Andrewsmom:
We had the exact same experience with my 7 yr old nephew who was just recently diagnosed ADHD and has been on Concerta about 2 1/2 weeks. He too had never had to swallow a pill, and because the Concerta is a time-release you can't crush it up in something. That first morning was horrible...it took us about 30 minutes to get it down him (which isn't as bad as your experience). But we were all tired and frustrated before it was time to even start the day. Since then we have tried every method under the sun to make the pill swallowing easier.....practicing with mini M & M's, putting the pill at the back of the throat, taking a drink first, using a straw, etc. But the one that has worked the best for us is one of those sport squeeze bottles where they kind of have to suck the water out. It still takes one or two tries but he is swallowing them much better now. The first day he had an emotional meltdown at school and was emotional and moody at home, but over the past 2 weeks all the side affects have tapered off. If after 2 weeks your son is still having side affects or acting strangely, contact his doctor right away.
I just posted a reply to another message and I will append it to this message. I may be able to help. Our 6 year old was recently diagnosed with ADHD and we started him on adderall XR. When we met with our pediatrician, he chose adderall because it comes in a time release capsule which can be opened and sprinkled on applesauce or yogut, mixed in, and just swallowed. We did a test to see if our son could swallow a pill, and no way. It would have been a nightmare, just like you are going through. The adderall is really easy, and the time release coating make it last for 10-12 hours which is great. One dose in the morning and no issues with taking med's at school. I would talk to your doctors about switching.
Earlier post:
My son, who is 5 1/2 just started taking adderall for hyperactivity and ADHD. We had him tested and it confirmed what we and his kindergarten school suspected. He is extremely bright, but is hyperactive and has trouble with impulsive behavior.
The first week he took 5 mg of Adderall XR (time release) once a day and it had a little effect of calming him down. He had some trouble getting relaxed at bed time. The second week we upped it to 10 mg, once a day and it had a dramatic positive effect. His hperactivity is virtually gone and he started writing for long periods of time, where in the past he would avoid writing, (he started reading at 3, but his writing is way below his reading) and it was leaps ahead of where he was without the med's. Almost immediately, his teachers reported tremdous improvement in behavior. They asked what we did at home? Our pediatrician forbid us to tell the school until we settle on the dose. He wants un-biased (blind) feedback from the school. After about two weeks, we thought our son was still a little wild at home, and we upped the dose to 15 mg once a day (with the doc's consent).
Almost immediately, our son became very moody and emotional. He had a lot of trouble cooperating on play dates. After two days, we called the doc and we dropped him back to 10 mg, once per day. That will probably be our dose. Our son weighs about 45 pounds, so it makes sense based on the dose/weight recomendations for the drug.
As far as side effects go, we see a rebound effect when the stuff wears off. It lasts for 10-12 hours, so about 7 PM our son gets very wound up, at least compared to his relatively calm days, and is restless at bedtime around 8:30. So far that is the only negative. He is harder than normal to get to sleep. We hope this will go away with time.
The higher dose (15 mg) had the side effect of being very emotional, cried at the littlest thing, which has never been our son. We didn't stick with it very long, and the doctor said we could try to go up in the future. Maybe, but we are pretty happy with the results we see so far and will stay on the 10 mg for a while. You want to keep the dose as low as possible with these med's, so being on the low side is the safe side.
Mary- has your daughter been on the medication since Jan? Have you seen good results? We have tried now for 2 more mornings with no success. My little angel even tried to tell us he took the pill yesterday when he didn't! I was so mad! He finally "confessed" last nite that he lied and never took it at all! I explained that is not doing him any good and only hurting himself. I now have a call into the Doctor to see what else we can try. Ruth
my daughter did the same thing to use. We have her on Adderall XR and it can be opened and put over applesauce but NOT chewed or crushed. If this med doesnt work i dont know what we will do.
By the way i am new here. My daughter is 7 and found to be AD/AH in January. Mary
This morning was our first experience trying to get my 9 year old to take a pill. He was diagnosed yesteray and today we were to begin Concerta. I know you cannot crush it. We were in a good mood at first tried putting it in a spoonful of pudding- that didn't work. Then we tried getting him to swallow it w/ juice he was sucking from a straw. That didn't work. He finally just refused to even try again. I pleaded with him to swallow it but I could tell after 45 min of trying that he wouldn't be able to swallow anything (probably didn't eat lunch at school). I told him I would have to ground him until he would try again to take the pill. By the time we left home to go to school/work we in a bad mood for sure!
I guess we'll be trying again in the morning- At least you all got your kids to take the pill finally- we never even got it down-- if anyone has any suggestions please help!
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