Concerta sideeffects - not growing?

My son took a year to start growing on concerta. His pediatrician explained his body was still adjusting. Then he shot up and gained weight. We now watch his weight.

He has been on concerta for 6 years and doing well. He also has taken along with it from the start, 1 mg of guanfacine. It is a great help in many ways, helps control impulses, relax him, and he eats. At home he eats afternoon but at school he eats with the others, the best he can.

Hang in there, if it is working for the adhd stuff, just hang in and do what ever you can for him to get calories, even the fattening stuff like milk shakes, candybars, banannas etc. My son did this and it did get us through it all. I remember him being in a slim. I also remember him eating late at night when the meds finally left his system and we would cook him whatever he wanted!

He is now 5'6" 145 lbs and age 13. He wears a mens 31waist and is entering 8th grade.

Well, my son is even lower. I think he is on the 10th percentile or even lower. He has always been one of the lowest in his class, but this makes him go even lower. 

I also saw someone meaning adhd making many of these kids low aswell. Also the doctor said something about it when she measured him; that it is typical for these kids to be low.

I am just going to have to wait until school starts and see what happens. I also believe my son need the medication, mostly for being able to concentrate. I think his social skills has developed this summer, noticed that now that he is not medicated he still plays really well with his friends and dont argue with his brother and sister more than normal.  

Bethann: so you mean I should continue with the meds and just see? Everywhere I read they say that the treatment needs to be stopped if the child doesn`t grow.

I am just a bit extra worried since he is little, if he would be one of the tallest in his class I would not mind that much.

(Just to mention, I am little myself, and I was always the smallest child in the class and my younger sister who is 3 years younger was as tall as me...

so he has not got any good genes in being tall...  although my husband is tall, but I always though the boys would end up growing a lot in their puberty.)

To Kohlsmom and Mother_of_three:

My 8 year old son was on stimulants for 2 years and went from 25% percentile down to 5% percentile on height.  His weight has been fine since he is an eater and is also very muscular.  He is hands down the smallest kid in his 2nd grade class.  He's barely growing and we continue to be concerned.  He also had motor tics on the stims, but they weren't bad enough to pull him off.  His focus was great on stims, but he needed an extended release twice a day which is a fairly high amount for a 50 pound kid. 

We just switched to Intuniv which is a non-stimulant, non-controlled substance med that came out in Nov 2009.  It's a true once a day.  He's been off stims for almost 7 weeks now and has gained about 7 pounds and nearly an inch in height.  Even on the smallest dosage of 1 mg, his hyperactivity was gone (Kohlsmom this might help for your predominant problem).  Seemed like the miracle drug until we had to bump him up to 3 mg to get his focus/attention where it needed to be.  He is now struggling with mild incontinence, but this is not typical for a side effect and I'm having a hard time finding folks who have seen the same thing, so perhaps he's just a rare case.  Maybe Intuniv is something that you two would want to try out.

Just a cautionary statement....the first 3 days on each dosage of Intuniv (at least for our son), caused extreme drowsiness.   This passed completely after 3 days.  It happened on the 1 mg, 2mg, and 3mg adjustments.  I'm glad that I didn't pull him off of the med because of this since that side effect went away after his body adjusted.  Just wanted to give you a heads-up on that in case you try Intuniv.

Hope this info helps.  Good luck to all.

I am definately going to ask the doctor about Intuniv.  but I dont think they have it here, but you never know. Is it similar to Strattera? I am going to have to google it and see what I can find out.

I dont think they would let a child go from 25 percentil to 5percentil without stopping the medication here.

Editing: a quick search reveals it can be used for kids with itcs. My son has a tic, haven`t really seen it getting worse but he did start doing something weird with his eyes during taking concerta. This is by the way starting to go away.

Hmm, interesing!! I really wonder if this drug is to get into Norway!!!???

mother_of_three so sorry it took me so long to respond.

I am only telling you what we experienced with the medications, concerta in particular. My son as I mentioned also takes tenex/guanfacine - same thing one is genetic to the other - and that is the same as intuniv - this is the long acting version of it. It is the same as concerta being the long acting version of ritalin.

My son doesn't take intuniv nor have we looked into it because what we are doing is working. I understand that you still may need to tweek things a little still.

