2019 to 2022 Saw ~11,000 ED Visits for Melatonin Ingestion in Under 5s in U.S.

FRIDAY, March 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- From 2019 to 2022, there were an estimated 10,930 emergency department visits for unsupervised melatonin ingestion by infants and children aged 5 years or younger, according to research published in the March 7 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Devin I. Freeman, from the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education in Tennessee, and colleagues used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance Project to identify cases of emergency department visits for unsupervised melatonin ingestion by infants and children aged 5 years and younger during 2019 to 2022.

The researchers found that during 2019 to 2022, there were an estimated 10,930 emergency department visits for unsupervised melatonin ingestion by infants and children aged 5 years and younger in the United States, accounting for 7.1 percent of all emergency department visits for unsupervised medication exposures in this age group. Children aged 3 to 5 years accounted for about half (52.4 percent) of all estimated emergency department visits for melatonin ingestion by infants and children aged 5 years or younger; 93.5 percent did not result in hospitalization. In 90.2 percent of emergency department visits for melatonin ingestion, melatonin was the only medication involved. In 95.7 percent of emergency department visits for melatonin ingestions, a solid dosage form product was accessed, with gummy formulations the most commonly documented dosage form (47.3 percent).

"The occurrence of approximately 11,000 emergency department visits for unsupervised melatonin ingestions by infants and young children during 2019 to 2022 highlights the continued need to educate parents and other caregivers about the importance of keeping all medications and supplements (including gummies) out of children's reach and sight," the authors write.

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