what about concerta | ADHD Information

I am new to this, I have just been dealing with this on my own, but I cant take it anymore. My daughter is nine years old, she has been diagnosed with ADD since 2nd grade. Our first med was ADDERALL, that was a nightmare. I removed her from all meds and did the herbal thing. about 2 years ago we put her on straterra. I was never sure if it was working or not. She is having such a hard time this year, her teachers are kinda poopooing the situation, which doesn't help. she is starting to hate school. Her doc wants to put her on focalin or concerta, i have researched both. can anyone help me i am so discuraged, and terrified to make the wrong choice, and make things worse.

sarahd39002.4989699074I remember feeling the same way as you are right now!  Unfortunately, doing medication trials is very much a roller coaster ride.  Approach it as trying to find the right thing for your child.  It may take many trials and several months.  Don't think of yourself as a failure if a med doesn't work out!  You are being a good mom and doing everything possible to help your child.  Don't be paralyzed by the unknown!  {{{Big Hugs}}}  I NEVER REALIZED HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE IN MY SAME SITUATION. i THINK MINE IS THE ONLY ONE IN HER SCHOOL THAT LEARNS DIFFERENTLY THAN OTHERS, THEY ACT LIKE THEY DON'T HAVE A CLUE, THE PROBLEM IS THAT OTHER THAN THAT THEY ARE AN EXCELLENT SCHOOL. WELL ITS TIME TO GO DO THE HOME WORK BATTLE. THANKSThank you so much, Taylor has acually gained weight with strattera, which does not help her self esteem. But when your son comes down, is he very depressed, angry and sad all at the same time? she was like that with adderall, and I am scared for her to experiance that again

Sarahd:  My son is 8 years old and started on Focalin XR.  He started wiht 5 mg and ended with 10 mg.  We tried 15 mg but he was out of control and worse than with meds.  He was good on the 10 mg., but it didn't last very long...only about 5 hours. His rebound was awful...very moody and mean.  In August, we switched him to Concerta and he now takes 54 mg of Concerta.  Up until this week, the Concerta last 12 hours and while he is on it, he is like a different child.  He evern won Studen of the Month at school, which his peers vote for.  This was a big accomplishment for him because he has been waiting since kindergarten for it.  However, his rebound on the Concerta isn't easy either.  He is very hyper and unfocused when it wears off.  If I give it to him at 7:00/7:30 a.m., then he doesn't rebound until first thing the next a.m.  if I give it to him at 6:30 p.m., then he seems to rebound at night around 6:00 p.m,. This week however, I noticed it seems to be happening around 4:00/5:00 p.m.  Not sure it is the Concerta wearing off or just the excitment of this week being his birthday.  I will have to give it time.

All in all, I personally like the Concerta much better for my son. Even though Focalin helped, it didn't help like the Concerta does.  Downside, he has lost weight on Concerta but didn't on Focalin.  Remember, every kid is different.

Good luck and I hope this has helped you!

Mars

Hi,

We are using Concerta (36mg) on my son.  He has been on it about 40 days. At first, I thought it worked beautifully, however, now we are dealing with the rebound.  Wow is that difficult.  Sometime I break down and cry. He is so mean and difficult.  He never was Mr. Sunshine but this is horrible.  The wierd part is that it's not every night and it seems to happen less often. I have talked to the Dr. who wants to wait another month before changing. 

Does anyone know if the rebounding gets better with time????

 

 

If they are both on your insurance formulary, I would try the one the doctor recommends to start with. It would be the one he/she would have the most experience with adjustments. If it does not work, you can try the other. Everyone is different and you need to find the treatment that works best for your daughter and her current needs. Try not to get discouraged and hang in there.

