Four New Hampshire daycare employees allegedly spiked children’s food with the sleep supplement melatonin and were arrested on Thursday.
After a six-month investigation, police discovered that children had been furtively dosed with melatonin. Officers arrested the daycare owner, 52-year-old Sally Dreckmann, along with three of her employees: Traci Innie, 51; Kaitlin Filardo and Jessica Foster, who are both 23.
Melatonin is a sleep aid supplement that is sold over the counter. But the long-term impacts of melatonin on children are not widely known.
Furthermore, there have been several reports of children being overdosed with melatonin in recent years. About 7% of emergency department visits between 2012 and 2021 were for children who had accidentally ingested melatonin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a health warning for melatonin use around kids and adolescents, warning against the lack of US Food and Drug Administration oversight for the sleep aid.
No, this is absolutely terrible advice!
You, as the parent, make sure the child is currently safe, then give yourself a timeout. No joke! It’s incredibly difficult to destress with an infant around. The moment you are at all tempted by ideas like dosing your kid, it’s time to step away - isolate yourself, recenter, and try a better approach (even if it’s the hundreth time).
Anyway, I’ve seen multiple statements by qualified professionals about melatonin not being safe for kids. Unless you have sources to back your claim, I completely reject it. That’s just the way it works…