JACKIE SINNERTON | THE COURIER-MAIL | JAN 10, 2015 Young mum Taylor Campbell is appalled parents would take the easy option. She is taking the time and patience to train her six-month-old son Chase to sleep through the night naturally.
QUEENSLAND parents are crunching up unprescribed sleeping tablets and putting them into their babies’ bottles, according to the state’s child sleep specialists.
Australian Medical Association Queensland president Shaun Rudd has labelled the extreme action of sleep-deprived parents as “horrifying”.
Parents are buying up melatonin tablets online. The sleep regulators are often taken by adults for jet lag.
But the tablets have side-effects of headaches, prolonged grogginess, hormone fluctuations as well as vivid dreams and nightmares.
Melatonin is a hormone produced in the body naturally by the pineal gland and it sends signals to the brain to regulate the pattern of sleep.
“I am horrified that anyone would add a tablet like this to a baby’s bottle,” Dr Rudd sad.
“I understand that exhausted parents can become desperate but giving children any drug with unknown side-effects is not the answer.”
Brisbane certified sleep consultant Susan Connolly said more Queensland parents were turning to melatonin. Many who had sought her help with problem sleeping admitted to giving their babies tablets they had bought online from the US.
“Parents are literally drugging their children to get some sleep. They become desperate and are looking for help anywhere they can get it and they often feel that it is not something their GPs can help with,” Ms Connolly said.
“Unfortunately what most parents don’t realise is that melatonin can alter children’s circadian rhythms leading to longer-term sleeping issues.”
Gold Coast certified baby sleep expert and midwife Amanda Bude confirmed that parents had come to her to ask if they should try the melatonin on their babies.
“Sadly, people turn to Google for answers to problems,” Ms Bude said.
For young mother Taylor Campbell, of Birkdale, teaching her six-month-old baby son to sleep through the night requires a lot of work and, if necessary, help with instilling good habits.
“I think it is frightening that people would go so far to find the easy option,” she said.
