Is melatonin safe and effective for kids?

When Maya Genuardi was 8, bad dreams would wake her up most nights, sometimes several times. "It became an untenable situation where we weren't sleeping," said her stepfather, Nick Wilson. So he and his wife, Lisa Genuardi Wilson, who live in Bala Cynwyd, consulted their pediatrician and started their daughter on 3 mg of melatonin each evening before bed.