rlogansmom
Clonidine?how many times a day is he on it?Whats he on it for?Sorry about all the questions,just trying to help.My little girl was on concerta for 2 years to help her focus for ADHD combined type and last weeek we went to the university of NC where they evaluted her and took her off of that,she is now on clonidine 3 times a day half a pill in the am half of pill at noon and a whole pill at 6 pm and she is on melatonin 1 mg to help her sleep.She seems to be having less mood swings but she is so tired all the time.We go back to the doctors this coming friday to discuss how this med is working.The one thing I notice though is i was thinking to cut the pill to a forth but by noon she is so hyper she is in need of more and if i cut it badck to a fourth then oh my by 10 we will need more to help her focus at schhol.this med thing is crazy,its like you like some effects but the others you really dont know.I will update you on how my little girl is doing.Please do the same.How old is your son?
Have a great Day!!!!!!!!!
I finally saw the pychiatrist for my son. I can't decide if I liked him or not. He put Logan on Clonidine. Has anyone had their child on this med? It definitly calms him down but he is tired so we are cutting the pill into 1/4 to see if it works better. (doc suggested) How did this work for your child?I haven't updated anyone on how it is going with the Clonidine. My son is doing GREAT on the med. He is getting 1/4 of a pill (0.1 mg) at 7:30 and again at 12:00. He makes it through the morning with preschool and then lunch at daycare. He crashes HARD at 12:30 and then wakes up at 3:00. He has a great rest of the day and goes down a lot easier at 8:30 for bedtime. We haven't had any problems with the medication except the sleeping thing. That is only a problem when it comes to making plans around nap time. I don't mind him skipping a nap during the day but he literally falls asleep walking around. This is the 3rd med we have tried and the only one that isn't time released. I have talked to some parents that have said that time released meds don't work on their child and the short term ones work because there is constant dosage. This just might be what my child needs. I am taking him to the Nerologist the first of June. I want to know if he is truly ADHD or if he just needs to mature. He has changed a lot since we have started this journey but I don't know if it is the meds, counceling, mature or all the above. We will see.Wow!! That sounds like a different drug than my child is on. That is amazing that you feel that way. I am surprised that someone put you on the Clonidine for that long too. My understanding is that this med is initially meant to lower blood pressure and shouldn't be given to older children and teenagers because of the chemical difference. For some reason, it doesn't lower young children's blood pressure. I don't know the exact reason this happens. I also heard it is difficult to come off the meds but I have decided to not put him on it sometimes on the weekend due to sleepiness and he seems fine. We are seeing a psychologist, a psychiatrist and next month, a nerologist. I think I am covered. Thanks for the insight on the long term effects. I will keep it in mind.Yeah I'm sure he will probably be fine. It's just when I saw that your son just started seeing this guy and put him on clonidine it hit me that maybe it's a wrong decision and didn't want another kid to have to go through what I did. I don't believe I needed clonidine though everyone is different I dont know your son or know his behavior and disposion but I just felt that I had to share my experiance coming off it and how an RN put me on it the first time i met her, because I really do get extremely angry when I think about it sometimes, but that is great that your seeing all those professionals. The nero psychologist will probaly have the best knowledge out of the 3 and I would do what he believes needs to be done, because unlike the other 2 he uses REAL test on the brain and can see images of it and understand, and also be able to do what the other 2 can.I had to take clonadine when I was younger because of an RN who i was seeing for my parents divorce and I dont think I needed it, I dont really remeber alot about what it was like on it because I was young but i rember stoping taking it about 4 years ago and it wasn't fun made me really irritable i also toom it with concerta for about 2 months. I dont know much about the drug to give you alot of infromation just that I remeber when I decided I didnt want to take it anymore it made me wicked irritable and Im not even sure if it has anything to do with my anger sometimes today. I can reccomend though that if he is a young child 12 and under even if hes older atleast see the pyschiatrist for a few more weeks because this RN put me on zoloft and clonadine afte rthe first time meeting with her and I didnt even express that I was depressed or angry, honestly at the time I was happy my parents were spliting up. Let this guy get to know your son better even maybe take him to another pyschatrist for a second opinion. I still have resentment and get very upset when I think back to my mom allowing this woman to put me on these pills that I believe messed me up because since taking those pills my life went down hill and before I took them yeah I had some concentration problems but I was a healthy active happy kid. I know how I feel about being on those pills at 11 years old and my mom allowing it, you have to think about this very seriously because I love my mom very much she's allways been there for me no matter what I did or what I've said but I can't say that deep down I dont have resentment. Please for your sons sake take him to anothe rpyschiatrist and have him deciide after a few meetings if he believes your son belongs on the clonadine because it really can impact his future and your relationship with him. Im not trying to tell you your wrong for giving him the pills the pyschiatrist prescribed your being a responsible parent by doing so but I really think you should have him checked out for a 2nd opinion because It did make me lazy and gain weight but also when I stoped taking it I cannot even tell you the irritability level I had and even now as a 17 year old the anger I have that some RN put me on serious pyschiatric medicines after meeting me once and my mom allowing it.
This is my first time in the message boards and I wish I would have found it sooner.I have a 5yr old boy who has been on clonidine for about a month now. He is always tired and will sleep for 4 hours in the afternoon if allowed. This is such a drastic change in him from the adderal. He had to be taken of the adderal because he developed a tic and the irritability was too intense.Iwas wondering if anyone would know if this extreme fatigue will improve in the near future or maybe this isn't the drug for us.The past few days he has been saying he does'nt like the way the pills make him feeland he wants the adderal instead.He is currently on 1/2 tab in the am and 1/2 tab in the afternoon.I don't se how he will be able to function like this in a fullday school program next year.
Thanks for listening Teresa.
Teresa T.,
You might want to try a 1/4 of a pill in the AM and 1/4 on or around lunch. When we first started Logan on the med, we were at 1/2 and he was ALWAYS tired. Now that he is use to it a bit, he is doing great at school. I give him 1/4 at 7:30 when I drop him off at school and 1/4 at about 12:00. Recently, he has actually been staying awake at nap time which is different than a couple of weeks ago. I would give the meds a try for a little bit longer and talk to the doc about reducing the dosage. Logan is also sleeping without a struggle at 8:30. Better beahavior, a nap AND going to bed at a decent time without a tantrum? I would take that any day. Let me know what the doc says or what you decide...
My daughter is on Clonidine. I am a huge fan. We have also gotten in the routine of taking it at 6p.m. every night. She will go to bed by 8p.m. and is up and "sunny" by 6a.m. to get ready for school (we hit the road for school by 6:30). My dr. tried the opposite of quartering the pill by increasing the dosage so that her system became saturated with the med so she would not be so "drugged". Good Luck!!I thought clonidine was only given at night to help kids sleep if they were having trouble. Usually because there daytime med (ritalin, adderall etc) was causing sleep problemsMy son has been on Clonidine for 2 1/2 years now and he is 6 1/2. At first we we doing the same thing as you were by breaking them into quarters. After about 2 months or so he body started to adjust. Now we give him 2 1/2 mg of clondine a day, spaced between the day at 1/2 pills and a whole one before bed so that he can sleeps through the night. We have had great success on this. I should say that he still wants to take a nap on some days after kindergarten. This is something that we just discussed with his doctor because of next year going into 1st grade (all day). He has recommend that we start Adderal, however, after reading several posts I'm not sure if I want to go with this route.
I think this is a drug that you have to experiment with to get the right dosage. It took us awhile but be patient. Their bodies eventually even out.
On a side note, please make sure you get a heart scan atleast once a year to make sure their is no side effects on their bloodpressure.