br br Nearly one in every 5 children are taking melatonin for one to nearly two years on average. This troubling result comes from pediatricians at the University of Colorado who surveyed the parents of 993 children 1 to 13 years of age. The children were separated into 3 groups: preschoolers; school-aged kids; and preteens.br br Melatonin was given consistently to 5.6 of preschoolers, 18.5 of school-aged children, and 19.4 of teens. The median duration of use was 1 year for preschoolers, 18 months for the school-aged, and 21 months for the preteens. br br This level of pediatric use is a problem, since we know little about the safety of long term melatonin use. Yes, melatonin is a natural hormone our bodies produce, and, yes, it does promote sleep. Problem is that this over-the-counter so-called food supplement is unregulated by the FDA. The available commercial melatonin preparations contain widely divergent amounts of the hormone ranging from 74 to a whopping 347 of the amount shown on the label. This drug concentration irregularity may be one reason that poison control centers report a 5-fold increase in melatonin ingestion over the past decade.br br Sleep problems are common in children and are well-managed with behavioral methods. Tons of books describe how to do it. Skip the drugs.