I have a lot of confidence in my son's med regime and guanfacine really helped him with the eating.

I think if you take him off of the meds it doesn't allow his body to adjust, but I am NOT a doctor, I would consult with your prescribing doctor. That is for sure.

BUT it also helped by keeping him on his med and he takes them 24/7 no weekends or holidays off and this allowed his body to adjust. It took us a year, but we dealt with it. We knew he ate and he ate very late but he did eat. He got skinny and wore slims, but he did adjust. Now we keep an eye on his calorie intake so he doesn't have a overweight issue.

I hope this helps.

My soon to be 8-years old son started on ritalin in april this year. After a month they wanted him to try out concerta - and it worked ok.

After 3 months I notice he did not grow ANYTHING since he started on the medication, and usually he grows a lot during the spring and summer.

Have anyone else had a stop in growing when taking ritalin/concerta?

The stimulant medications do tend to stunt growth (supposedly not permanently).  My now 8 year old has been on Focalin XR and various other stims for almost 2 years and he has gone from 25% percentile for height to 5% percentile on his last annual physical.  We recently took him off for the summer and are trying Intuniv which is a non-stimulant.  Good news is that he's getting a lot more sleep now and is visibly growing.  Bad news is that he's having issues with incontinence on this med.  Still waiting it out to see if that gets better, but it's been 6 weeks now. I will say that is focus/attention is not quite as good on Intuniv as it was on the stims, so we'll see how school goes on Intuniv.

Best of luck to you.

Thank you for answering.

I called his doctor when I found out he didn`t grow and she wanetd us to stop giving him the medicin. We are going back in a months time, and things are actually going OK without the medication.

Thinking about maybe giving him ritalin instead of concerta, since he didn`t seems to get hungry in the evening after it wore of either.

He gained over 3 pounds in 2 weeks time, so that is nice!

I'm really surprised that your doc did not know that stimulants can cause growth to slow.  Just a heads-up...ritalin is also in the stimulant family, so you may see similar effects as what you saw with the Concerta.  We've been on nearly all the stimulants at some point (our list includes Ritalin, Ritalin LA, Concerta, Focalin XR, Daytrana patch), and they all affected his growth, but every kid is different. 

Our son still had a decent appetite on these meds, but still no growth.  That's why we just switched to Intuniv (which is not a stimulant) since I'd like to allow his body some time to catch up on growth. 

I'm trying to avoid Adderall and Strattera (also not stimulants) since I've had some friends with unfavorable experiences with these for their kids.  My doc says that they can work for young kids, but results may be more unpredictable with mood and temperment in younger children versus teens.  But again, every child is different and what works for one may not for another.

Best of luck with your medication changes.  Hope it goes well.

Well, the doctor said that they could see that a child usually lost up to an inch of growth the first year, but it was not common that they stopped growing. She told me about Strattera, but I dont know.

I dont know how fast he will catch up on the lost growing, but I hope he`ll have a growth-spurt now soon.

I have not heard of Intuniv here (norway). I guess Strattera is the only non-stimulant medication there is.

Thank you for answering.

Just an update: he grew 1 cm (0,40 inches) in 4 weeks since being off the meds. 2 more weeks until we are going to the doctor, guess he`ll grow a bit more until then.

I am having a hard time what to do; he will have a hard time sitting still in class without his meds but if he takes it he might not grow...

He is right between 25% and 10% percentile, so it`s not THAT bad but still he is one of the lowest in his class (and year) so I dont want him to slip further down. He is 48,25inches and 50 lbs. Just turned 8 1 week ago.

I am the mother who gave her son the meds and his body adjusted after a year.

My son needs meds 24/7.

My only other thought is that you med on the school days and don't med on weekends and holidays/vacations. I read a lot of folks here doing that.

My son really needs a med that never leaves his system but strattera had WAY TOO MANY negative side effects for him.

So 24/7 for us but our son is gaining weight, and at times TOO much. We watch his calorie intake.

He is 13 and smack in the middle of puberty.

Bethann: I dont think I would hesitate to do that if he was over 50% percentile, but now that he is kinda small I am not sure of what to do. The doctor might not want him to take concerta/ritalin at all if she thinks he has not grown enough.

