Metadate question | ADHD Information
My son's doctor wants to switch from Concerta36mg extended release to Metadate20mg extended release. My son's appetite has decreased dramatically and she's hoping this medication will improve not only his appetite, but his frustration and anger level. Has anyone had great success with this? My son is 6 1/2yrs. old. Please let me know.
Thank you.
Kathleen
KitKath38278.8468171296lisa - that is a lot of weight it must have scared you to death
You know I'm concerned over the same issue -- my son is on Concerta 36 mg has been since Feb. 2004 along with Strattera 18mg he is 5 and his appetitie lately since starting school especially which was 9/1/04 his appetite is horrible now he doesnt even want to eat a snack when he comes home from school this has me very worried.My son never ate on Concerta and lost over 20 pounds, He started on Adderal XR and is eating his lunch and dinner everyday. They say Adderal stops you from eating but it has helped him. We have never tried the Metadate. Hope this heplsIt did, he wouldn't touch a bite of food till around 7 at night, then he would eat as much as he could before bed. I always tried to give him a big breakfast before hand but he barely ate. I am pretty happy with the adderal, he seems more animated and he is eating, not huge amounts but at least a sandwich and a snack in school and around 5 he is ravenous for supper. The only down fall is the Adderal doesn' last as long as the concerta does. I can see him getting more hyper around 4. But he sleeps great and eats.. So I can deal with the hyperness if I can get him through the school day. I saw that your son takes Concerta and Strattera together. If he needs both the Concerta IS NOT WORKING....I have been through this My son took 72 mlg of concerta and the physc added 25 mlg of ritalin with it. The concerta is a strong enough med that he should not need both. Watch the strattera we tried him on that for about a month and he started swearing and lying continuessly. He would be sitting there and the "F" word would be coming out of his mouth for no reason at all. I would talk to the doc about finding one med. You want a happy child who is calm and can function, not one who is quiet lethargic and never smiling., It takes a while,,we have been doing this for almost 4 years but I am finding I have a happy kid, who wants to play, is chatting away and still calm enough to get through the school day on the adderal xr. I hope this helps you
Hi KitKath-
We have had good results with the Metadate, in fact our Dr. switched him from it to Ritalin LA and I am requesting that he switch him back, as I do not feel it works as well. He experienced a little weight loss at first but it evened out within a few months and he gained his appetite back with no problem.
I would support the change.
Good Luck!
-Laura
Interesting fact on the two meds Concerta and Strattera being taken together I to feel it is to much but when i confront his Dr. he says they work together counter balancing them out because he was only on the Concerta and it seeemed to not be doing anything so he added the Strattera and that helped briefly till now where we have been up and down with the Starttera starting with 25mg dropping to 18mg now going back to 25mg and doing nothing with the Concerta 36mg. I recently purchased B'Calmed as a desperate measure but have yet to try it. I would like to stop him off of one or the other if not all but it's so scary I like most of you dont know what to do he is getting to the point where he doesnt want to take it like last Saturday he told me "mommie i dont want to take it i promise i can be good without it" but i gave it to him anyway because of the fear of what to expect with any "withdrawls" he may have i have heard of people taking weekend breaks but does that do more harm than good when they go back on it come Monday morning????? I know im rambling on but I'm so confused
Why don't you see if he can put him on 54 of the concerta with taking nothing else.I know it will effect his eating again and his sleeping but sometimes you have to weigh the postive with the negative. Does he take anything for sleep right now. I know I would give my son his sleep meds around 6 pm.m on a school night so by 9 he could lay down and fall asleep.It is a lot of work with an ADHD child and it is a lot of switching till you find what is right. I found that after a certain amount of time the concerta just stops working.Wether or not they need to be switched to something differant and then put back on I really don't know. Since starting the adderal xr last week m y son is doing great. He is taking 40 mlg in the morning, he is happy, playing, behaving well in school, his grade have been good. Now wether or not it lasts that is another thing. My only problem with it is that it doesn't last as long as the concerta by 4 p.m. he is starting to get pretty hyper. I am going to add a booster of plain adderal at 3pm each day to see how he is. As for giving him a weekend break, I did try a few times, but it wasn't fair to him or the rest of my family to be sreaming all day long, I always say he's 9 he should no better, but have learned to realize that without his meds he Doesn't. I know the concerta has no side effects if you stop for a day or two. I had no luck at all with Strattera the only thing is that when they tried to switch him to it I had to give him both for about a week cut back each day on the concerta and go higher each day with the strattera. I saw absolutly no change when it reached the point of just stratera it was actually worse. I do know that we stopped it immediatly and went back on concerta and ritalin. Like you I think they just over drug them. I hope this helps ou some, let me know how you make out.Lisa,
What sleep med does your son take?
Well like I said before we have switched from so many meds I hope this lasts and continues to work.
We give him 50 mlgs of Trazadone. When he was on Concerta and Ritalin we gave him 100 mlgs. I only give him the Trazadone now if he has a afterschool activity and I give him a 5 mlg Adderal booster in the afternoon. He is sleeping well and through the night on the Adderal.lisa that sounds like a success!!!! 