Up all night eating | ADHD Information

I'm new to this forum although not new to ADHD. My son is 15 and has been diagnosed for 6 years now. He currently takes Equasym which works really well for him. He's been on Ritalin and Concerta before.

The reason I'm posting is he is up all night eating. All I hear all night is footsteps up and down the stairs. He'll eat cereals, biscuits, toast, his sisters school lunch which she has got ready the night before, he'll make fry ups, pasta, whatever there is he'll eat. He is not overweight so that is not the problem. I'm at a point where I don't care if he sleeps or not as long as the rest of the family can sleep. My husband has suggested we lock the kitchen at night and just allow him to take a drink to his room but I feel it wouldn't be right to have to lock the kitchen from my own son. A room which really belongs to the whole family if you get what I mean.

Anyone else has a problem like this where they've had to do something they didn't want to do for the sake of a peaceful night.

i wonder if in the long run locking up the kitchen would be better for his health than sleeping pills. Its not as if he cant get up in the morning. Its the rest of the family that can't.

Any suggestions?

I have no experiance in this are so this is my $.02. I do Not think locking the kitchen would be good, especially if he is not overweight. This is probably caused by the medication and you need to speak to the doctor and thet them know what is gowing on. also make sure he has plenty of food availabe to him in the evening as he will be hungry from not eating much during the day, most likely. But most of all contact your doctor as this could be a med side effect.

My 14 (almost 15) yr old did this constantly while on Concerta. It drove us crazy. But, it did him as well.

He said that he would wake from a dead sleep with terrible hunger pains, as if he had not eaten in weeks! Go back to sleep, only to wake a short time later. We would find cereal bowls, stashes of fruit cups, snack bars, cookies..etc...in his room. Although we have a definate no food in the room rule. He was a mad man.

It is the meds wearing off at the wrong time. If he came down off of them around 4-5-6- then he would eat and sleep thru the night. So, we lowered the dose and he was great.

We did just switch to the new med out...Vayanse (sp?) and he loves it. Much smoother up and down and he does not have that sudden....I have to eat now or I'll die feeling.

I think alot of it has to do with the growth spurt also. It has not like this when he was 11-12-13...

He has been like this since he was on Concerta. Concerta was a 12 hour slow release so I could understand he got hungry when it wore off. Thats why he was switched to Equasym which wears off by 4pm. He starts eating at 4, has a good 3 course tea at 7 and continues to eat all night till 3, 4 or 5 in the morning. His bedroom is full of leftovers. I too have a rule of no eating in bedrooms but he sneaks it up. He does eat well in school which he didn't with Concerta.

I think he's developed a habit since he was on Concerta. He gives me the excuse that his med wears off at nighttime and thats when he gets hungry when its worn off at 4pm. I'm sure this can't be good for him eating so much at night.

[QUOTE=Gabs]

[/QUOTE] I've never heard of equasym. How is it different from concerta? My son is going to be 11 in november and has been on concerta since he was 6. We have not given him meds in the past 2 weeks due to too many tics but he is doing ok in school but I am wondering about that one because i've never heard of it. Any info would be helpful. thankyou!I had a problem with my son being constantly hungry at one point - 7 years old. I got so concerned about it that I took him to the doctors. He is on 1/2 mg of tenex and not over weight at all - I think he is a little too skinny. The doctor said this was normal growth spurts. For some children they are intense and last a long time ( months ) while others you don't really notice a difference.

I remember a few months ago putting him to bed and he was crying saying he was so hungry - 2 hours after he ate the same amount as my husband did who is 230 lbs - my son is 60 lbs. ASTONISHING. But a few weeks went by it slowly got better. He still complains of being hungry but not all the time and not severe. I do try and feed him healthy food - not a lot of junk food or sugar - lots of complex carbs and proteins.

Never had the problem of eating during the night though....

B/w two kids, by far Concerta has been the worse for tics, emotional ups and downs and the eating.

Just my experience.....

How about letting him pick a few things to take to his room, maybe even get him a small dorm-sized frig for cold snacks, so that he's not disturbing the house at night? I know you have a rule about no eating in the bedrooms, but is the nightly peace more important or that rule? After he has chosen a good variety of snacks, then lock up the kitchen. Yes, it's a room for all people in the house, but if you had a child with some other kind of need (nut allergy, diabetes, dust allergy, etc.) you would make concessions in the house for the health of that child, so why not one who needs to get his calories at odd times? Also, how about some kind of snack that is full of good fats, with a satisfying mouth-feel? Nutella is a hazelnut/chocolate paste that has those good nut fats, is creamy and can pass for a treat. A banana dipped in Nutella is pretty spectacular. Also, is he taking a good multi-vitamin? He may have a deficiency that he's subconsciously trying to make up.

In short, I wouldn't worry about when he eats as long as he's not getting fat.

Thanks for all your messages. I will probably let him take some food to his room and then I won't feel bad about locking the kitchen. That way there'll still be some cereals and milk for the rest of the family for breakfast.

I dont think a fridge in his room is a good idea. I imagine him emptying the kitchen fridge during the day and taking it all upstairs. I have 2 other children living in this house and I dont think that would be fair.

Its funny you should mention Nutella. Whenever I buy it he eats the whole jar with a spoon. He loves it.

For Lildansmum Equasym is like Concerta and Ritalin but is released differently in the body. He takes 2 tablets in the morning and thats it same as Concerta. It wears off after 8 hours instead of 12 like Concerta. From what I understood when Doctor was explaining Concerta has more wastage in the body than Equasym because of its coating. (Dont quote me I'm no doctor) All I know is he seems to be doing a lot better in school and if you ask him which med he prefers its Equasym. So as long as he's happy with it and it works, we're all happy.

Sorry about taking so long to reply and thanks for all your posts

My daughter is 8 and we have the same problem with her eating in the middle of the night. It got to the point that her room would become infested with ants, we would completely empty and clean it and find all kinds of wrappers, containers from left overs, and even rotten bananas in her closet. She was very sneaky about it. She would get in the freezer and eat 6-8 ice cream sandwiches at a time! My dr told me to give her a candy bar to take to bed every night. I'm sorry, but we only do candy on occasion and I'm not giving her candy! My husband and I put a key lock door knob on the pantry door and baught a bike lock for our side by side fridge. We make sure to leave something healthy out on the counter in case she does get hungry. (like popcorn, bananas, crackers) We told her it would be ok to take those things if she got hungry but we would like her to make sure to throw them away. She has gotten better. However, we noticed that when we forget to "lock up" more food goes missing. She tells us the truth about what she did the next morning. We praise her for telling us the truth but we tell her that it was not ok to eat so much.

Hope this helps.

rconnor