Concerta? | ADHD Information

 Hi everyone. i'm having some second thoughts about my son's medication.He's 8 and he just got boosted up to max 54mg. I'm thinking it may be too much and actually there has been no noticable difference in behavior. I keep seeing posts here saying Concerta has worse side effects than Adderall XR. Can any one give me some advice?i didnt personally like adderol that much besides the fact you could play with the little beads inside. plus for some reason they are starting to suggest other drugs like concerta cuz i guess adderal can be turned into dust and snorted or even turned into a liquid and injected.  see i kinda cheated using concerta because i wanted to be hungry and sleep and just be me on the weekends. heh so i just didnt take it saturday and sunday.  i mean when i was on concerta i never ate breakfast or lunch and shoved dinner down, and on the weekends i basically tried to eat enough to keep my weight. of course im questioning these mental side effects im hearing about but who knows maybe they will make me smarter in the future
Thanks for your input. My son has the same problem with appetite. I give him breakfast before meds, but after that he really doesn't eat. Around 9 pm he gets serious munchies and chows down on EVERYTHING.  Why didn't you like adderall? It would help me if you could explain. Was it not effective or was it  due to bad side effects? Thanks.I love Adderall never tried Concerta though so can't really compare the two.

Just a guess, but I think the eating thing is caused by 12 hour release method.  With other shorter lasting drugs you get the peaks and valleys during the day, maybe the valleys give your body a chance to now it hungry.

Or I could be completely wrong.

We are new to these types of medication, my son is 4 and they first put him on Ritilan 2.5, then changed him to Ritilan ER 10mg.  The 2.5 did o.k but he was still having his "fits" and not listening and so on. The 10mg made him crazy you might say.  So we are going to try concerta 18 mg. Can anyone let me know how it works for them or there children?

My nine year old son just started with concerta, this is day five.  He has some side effects-loss of appetite, some insomnia, intense look by about the 8th hour(which I just read is his peak).  Oh and mild stomache aches.  He has never been on any other drug, so I cannot compare.  His focus has improved alot.  He is relatively calm, with a few upsets which would have happened with or without the meds.