Four US daycare workers charged with spiking children’s food with melatonin
Four New Hampshire daycare employees allegedly spiked children’s food with the sleep supplement melatonin and were arrested on Thursday.
After a six-month investigation, police discovered that children had been furtively dosed with melatonin. Officers arrested the daycare owner, 52-year-old Sally Dreckmann, along with three of her employees: Traci Innie, 51; Kaitlin Filardo and Jessica Foster, who are both 23.
Melatonin is a sleep aid supplement that is sold over the counter. But the long-term impacts of melatonin on children are not widely known.
Furthermore, there have been several reports of children being overdosed with melatonin in recent years. About 7% of emergency department visits between 2012 and 2021 were for children who had accidentally ingested melatonin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a health warning for melatonin use around kids and adolescents, warning against the lack of US Food and Drug Administration oversight for the sleep aid.
7% of emergency department visits were for kids that took melatonin?
What kind of bull is this?
(Bad reporting or proofreading, 7% of pediatric ingestions)
"During 2012–2021, a total of 260,435 pediatric melatonin ingestions were reported to poison control centers, representing 2.25% of all pediatric ingestions reported during the same period. The majority of ingestions were unintentional (94.3%), involved males aged ≤5 years, occurred in the home (99.0%), and were managed on-site (88.3%) (Table). Most children start (84.4%) were asymptomatic. Among those with reported symptoms, most involved the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, or central nervous systems. Among 27,795 patients who received care at a health care facility, 19,892 (71.6%) were discharged, 4,097 (14.7%) were hospitalized, and 287 (1.0%) required intensive care. Among all melatonin ingestions, 4,555 (1.6%) resulted in more serious outcomes. Five children required mechanical ventilation, and two died. Both deaths occurred in children aged <2 years (3 months and 13 months) and occurred in the home. One ingestion involved intentional medication misuse; the reason for the other is unknown."
From the paper they link? But IDK where that 7% came from? 2.25% of pediatric ingestions.
Please quote your source for that info.
You mean the literal paper that the guardian links to in their article?
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7122a1.htm
The article links the wrong paper.
The source of the 7% stat is this report from 2024: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/pdfs/mm7309a5-H.pdf
Interesting. I wonder which is more appropriate, the ten year or more recent two year study.
Additionally, I wonder if there's any pandemic accounting for the number of parents dosing their kids from having to be at home all day with them.
Thanks for the additional context.
Yeah, that seems strangely high. I feel like we'd hear about this much more frequently if it was that common.
It's right in the article ... info from the CDC.