My daughter is on 27mg Concerta (5 weeks this time-was on trial during summer for 4 weeks, then a break to gain weight). Guanfacine was added to help with weight issues (and sleep while she was on a break from the concerta). She has no rebound at all. She gets more active as the meds wear off but not worse. She goes to sleep better since taking the concerta (she had trouble getting to sleep since birth). She is getting through her homework without tantrums and constant parental direction. She is getting As and Bs rather than the Fs of last year. The worst day we have had was yesterday, when she stayed home from school with a sinus headache and sore throat. I did not give her the concerta.

vickie39002.5475Well, i took the leap and started my daughter on concerta on saturday. I wanted to start on a weekend so I could keep track of any changes. so far it has not efected her personality but I can't tell a diference in her and tasks. I know that i have to give it time. plus the straterra is still in her system. I have a meeting with her teacher today to come up with some stratagies with her. The are not used to dealing with children with different learning pattern. I though switching her to a private school would be better for her. I'm wondering know. But at least socially it is better for her

[QUOTE=jfla2]My son used concerta for a  couple years until Ritalin LA came out.  Like Concerta it is methylphenidate, but it seems to have a smoother effect and it wears off more gradually than the drop off he he experienced with Concerta.   [/QUOTE]

I have heard of that meds as well, His doctor also told us that it does has a smoother effect. More likely to be suitable for my kid. Thanx!

Please read ogram's marble system. It is a positive reinforcement behavior plan. You can give rewards for doing homework, or any other behaviors you want to make better. My daughter started something like this during the school year last year in her classroom. We then added home behaviors during the summer. May I ask what kind of medicine he took at night to sleep. Our doctor has suggested Clonidine. Just feel like then I'm drugging my kid with uppers and downers.Clonidine is like guanfacine (Tenex) which my daughter is on. It is not a "downer", it is a blood pressue medicine that happens to have some positive side effects for kids with ADHD. It is effective with some of the ADHD symptoms (calming, hyperactivity, defiance) and helps with sleep issues and weight issues that the ADHD meds can cause; but does not help with attention. My 10yo daughter never went to sleep before midnight (un-medicated). On meds (concerta alone, guanfacine alone, or both together) she now is asleep by 10 every night. She needed something to calm her overly busy mind.vickie39007.4144328704

Thank you for the information. I will definitely talk this over with his doctor with more of an open mind. I do believe if I can get my son to sleep sooner, it will ease some of the morning chaos getting up and ready for school.

Has anyone had this happen?....I have been instructed by the school counselor and behavioral counselor to wake my son in the morning and leave it up to him to get moving and ready for school (I was physically dragging him out of bed, dressing him and pulling him out of the house). I give him occasional look ins and say You need to get up and then I get ready for work myself. If he does not choose to get moving, for however many minutes he's late to school, he has to stay in for recesses or after school to make up time. If he's not even out of bed, I call the school after 8 and they call the truancy officer.

Well, I've done that once last week, but the school counselor came to my home first and they made it to school where the truancy officer gave him a warning ticket. Didn't phase him a bit. Today, same scenerio. He won't budge from his bed, so the school calls the truancy officer. She makes it to my home before my son's ready, asks me to come outside and just unloads on me about not being able to control a 10yo, what does that tell him, I'm getting a warning ticket for contributing to the deliquency of a minor next time will be a ticket and a call to social services, she is not a babysitter, we can still spank our children today, take things away yadda yadda yadda. I was stunned. Finally when I got a word in and told her my son's counselors suggested this she got on the phone immediatly to the school counselor to set it straight with her and said she wouldn't give me a warning this time.

Now I'm back at square one. Sorry for my rambling or if I've placed this in the wrong thread, but I sure feel better

 

Well no your are not back at square one becauce look how n=much you have learned. Adderall was the first med that my daughter when on and it sounds like the same down effect. one day taylor was in her room and decided to make a solar system. she was in the second grade at this point. Well it did not turn out like she wanted and you would have thought that satin had jumped into this sweet little girls body and was controling every aspect of her. It was very scary, she made comments of hurting herself as well. needless to say that was her last day of adderall and never had any problems since. thats why i was so scared to put her back on another stimulant. it has been four days now, still mon a very low dose and I have not have any problems, with behavior or sleep, knock on wood. but I also haven't noticed any different ADD wise eitherMy son has been taking meds for about 10 years. He started on dexedrine and this worked for a long time - however, he couldn't keep weight on. We went to the Adderall xr - yuck - switched to the salts and they have worked pretty well. I think we all wish our kids didn't need meds and maybe some don't. Our doctor always started him on the lowest dosage and worked up. He only takes a small amount. I will say that a recent switch to Straterra (you may have seen my posting) resulted in some bad stuff. Be careful and read up. Also, is the extended release of something doesn't work the regular might or visa versa. As far as the down feelings - when he first started he had to have something a night to get him to sleep  - maybe for 6 months or so. He hasn't had any trouble since.

