Medical experts are divided over whether it is safe to give children a naturally occurring hormone to help them sleep, with some research revealing it could adversely affect development during adolescence.
There is no data available on the number of children taking melatonin, but academics have reported what they say is a worrying trend of increasing numbers of children being treated with the hormone melatonin.
Dr David Kennaway, a senior research fellow at The University of Adelaide, said studies on adults and animals had shown a link between melatonin and a negative impact on reproductive, immune, cardiovascular and metabolic systems.
In his article published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, Dr Kennaway wrote: “It is not registered for for use in children anywhere in the world [and] it has not undergone the formal safety testing expected for a new drug, especially long-term in children.”
“There’s an idea that it’s safe, and it may well be. But it’s a big experiment,” he told Fairfax Media. “A lot of people are saying that it’s safe, but we just don’t know that.”
But Dr Chris Seton, a paediatric sleep specialist at Woolcock Institute of Medical Institute, said the hormone was significantly safer to use than traditional sleeping pills.
“There is no evidence that it’s anything but a very safe drug. In the contexts of drugs given to kids, it’s at the top in terms of safety,” he said.
Reports of children with epilepsy and cerebral palsy being prescribed the hormone date back to 1991. But it is now believed children with behavioral issues, such as ADHD, are more likely to be given melatonin now.
The Sleep Health Foundation cautiously approves the use of melatonin in children, stating it “appears to be safe and works well in the short term”.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration does not propose the use of melatonin in children because there have been “no adequately conducted non-clinical studies”.
Dr Kennaway said the promotion of the hormone for children was troubling and warned that more research was needed before it could be declared for safe use.
He said parents who turned to melatonin were mostly likely “desperate” to help their children sleep.
“A lack of sleep can have a devastating impact on parents and the kids themselves”.
On an Essential Baby forum (a website owned by Fairfax Media), parents openly discuss treating their children with melatonin.
According to a Monash University study, 30 per cent of children aged under three suffered from sleep problems, with the most common causes either behavioural or medical.