New Some Help!!!!! | ADHD Information

I've read lots of posts and have taken alot of the ideas for helping my wife and I cope with changes. This website has really helped. Now I'm hoping someone can help again. My son turns 6 today. He has been on Concerta 18mg for about a year. Up until about a month ago we started to notice changes in the way he has been acting. When he first got on the medication it was like a new kid. He has done extremely well in school and has continued to be a good kid. Lately though he calls my wife bad names, tells her he going to pee on everyone. Things like that. The other day he got up and told her that he hit everyone with a stick. It's almost as if he's telling her what he's thinking. For me he doesn't say things like that at all. He's going through a weird time and it's starting to scare us. He's the sweetest boy and we have really worked as a team to support each other and him. We are meeting with his doctor in a few days and consider having his medication increased. I think 27mg is the next step. I have heard some kids get worse by doing this. On another issue sleep has also been bad. He's dreaming alot. I've heard sometimes when kids play video games this increases the brain activity. Makes it hard to sleep. I have tried to turn off the TV in hopes of this helping. We are having just so many changes all at once. If anyone can please give me some similar events or something to keep uo postive we would be very appreciative. We don't know what to think of these changes. Any suggestions would help. We want to help our baby boy so bad.

Lack of sleep can make the meds less effective and make ADHD symptoms much worse. So getting sleep back in line is really important. You might start with the usual sleep hygiene things (warm bath, quiet time before bed, etc) and give him melatonin (1mg) an hour before bedtime.

You need to revisit the meds with the doctor. It may take an increase in med or a different med, or maybe even something to help with sleep.

Look at the marble thread by ogram (top thread of the parent's forum) for a positive reinforcement behavior plan. We were rewarding my daughter for going to bed on time and staying in her room quietly as one of the behaviors we wanted to reinforce. We used this to encourage her to treat others with respect.

Keep in mind that these kids have poor impulse control and are less mature than thier peers. You need to heavily praise him when he does something appropriately and coach him on more acceptable words to use to express his anger.

We have found that giving a small dose of quick release works well at about 5:30 -Then we put him to bed at 8:30 when the meds are just startring to drop.  Initially he gets tired and drifts off to sleep about 9:15.  If he stays awake later he can't get to sleep.  Otherwise we have a night of horror with rebounds at about 6:30 - late.  In Europe we have a general guildline which sais that the MAXIMUM a persone can have is 1 MG for every KG that you weigh (witch is about 2.2 pounds) and as far as I know the next step after 18 MG with concerta is 36 MG
There is a 27mg concerta as well. It was not in the original set but was added later to give docs more prescribing options.The stim meds are not dosed by weight in the U.S., though weight is a concern if appetite wanes on the med....if there are major appetite issues, a doctor would be more reluctant to up the dose.....yeah i cant sleep. i used to bang my head till i tierd out but im getting to old for that.my name is Thomas and I am 8 years old.

To help the sleeping you should trie MELATONIN 2.5MG CAPSULE.
it helps to go to sleep and it should be toeken onecs a day 30 minuets before going
to bed.

i have a few things you can try get hi meds increased i am taking concerta 18mg but im out for now  try having him get outside  take him to a park and let him run wild or until he tires out and let him stay uop a little later it worked with me ive been living with adhd for 10 years now