I agree that you really need to do what you can to get his sleep patterns better for getting up for school. 

Additionally, rather than punishment, have you tried positive reinforcement? We kept taking everything away from my now 10year old daughter until she didn't care. She just got anxious, depressed and defiant. This was over school and home work. We also tried letting her just get bad grades for not doing her work; so she decided that she would like to redo the 4th grade because it would be easier the second time around.  We then started positive reinforcement at school and started getting results. We then incorporated home behaviors in the form of Ogram's marble system (top thread of the parents forum). She gets up and gets dressed in the morning, where I used to physically dress her and guide her down stairs.

My 10 year old son has been on Concerta 36 mg for about 2 1/2 years. It has improved his grades and he is now in the gifted program. We originally took him to his doctor because of his behavior in school. Well that has improved, but now home is becoming a literal nightmare morning and evenings.

He does not sleep well and was tardy 22 times the end of last school year. He becomes very defiant in the evenings when told it's time for bed or even for a simple no to a question. He throws things, yells, hits the walls, says mean things to myself and younger son and has recently told me "I try to be good but it's like there's a brick wall in front of me" and has said sometimes he wishes he were dead. I asked if he honestly felt that and he said yes, but he doesn't know how to "do it". I was taken aback. I've read side affects may be aggression and suicidal thoughts but nothing is proven or backed up with enough study.

I've had him in behavioral counseling, but I just don't think it's working. Everyone assumes he's being defiant and running the show because he knows what strings to pull with me, which is true, but he's very intelligent and it's hard to know if he's crying for help or using what he's heard at doctor/counseling appts to play me. I feel terrible thinking that, because he is a funny, polite little boy but when he's angry, he's like a complete different person in my son's body.

I have a doctor appt next week thinking we might have to increase or change his medicine.

My daughter has been taking Adderall for about a year.  We just recently increased her dose.

She did however, start out with Concerta, and it kept her up until after midnight every night, so Adderall seemed much better for her.

My son has been on concerta since July.  It has been working well for him except that he has great difficulity falling asleep.  Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 hours till calm down enough to sleep.  We give him the concerta at 6 am an it is not uncommon for him to still be awake at midnight.  We start calming him down at 8 pm by dimming lights and reading to him.  By 9:30 he has to be in his bed, but he is still awake long after I fall asleep on the couch waiting for hime to fall asleep.  His neurologist put him on clonadine to fall asleep, but that did not work.  I am not sure what else to do.  However, on the positive side he got mostly B's on his report card for the first time ever.Hello..My son has had sucess with Concerta for years.  It is just recently that he has developed a tic and we were asked to take him off meds.  I will be looking at alternatives over the next few weeks and i'm nervous about it.  I'm very worried about my son who is almost 9 and not doing very well in school with and worse without meds.  I guess what i'm saying is Concerta was a god sent for a while but seems like it's time to switch him up a little.

First time i noticed my sons behavior was when we was getting frequent negative comments in school from his teachers, always negative remarks of my sons behavior. I went to study in the internet of his behaviof and found out of ADHD. We went to the doctor and he was positive of such disorder.

When i gave birth to my son he was diagnosed of Ventricular Septal Defect and his latest 2D Echo Test showed that a valve in his heart was being damage at a very slow rate.

It alarms me however of the long term effects of concerta, though his cardiologist told me its actually safe for my 7yr old boy to take concerta despite of his existing heart condition.

My son is taking concerta for more that two weeks now, and i can say that it did help him a lot in school, getting perfect scores in exam and most of all good remarks of how he respond and get along with his classmates and teachers.

Still i am in a stage of just giving about everything and the best for my one and only child. I just hope someone can clarify me more of the effects of concerta with his heart condition.

