For kids, taking tablets regularly can be a scary thing. You have to assure them that the medicine will help them. Explain to her that melatonin is something that the body naturally produces anyways, but she just needs a little more of it to help her sleep better at night. Create positivity and assurance between her and the medicine. You have to be honest with her, and not slip things into her food and drinks, or else she won't trust anything you give to her in the future, whether it be medicine, food, drinks, or anything else, and that would truly be a nightmare. 

This is well stated.

On this: I had heart-attack like pains at age 10. I didn't tell my mother for whatever reason. She doesn't self-regulate. She doesn't believe another has a health or mental or physical issue if she doesn't experience it: it is a very extreme type of bias.

Either way, it would then be 17 years until I realised I had gluten intolerance. This robbed a proper education, it robbed my ability to be financially stable, it robbed much of my life. Health cannot be replaced.  

Did they tell you to put it in the food? Because if she’s unaware its in there and is chewing her food regularly, she is probably breaking the tablet while chewing, hence why she describes it as tasting so bad, and if she’s accidently chewing it, doesn't that defeat the purpose of hiding it whole in the first place?

I assume what the instruction was is to simply take it with a meal (after you’ve had a few bites, and some food is in the stomach)

instructions for taking medicine are very specific for a reason. Eating food first as a requirement typically correlates to the medicine being strong on (and negatively impacting) the stomach lining.

and some medicines shouldn't be crushed up because that affects the time it takes for the body to absorb it or if it even absorbs it properly at all. You can get some serious side affects from opening/crushing tablets that arent meant to be consumed that way

^ medications affect the body, thats how they work, so its important not to mess with that process as you dont know what will be altered. Thats part of the reason why i find it concerning that your daughter is unaware. That throws a lot of unknown variables into the equation. I used to have an eatting disorder. A lot of autistic girls do actually. As an example, what if your daughter starts throwing up her food, behind your back. Now she’s not taken her medicine at all, and neither she, nor you are aware of that fact. Thats an extreme variable as it was the easiest to demonstrate, but their are plenty of smaller ones as well that can have an affect. Or the fact that if she’s experiencing certain side effects, she might not think to come to you and tell you as shes unaware there is a medicine influencing her body to have those affects.

there is also the moral aspect. If your daughter doesn't have an severe intellectual disability that makes her truely *incapable* of understanding medicine, then she should definitely know what medicines are going into her body. If she’s anxious then thats an emotion she may want to confront herself in order to eventually feel comfortable taking a medicine that will help her sleep. Thats her own growth to go through. But it makes me very uncomfortable that you have decided for the sake of her anxiousness to go behind her back about what you will sneak into her diet. The medical ethics of that are......dark grey at best.

anxiousness is a very low bar to set for when you start lying to your daughter about important things...and the ease with which you state that decision isnt good. Its problematic in and of itself, but it also sets a bad precedent for future decisions.

Would you deceive and alter the bodily reactions of a neurotypical child, simply because you felt they would show some confusion or apprehension? Probably not, you'd take it as an opportunity to teach them and help them grow.

the bar for when people start violating the human rights of autistic individuals is a lot lower , than their neurotypical counterparts unfortunately 

i know you said to be gentle, and im trying to be, i hope my words read as serious, not abusive. Because im sure your intentions are good, but that doesn't change the impact these decisions could have nor can you simply ignore the depth of the ethical, debate, this inquiry brings into question. In the future however, i think you should ask yourself “how would i feel if this was done to me”. If i started experiencing changes in my body without knowing why, If i learned that my medical autonomy was being taken away from me....and then make decisions based on that.

That sounds like a lot! and I bet you lost sleep. But I had thought less is more with this - 1mg is typically more effective than 3 according to research. Hopefully you have a doctor monitoring the use since it effects their hormones? As a parent, I probably wouldn't have my kid take anything at the weekend or holidays either. But also possibly alternate with other herbal remedies. Micro-dosing CBD can be useful once a week, but everything has a side effect. CBD can affect the immune system just as melatonin affects hormone balance (heart regulation, thyroid, etc.). 

Last time I had melatonin, it affected my heart rate & slowed it quite down. Be mindful of these things. It hasn't always affected me negatively, but in my late 20's / early 30s I only rarely took it for a short consecutive period of time, typically to adjust to time zones (I travelled a lot). This isn't a long-term solution, so if she's ADHD she may need to expel a LOT more energy. A few of us in my family have these overactive brains and late night. when making constant calculations and problem solving without meaning to it becomes a stimulant. Sometimes sudoku or a similar mental puzzle, which is a type of mindless disengagement to put the mental energy into helps, also getting rid of all blue-emitting LEDs also helped. I stretch / yoga before bed and when I don't I don't fall asleep as fast.

I would tell her. if she found out you were drugging her, you will lose trust and that is the most essential element in a parent/child relationship. Tell her you'd like to experiment with ideas for sleeping & allow her to try different things, maybe? Also, explain the chemistry behind it all or help her investigate it, so she feels more in control. She could try passionflower tea one night or chamomile tea another (maybe over the weekend) and melatonin for Monday in whatever cocktail she thinks will work.

There's a company that makes these in chocolate drops as well: Good Day Chocolate - I used to occasionally only take 1/3 of the chocolate or less. Never more than 1mg.  But kids I know who have difficulty sleeping usually have overactive brains or are wired for more playtime/working-out than they're getting. Anxiety meds do the trick even better for an overactive brain. You obviously know your child. Is there a chance she's just not getting the mental and physical workouts she needs during the day? I'm assuming this isn't the case if a paediatrician is making this recommendation.

I just wanted to add, I didn’t crush the tablet as I was told not to do this. I placed a whole tablet sandwiched inside a pop tart. So it was hidden completely. 

Hello,

My son is on the same medication Circadin x3 2mg tablets. He was first prescribed them 1.5 years ago. I was honest with my son about him being prescribed a medication as sleep had been a major issue since he was 5 (now 11years) the lack of his sleep affected the full house as I would need to be awake to make sure he was safe this did get a bit easier as he got a older as he would stay in his room during the night but every morning my son was physically exhausted sore heads and angry.

I will say I had great difficulty getting him to take the medication for the first 8 months. I tried the same as you  hiding it in food and when he realised he was so angry with me, he would check his food and and to be honest I felt like I was doing something wrong by sneaking it in food. I then tried an money incentive by paying my son £1 per night that he took his medication. Not the best method but I was desperate. Soon that method stopped working and for a few months he took no medication. Eventually I bought a 7 day pill box with the days of the week on it and he now fills his medication up (with supervision) on a Sunday evening and I say each night how many tablets will you manage tonight. He decides what he takes. Some nights he only manages 1 but most nights it’s 3, now that there’s absolutely no pressure on him. Don’t get me wrong, some nights mainly weekends or school holidays that’s when we have nights when he takes no medication as he doesn’t want to go to sleep early and would rather stay up a bit later.

It’s been a long process but I do feel we have made progress. Do what works for you and your daughter, but I think there will only be so long you can hide the medication in her food/drink before she realises depending on her age I would maybe talk and see if she feels her lack of sleep affects her and talk about medicines that can help relax and see what her response is.