We did make sure he got enough calories every day, I would give him extra canola oil in his food (sneaky mom  ) and make sure we had food he liked that was nutritious and healthy. But he didn`t gain or grow anything, neither did he loose any weight. I think that is weird, and it makes me both curious and sceptical... He did not get his apetite back in the evening when the medicin wears off, as I read many kids do. (but he did not totally loose his apetite either, just felt full sooner and sometimes a bit nausea).

Do I sound confused or what?

No not confused, just not sure what to do for your child whom you love!

You are looking at it from all angles and you are a great mom!!

I understand your concern and I look forward to your posts.

One thing to mention, my son has told me that he forces himself to eat at school during lunch with others ( peer pressure) he never wants to stand out, but that his food doesn't taste the same. That may be what is happening to your son. Not sure?! but wanted to add that comment.

Thank you, Bethann, for your kind words.

About food tasting different, that might be so. I`m going to have to ask him, but it seems sometimes like he doesn`t want to talk about the medicins.

Is ambilify also a stimulant drug, or is it an non-stimulant?

I am really confused on what to do this fall - go back to medication or not. I hope the doctor can help us find a way. If we choose to try Strattera, how long time will it go before we notice anything?

Hi Cleo, My son is also 13 and keeps growing even though he has been taking concerta and guanafacine since he was turning 7. DS is 5ft6, 145lbs and plays defense in football and still growing. I think it may depend on the child and how they grow. We had a year with DS being skinny and wearing slims but that changed once his body adjusted to the meds. We now shop in the men's department.

Oh forgot to mention, his foot is a mens' 12 1/2 extra wide and still growing.

As I have understood, some kids will not get affected at all in their growth. Some will.

We are now on week 4 with Strattera, just meassured him again and he has grown well this last month. :) Going back to doctor in a months time, so going to meassure him then again and see if he`s still growing.

Hi all.

I just wanted to share that DS 13 has actually gone up the growth curve, even though he is on Concerta.

I don't know why - we are a pretty short family.

I guess each kid is different.

Hello again, just a quick update. :)

We went to the doctor again, she meassured him and he had grown an inch since med-start (4 months?) and most of this is actually after med-stop.

She wanted him to test Strattera. Since he has not been on any ritalin/concerta for 6 weeks now and is "clean" it is a perfect time to try it. So, tomorrow morning we will start giving him the first pill and then we will have to wait and see - it will probably take 4-6 weeks before we see any signs?

Ummm, well I hope Strattera will work for him. :)

My son had been on Concerta for several years on varying doses. Over the last year and a half I became concerned about his growth. He was always in the 75th or above on percentile height and had just stayed 4' 8 for over a year and 89 poungs. When I told the Pediatrian my concerns, she took a bone scan of his hand and referred me to a Pediatric endocrinologist at Children's Mercy Hospital in KC.  When I took him to his appointment the endo dr told me that he was almost postive it was the Concerta causing the delay in growth, and asked that since it was summer, would I consider taking him off all the meds and add in a nutritional supplement, Boost, in the evenings to increase his proteins, because he seemed on the verge of being malnurished even though he was eating, he wasn't growing or gaining weight.  I did as Dr. Feldz suggested and I am amazed at the difference in my son, he is now 4' 9.5" and 103 pounds, he is no longer at a standstill.

 The only downside is that as far as school is concerned, we have yet to find a non-stimulant med that helps with his adhd symptoms. So far Strattera didn't work, and after a short try of Vyvanse (which caused him to have migraines and be more aggressive) we are now going to try Intuiv....but all the research I have seen on it, only shows a 8-9 week study of its effect.  Any parents have any other input on the Intuiv?

To J&D's Mom:

We've tried everything (see my former posts on this topic), and were eager to get our son off of stimulants due to his lack of growth.  We switched to Intuniv about 4 months ago, and it's going ok.  Started with 1 mg, moved to 2mg after a week, and have been at 3 mg for three months now.  He's, eating, sleeping a whole lot more, and growing slowly, so we're encouraged.  He's put on some weight and grew 3/4" so far, so we plan to keep him on this for a while.  It's going ok, but not as good as the results we saw on stimulants.  However, we feel it's worth the trade-off to try this for a year and allow him to grow.  But I definitely think the stims were better for attention/focus since he's not breezing through school now but had in the past on stims.  We'll hang tight for a while.  Good luck with your son.