset your sleep
pattern it can mmm you can honestly mess
up your development because of the fact
that you're not naturally sleeping
you're actually introducing something
that's going to make the child have an
even harder time falling asleep
naturally the argument is isn't
melatonin natural yes it's in our body
the the the answer is that it's in our
body but it's released by our body at
certain times to help us rest naturally
it isn't something that we add to our
body to help us sleep at certain times
so a doctor Judith Owens is interviewed
by parent magazines and she's the
director of sleep at the Boston
Children's Hospital and she is very much
against this she's saying that before
you start introducing melatonin to your
child you need to understand the whole
process of sleep you need to understand
that you're upsetting natural balances
within the bodies of the child there we
honestly don't know what the long-term
effects of taking melatonin are whether
you're adult or child Marais of of
making yourself fall asleep during times
when you're having problems falling
asleep but is it something that we want
our children to take no I do not believe
so and dr. Judith Owens agrees with that
or I agree with her on this you are most
likely doing more damage by disrupting
their sleep cycle then you are helping
them with their focus I think a lot of
times we look for shortcuts and I think
that introducing melatonin gummies to
children is just looking for a shortcut
I I would like to point people to
various blogs mine included on how to
help your child develop a sleep
discipline where there is a set bedtime
where there is a set wake-up time so
that way you can help your child to have
that discipline not only now while their
children but later on when they're
adults because there's a lot of
free-flowing thought on on sleep in a
lot of houses and children just aren't
getting enough sleep
the any anybody below 12 years old is
supposed to be getting nine hours of
sleep and from 13 up eight hours of
sleep how many teenagers do we know that
are actually getting that I can tell you
probably very few and that's a problem
that is that is a problem that we need
to face because we're raising a
generation that doesn't know quality
sleep there's there they're missing out
on grades are missing out on learning
they're missing out on a memory
development all kinds of things and and
I hope that when you read this article
now I'm definitely gonna put the link in
the blog and I'm also gonna put the
links are a links for our blog articles
on children's health as well at the
bottom of this video I hope that you
take the time to investigate this and
find that it's not really that hard of a
process to set steps in place to help
your child fall asleep on time at a
regular time and wake up at a regular
time and with that I thank you for
watching the video and I thank you for
giving us the time in your life to to to
know that sleep is this important to
everyone and I hope that you remember
that when you sleep well you live well
have a great day
