My DD10 has been taking melatonin for the past year and a half and it has been life changing. She used to lie awake for hours unable to fall asleep, wake up during the night on a regular basis and be very, very active in her sleep. Now she falls asleep pretty much right away and stays asleep even though she remains very active. (Talking, rolling about, throwing off blankets, kicking, etc.) It's been a while since we found her sleepwalking but that can be hit or miss - we have to be awake and in the room where she is walking to know its happening. She is a good size kid so was started on 3 mg. On non-school nights we didn't give it to her and she would have the same falling asleep/staying asleep issues so we started using it every night instead. About 6 months ago the 3 mg dose stopped being effective so we started with 5mg. (She is basically the size of a small adult now.)
I wish we found a delayed puberty side effect! I am stressing that one big time and dream of finding a "pause" button... Shortly before her 10th birthday we saw the first signs of impending puberty. From what I have read this seems to be totally normal timing. She has one friend who is extremely overweight who is way ahead of her in that regard and several who are significantly underweight or serious gymnasts who are behind her. This also jives with what I've read. So from my n=1 sample no such side effect.
