Melatonin sent 11K children to ED in 4 years
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- From 2019 to 2022, there were around 11,000 ED visits by infants and young children for unsupervised exposures to melatonin.
- Most incidents involved ingestion of flavored products, such as gummies.
Seven out of every 10 ED visits for unsupervised medication exposures by infants and young children in the United States during a recent 4-year period were for unsupervised melatonin ingestion, researchers reported this week.
Melatonin has become a widely used sleep aid in recent years, including among children. Many physicians wrongly believe it to be a recommended treatment for insomnia.
The new study, which assessed data from a national surveillance system, identified nearly 11,000 ED visits in the U.S. from 2019 to 2022 in which unsupervised melatonin ingestion by young children was implicated for the visit, amounting to 7% of all visits for unsupervised medication exposures.
Many incidents involved the ingestion of flavored products such as gummies (47.3%) or chewable tablets, the researchers reported. In at least 47.7% of visits, the child had ingested an adult or family formulation of melatonin. Nearly 33% of patients accessed melatonin from a bottle.
“Melatonin products do not require child-resistant packaging, although such packaging can be voluntarily implemented,” the researchers wrote. “Among ED visits with documentation of container type, approximately three-quarters involved melatonin accessed from bottles, suggesting that infants and children opened bottles or that bottles were not properly closed.”
According to the researchers, child-resistant packaging might be advisable in homes with young children. They encouraged parents to keep melatonin out of the reach of children and out of sight.
According to their review, few of the ED visits resulted in the child being hospitalized, aligning with previous reports, including a 2022 study of poison center calls that found that 98% of pediatric melatonin exposures resulted in minimal or no effects.
“However, another recent investigation of melatonin products found that the actual content of the melatonin product was not always the same as the labeled ingredients or strength, and these discrepancies in ingredients or strength could pose additional risk,” they wrote.
References:
Freeman DI, et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7309a5.
Lelak K, et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022;doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7122a1.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts