i have noticed that upping from 18 to 27 wasnt a very noticable difference. the only things different were that it lasted longer the rebound was a little longer and he stayed up later. mostly just a few of the side effects were more noticable but as far as his behavoir it was pretty much the same with both doses. it did take me awhile to up the dose though. i had the prescription for a little while until i got up the courage to fill it and things turned out ok. i was also scared to try adderall but when he took it he acted as if he didnt have his meds. so we cant use that one. havent had any bad reactions. just know that if something doesnt work atleast it will be out of their system in a few hours. i hope it all works out for school. im crossing fingers for the both of us!
kim
Hi, all. We had been using Ritalin 4-hour dose for my 5yo son with success. Now that he will be starting all-day kindergarten in a few weeks, we want to get him on something that will last throughout the day so he doesn't have to take meds at school.
Our doctor has started us on Concerta. I know med success varies by kid, but was just curious of others opinions of it -- particularly those of you with children with implusivity issues. Is is a good choice for those with more impulsive/somewhat hyper behavior?
Thanks!
We're at 18 mg right now. We face the same thing, Kim, with fine at home and don't really want to increase until we see how he does at school.
The freaking out thing freaks me out, Gatorsmom! But I know all of the drugs are a little bit different for each kid, so cross your fingers for us!
Thanks everyone!
hi, my son has only been on concerta for about 2 months but so far it has been great. he is very impulsive and very hyper. concerta seems to help him to stop and think before he does things. he also pays attention when he is told to do something and he does not run around and bounce off the walls the way he did without it. he will be going to 1st grade this year and this is his first yr on meds. im not sure how much it will help since he gets more uncontrollabe around lots of kids but we will soon see. i hope this works for both of us. he is on 27mg and it doesnt start to wear off until between 5 or 6pm. when he had the 18mg it did wear off sooner maybe around 2pm. he does get rebound and gets pretty hyper and silly for about an hour or 2 after so u should make sure his doesnt wear off during school. good luck to u. wish i could help more but im pretty new at this med stuff.
kim
Thanks, Kim. Always like to hear about another's experience. Our son is the same way -- the more kids he's around, the more uncontrollable he gets, which makes it hard to "test" the new meds until school starts. We didn't use anything over the summer except for t-ball games, parties as he's pretty good except in those large group settings. Appreciate hearing your details. Thanks again!My son started on Concerta 18mg in January. He had eating and sleeping issues on Concerta but it did help with his impulsivity and focus. He did pretty good on it for a while but then it seemed to lose its effectiveness. We upped it to 27mg in May and I would say it helped a little, but it was spotty at best. We upped it to 36mg in July, and within 4 days he had a total freak out. He became hostile, defiant, argumentative - it was really really bad and it seemed to be getting worse every day that went by.
When that happened we took him off Concerta altogether and put him on Vyvanse 30mg. It has been a dream. He eats much better on this med, he is asleep 20 minutes after going to bed (versus 1-2 hours before) and his impulsivity and focus has DRAMATICALLY improved. He is back to his normal lovable self.
I know every kid is different but the Vyvanse seems to agree with my son more than the Concerta did. Good luck with your son!
your welcome! we havent really gotten to test out the social situation yet so i am hoping he does good at school. he is fine at home so i didnt want to increase his meds until we know for sure whats going on and if he will need it. who knows maybe he will be fine. im sure he will atleast be better than these other years without any meds at all. how many mg does your little boy take?
kim
Just an update (in case anyone cares) ... We're finding the Concerta to be working so far. Yea! After testing out doses, we found 18 seems to be the way to go. 36 caused way too much rebound (crabby pants) and difficulty sleeping (over an hour to fall asleep, then up again at midnight), but not much difference in how it actually worked. Keep your fingers crossed for us when school starts!
BTW Gatorsmom, still interested in connecting with you in KC after school starts. Will e-mail you soon!
we care.....it's how we all learn!!
Good for you guys for finding what works. Life is SO much easier to manage once you settle on the best possible med and dose..............
dont u love that feeling! unfortunately i had to switch ds to vyvanse. so far so good. its only the second day though so we will see how it goes. im hoping we are close to the end. school is in 2 weeks!! crossing my fingers!
kim