There have been ongoing sleep problems with both the boys for years now. Lego Lover started on a prescription medication to help his sleep a couple years ago. We had some success but the effect seemed to wear off after some time and he had maxed out on the dosage for his age and weight. He takes another medication to help with irritability and anxiety that is supposed to cause sleepiness. Not with our Lego Lover though. It keeps him awake and we had to change the timing of doses to accomodate that. Lately it has been a struggle to get him to sleep before midnight. Game Fanatic more recently tried the same medication for sleep and has had mixed success so far.

I’d heard about melatonin and its sedative effect. But it’s not available for sale in Australia, except by prescription. A month’s supply will easily cost $60-70 for one child. Through the grapevine I’d heard several parents had ordered it from the US quite successfully, even in large amounts. I finally made an order for eight bottles of tablets, which worked out very cheaply. The shipping was another matter but altogether it cost about the same as a month supply on prescription here in Australia. The package arrived about two weeks ago and I started both boys on it.

The effect for Lego Lover has been incredible. We were able to eliminate his prescription medication completely. He’s been asleep before midnight most nights and I’ve even managed to get him to sleep before 11pm a few times. I’m hoping to eventually shift the time to around 10pm. The effect hasn’t been so great for Game Fanatic but he did say it made him feel sleepy a few times, which is far more than he’s said about anything else. In my view, it has been very much a success for Lego Lover, so the risk of such a large order was very much worth it.