Literature review: Melatonin use by young children should be reduced or prevented

Melatonin, increasingly prescribed as a sleep aid, is also a leading cause of unsupervised medication exposure and overdose among young children, ages 0 to 6 years. While there is evidence that it is a helpful sleep aid for young children with autism, there is no evidence of efficacy in typically developing children. In addition, there has been no research on outcomes beyond two years.