A new look at CDC data suggests the scary headlines about melatonin killing children don't hold up, which is good news for parents who give their kids melatonin for sleep.

• The CDC report doesn't actually claim melatonin caused the deaths of two children — it just notes they happened near melatonin exposure, not because of it.
• Key details are missing: how much the children took, their symptoms, pre-existing health conditions, and even their ages, so cause and effect can't be confirmed.
• Comparing melatonin to Benadryl, a children's allergy medicine, shows melatonin is far safer: about 1.2% of melatonin overdose cases led to serious outcomes, versus 20% for Benadryl.
• The framing of melatonin as uniquely dangerous doesn't match the actual numbers in the report.

Outlook: Expect continued public debate over melatonin safety, but the underlying data points to it being much less risky than headlines suggest.