Concerta | ADHD Information

My son was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder) half-way through kindergarten age 5.  He was very hard to handle for my husband and I and very agressive with his older sister.  I was deadset against medication.  After much trial and error with school and home life we decided to try medication.  The doctor started him on Concerta 18mg when he was six years old.  He handled this very well but had a real hard time going to bed.  The doctor then prescribed Clonidine .05 mg. (pills come as .1mg. have to split in half) to give to him at night around 6:00 p.m. in order for him to sleep at night.  He did very well like this for the past year.  Then we started having problems again  with him going to bed at night staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning on school nights.  The doctor then upped his night medication to 1 full pill.  It is working again but I am scared for him.  I check on him several times a night and at daycare as soon as he is home.  I live in fear that his medication will cause other problems for him like his heart, liver, kidneys etc.  I am taking him to the doctors soon for a complete blood work up just to be sure the medication isn't causing any harm.  He sometimes has headaches about 1 a month and has trouble wetting the bed so we use pull-ups but for the most part he is great.

Hi, my son is eight years old, diagnosed with add and 27 mg of concerta. He has tried other medications, this one has the best overall effect except he can not fall to sleep. I have tried melatonin, but it seems like i have to increase the dose and I feel that would not be the right thing to do. He has also just started taking lexapro at nite, for anxiety, etc. , and i am not sure if i will keep him on that. My main question is does anyone know the normal dose for an eight year old on concerta? I realize everyone is different, but I would be interested to know if maybe he needs more of a dose, that is why he has problems falling asleep? THen again, this could be just an effect this medicine has on him, problem is, i am not sure what else to try. Any comments would be appreciated.

 

thanx for answering, my son takes his meds no later than 8 am every morning. Like everyone else, i get so nervous having to give him different meds. I go to the doctor next, i will see what she says, but like a said, i hate to switch add meds, i tried stratterra about two months ago, but then he would fall asleep in school in the morning from that, so i went back to concerta. I wish there was an easy solution..................

My son takes his Concerta at 7:00 a.m. every day.  I try to keep it as consistent as possible.  It is usually a little later on the weekends but mostly by 8:00.  I don't know he still doesn't get sleepy at night.  Not at all.  But when I give him his night medication is asleep between 8:00 and 8:30 without fail.

My 8 year old daughter is on concerta 27mg also. She is doing well with this dose.  She has no problem falling asleep.  - In fact, before meds she would stay up all night and not go to bed until the next night. - She takes her pill at around 7:30 in the morning. When does your son take his?? Because I found that when I forget to give her her pill (she usually reminds me) - and I give it to her late 10:30 or 11:00 she is up all night.  --- (that sometimes happens on weekends and in summer) ------ So maybe that could be the problem - that he gets his meds too late???  Her meds do wear off in the evening tho - I can predict her behavior at certain times - But she usually is tired and falls asleep at a 1/2 way decent time.       

My daughter is 7 and she is on 36mg of Concerta.  She has on and off sleeping problems with either the inability to stay asleep or the inability to fall asleep.  We have been giving her melatonin at night (about 7:00pm).  I am not sure it is helping and we have not tried increasing the dose (I believe 1mg).   he has been on concerta for over a year, he does well with it except for sleeping............How long has your child been on the Concerta?  My kids had trouble falling asleep for the first 2-3 weeks but now they are fine.  If they take the weekends off their meds, then they have trouble getting to sleep Monday and sometimes Tuesday night.I think that you should talk to your doctor about decreasing her meds.  That is an awful lot for a 7 year old.  My son is 7 and is on 18 mg. Concerta and .1 Clonodine and doing just fine.  The clonodine does cause bedwetting and nightmares.  We are going to put him back on a 1/2 a pill of the clonodine and just keep his sleeping pattern consistent but I would be really weary of the 56 mg. Concerta and the .3 of Clonodine.  Clonodine is originally a heart medication and may do some damage at such a high dose for a small child.  I would really talk to the doctor about that.  I hate giving my son any medication at all but he really does well at school and home with it.My little girl is 7 years old and weighs 40 lbs she is on concerta 54 mg and clonidine 0.3 mg for sleeping,i do not no what the problem is she is not sleeping and she is having bad mood swings and sad a lot latley,they just uped her concerta from 36mg to 54 mg,i gotta get her back to the doctors cause she cant function for school with no sleep.Traceyj,I do have a apt for my little girl for monday andwe are gonna discuss all this,i hate giving her all this medication yes the concerta the doc just put from 36mg to 54 and i am reading that this could be why she is not sleeping is that true do u know?even giving her 0.3 clonidine she is still not sleeping and they say that this is the highest dose that they can give her.Thanks so  much for ur comments.

I guess i have come to the conclusion that everyone reacts differently to medication...my last try for the sleep issue, my doctor prescibed 18 mg of strattera at nite, cause when i was trying different add meds in the beginning, stratterra made him fall asleep, in class usually, so i went back to concerta, tried the combo of both, it did work but he seemed grouchy in the am........i just feel bad for my son...i wish i had the right answer for meds, but it is trial and error......so i am back to the melatonin, 3 mg,. and it works.

thanx for all the input.