CONCERTA | ADHD Information

Just wondered if any1 else has experienced there child not sleeping well on Concertra as my 9 yr old is on this and he takes 54mg and his sleeping is rlly bad also his appetite is not good either he wnt eat mch during the day but he pigs out in the evening, his also been put on clonidine 2 help him sleep at ngt and that nvr touched him so we took him of that just need advice if it actually the meds that stopping him from sleeping mch or smething else any advice please let me no

thanks

Our 9 year old daughter was on Concerta--36mg last summer and didn't sleep at all; she would maybe fall asleep at 1 am only to wake up groggy and really crabby at 7 am. She was jittery, very moody, and didn't eat much either. We ended up switching to Strattera and during school she gets 10mg of ritalin in the mornings only. The Strattera alone didn't give her enough focus but took a lot of the impulsive reactions away, so when we added ritalin back for the mornings, it gave her a bit more focus for those times in school when they're doing work that takes a lot of focus.
Good luck!

We are new at this, but this is what I have observed with my 10yo daughter. She has been on concerta for a few months (she is currently on a 1 month break to gain weight until school starts). For the first couple of weeks, she was benefitting from the med all day with no sign of rebound or the med wearing off. During this time, she went to sleep better than at any other time in her life. As the concerta appeared to be wearing off earlier and earleir in the day, she went back to her old problem of settling her brain down to sleep. The psychiatrist plans on adding a second dose of concerta to take over when the first wears off when we restart the concerta (which meay take her through bed time. In addition, he has started her on guanfacine (Tenex) which has a calming affect, helps with memory, sleep and weight gain. Guanfacine is like clonidine but her doctor prefers the guanfacine.

my son does not sleep because of his ADHD,not meds since he is not on them but melatonin worked well for us ,he needed 6mg.

i am on concerta also but never slept well anyway before that so i am not sure if it affected it.it is one of the side effects and i do not eat at all during the day

[QUOTE=mountainskies][QUOTE=leigh1]

thanks Confused

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Has your sons adenoids been checked at all? My 8 1/2 yr old son is on 36mg Concerta weekdays during the school year for 1 1/2 yrs now. He actually sleeps better now. This may be in part to his adenoids being removed (for the second time, first time was when he was 2 1/2). The only real side effect we've noticed is his loss of appetite and no weight gain.

During the times our son is too wind up, we have him take a bath, read to him and send him to bed 1/2 hr to hr earlier than normal so it gives him a chance to settle and still get a good nights rest. I know it's easier said than done... I know others will have some suggestions for you as well. Good luck!

[/QUOTE] No ive nvr had his adenoids checked but i will looked in 2 that anything is worth a try thanks once again

[QUOTE=joshuasmom]Hi, OUr son has been oun Concerta going on three years. He actually sleeps better at night but there are times that he has trouble winding down. We put him in bed at 8:30 he can watch tv as long as he lays down. Or we put in an Adventures in Odyssey ( from Focus on the family) tape. They are story tapes that he just loves. Something that the our speciallist told us about bed time...... he told us to left him flip and flop on the bed... you can't make an adhd child lay still but make the child now that he has to stay on the bed. We tried that and we found that bedtime was smoother because we wasn't yelling at him. He would flip flop around on the bed for 30 minutes or so and then he was still. We went to check on him and he was asleep. The more you tell him to lay still the more likely he won't. But try this it worked for us and bed time got more peaceful.[/QUOTE]

I tryed the tv in his room which he will lay dwn and stay there but i found he was watching it 4 ages and not actually falling asleep till early hrs in the morning,i will try the tapes tho as i havnt done that as yet i keep u posted and let u no how i get on with it

thanks

Ds was on concerta, ritalin and ritalin LA all which caused sleep problems for him. Clonidine was helpful, but the trick was that it only provided a "window of opportunity" to go to sleep. He needed to be in bed with the lights out at that time. I can't remember but it may have been an hour or so after he took it. So it meant timing his evening routine for the greatest effectiveness.

We also discovered that TV and playing on the computer only served to activate the mind making it harder to go to sleep. So those were off limits for some period of time before bed. A sleep specialist told a friend of mine "no TV or radio after 7:30 in the evening"

After about six years on clonidine we switched to melatonin and then Gabba Calm.
Now he doesn't need anything, but I'm not sure if the reason is simple maturity.

Good Luck

jfla238944.4065393519Hi, OUr son has been oun Concerta going on three years. He actually sleeps better at night but there are times that he has trouble winding down. We put him in bed at 8:30 he can watch tv as long as he lays down. Or we put in an Adventures in Odyssey ( from Focus on the family) tape. They are story tapes that he just loves. Something that the our speciallist told us about bed time...... he told us to left him flip and flop on the bed... you can't make an adhd child lay still but make the child now that he has to stay on the bed. We tried that and we found that bedtime was smoother because we wasn't yelling at him. He would flip flop around on the bed for 30 minutes or so and then he was still. We went to check on him and he was asleep. The more you tell him to lay still the more likely he won't. But try this it worked for us and bed time got more peaceful.

[QUOTE=momtobug]My son has taken Concerta for awhile now and we have never had problems with him going to sleep. He is 10 and goes to bed at 9:00pm and is sleeping by 9:15. [/QUOTE]

You have no idea how lucky you are

My daughter was and will again be on Concerta come fall but she always had a difficult time with sleeping. As for rebound that she would have.My son has taken Concerta for awhile now and we have never had problems with him going to sleep. He is 10 and goes to bed at 9:00pm and is sleeping by 9:15. [QUOTE=leigh1]

thanks Confused

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