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.
You’re responding to an explanation on how melatonin isnt a medical emergency. How all that stuff doesnt matter because what if theyre allergic. Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced in our bodies, allergic reactions to melatonin supplements are very rare. Soy is a far more common allergy.
Is soy a hormone naturally produced in our bodies?
Im saying if someone has a melatonin allergy they’re gonna have a pretty hard time avoiding exposure to it
Okay? And?
I guess i should be asking the same of you, you brought up allergies but werent trying to make any kind of point?
I’m pretty sure my point was that some of the children hospitalized probably had allergic reactions.
What that has to do with arresting people over soy is beyond me though.
the part where people were arrested over melatonin
Yes… they were arrested for giving it to children without their parents’ permission.
It is legal for a parent to give their child melatonin. Are you really not aware of that?
I mean read the damn article-
and why would they need their parents permission? I dont think you took in what you were responding to, melatonin isnt harmful.
Sorry… why would daycare workers need parents’ permission to add melatonin to a child’s food? Are you serious?
Harmful has nothing to do with it. You don’t seem to understand about what daycare workers have the legal right to do.
I sincerely hope you do not work around children.
There’s no specific laws against this, they’re charged with endangering children. Which means risking harm. You’ve encountered the reality that there’s no real risk of harm so you try to justify it with risk of allergic reaction.
Why not just give the kids THC, or even LSD? Neither of those can be overdosed on, allergic reactions are extremely rare, and are generally not harmful. So by your logic, they should be A-OK to give to kids without their parents permission. Right?
Those are illegal, both for kids and their parents.
I wasn’t advocating for the daycare workers here. It’s not cool to give someone else’s kid melatonin without permission. Fairly certain it isn’t illegal though, and the fact that these daycare workers weren’t charged with it supports my position.