Thanks and God Bless.

 

 

My son used concerta for a  couple years until Ritalin LA came out.  Like Concerta it is methylphenidate, but it seems to have a smoother effect and it wears off more gradually than the drop off he he experienced with Concerta.   I HAVE READ THAT, IT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THAT I READ WHEN I FOUND THE SITE. IT IS WONDERFUL, IF YOU HAVE A LIFE STYLE THAT CAN CONFORM TO THAT. MY SIUATION IS DIFFERENT. I OWN MY OWN BUSINESS AND WORK 70PLUS HOURS A WEEK. I ONCE ATTEMPTED THE DIET THAT HAS BEEN ADVISED BUT FOUND IMPOSSIBLE TO STICK TO.

Well - we had the best morning in a looooong time! I finally talked to my sons nurse and asked if they would re-prescribe the clonidine they had last May which I was reluctant to try.

After yesterday morning, my son who very much wants to be the one in control, refused to make up his work during time given for missing school. When I went to pick him up, the principal told me to go home and she was going to "stick it out" with him until his work was done. They showed up around 5:30 and she said once he realized she wasn't giving up, he got right to work. He had quite a bit of homework still for the evening, and didn't put up too much of a fight.

I gave him the clonidine a little after 8 and by 9:30 he was snoring. My son hasn't fell asleep that soon and that early since I don't know when!!! I just felt a little bit of peace and prayed his little body needed a good nights rest without his mind racing 100 miles an hour.

This morning, he got up, we talked, he wanted peanut butter toast with cinnamon and sugar, so that's what he got. He gave me a bite (not too bad) and when I went to give it back to him he said, no thanks, I've got to get ready for school. I think I stood there for 10 whole minutes with my mouth hangin open. He was EARLY to school!

I don't know if the incident with the truancy officer and school, along with my taking absolutely everything out of his room jolted him into reality or if he just felt rested and able to tackle a new day.

Thanks for the suggestions Vickie. Yes we have tried positive reinforcements (school and home) as well as job card grounding, etc. etc. But, Ogram's marble idea did get my attention (my son does like to collect them), and I went out and bought some last night also. I've included a lot of positive things for him to earn the marbles, and included the major issues we've been having in the take away list, but I've also added the "shooters" (bigger marbles) as surprise awards while including the allowance as well as being able to earn back his toys/items taken away after so many marbles earned. He seems very excited.

 

Good to hear zjmom.

Well, 2 days of peace anyway. Tonight I gave ds the chance to ride his bike to the store and grab some chili seasoning for me. I told him I'd give him marble points for doing an extra chore and he'd lost some for having to stay after school so he was excited until we got in a disagreement on him wearing a coat (it was COLD) and he just flipped out. I tried to reason with him and he just kept arguing with me so I told him he was going to lose marbles - MAJOR flip out. I ended up struggling to get him in the car with my poor 3yo not understanding what happened and went to the store myself.

He was so mean - I was a worthless excuse for a mother, etc. I don't take his words to heart when he has these blowups but it doesn't do any good for the soul that's for sure. When we got back he threatened to hurt himself, my husband called and I told him what was going on so he left work early and came home. He talked to him and got settled down, and he apologized for everything. Does anybody else's child just blow up when not given the control of the situation or told no??? Could this be a rebound issue?? He has so much anger and no rational thinking when this happens. He wants to go to a boy's home, foster care, jail, etc (most of this overheard with discussions with the counselor last year when he turned ds in to social services the first time we met because I told him ds was taking a bath with 3yo and put his head under water. I was not having these blowup issues at the time, and although wrong and taken seriously, ds was not trying to hurt him, I believe he was trying to make him mad and didn't realize the consequences - believe me, he understood the consequences of his actions after that and he's never done anything like it since - and I keep 3yo in sight always).

See ADHD and IQ

Hope if anyone has any ideas or knowledge on this kind of behavior these 2 threads can give some idea of my story. Have jumped around alot. I'm thankful for finding this board - I had no clue about all this info. Feel like I just came out of a time warp. Thanks!