Concerta and growth in children
Common Questions and Answers about Concerta and growth in children
concerta
You definitely are correct. Concerta and all the other stim drugs are not cures for ADHD and have never been given as a cure. Unfortunately, due to uninformed, too busy, or lazy (?) doctors and parents - it has been treated as the 'cure" - and the child never has learned coping skills.
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My daughter is 5 years old and has ADHD. She recently went on the drug Concerta, then her PCP prescribed cetirizine as well for hay fever that I didn't even realize she had. On a routine cardiology check for the Concerta meds, the cardiologist discovered my daughter had PACs. The cardiologist took her off all of her meds for 10 days and did another EKG. She still had the PACs even off meds. Now my daughter is on atenolol 2 mL per day, Concerta, and cetirizine all together.
As you are probably learning, any condition along the Pervasive Developmental Disorder spectrum can range from mild to severe, and among the PDD conditions Asperger's Disorder in general is the least severe. And among children who diplsay Asperger's Disorder, the condition also has varying degrees of severity. The medication plan sound sensible. In many areas there are support groups for families of children with this conditon.
He has slowly increased to 20 mg in the morning. His teacher and myself (my son too) have noticed a postitive change in his work output at school and during homework sessions. Two of the side effects are of great concern to me. My son can't sleep until well after 10:30 pm. (we are trying Melatonin, but haven't found the right dosage). The other side effect that is most troubling is the loss of appetite. When we went to see his specialist, 6 days ago, he'd lost 4.
My son is 15 years old and for as long as I can remeber he has always been very unhappy & extremely angry. He's been in & out of therapy (counseling) since he was 4 years old. We had NEVER concidered medication until about 8 months ago.
My son was tired of not being liked, feeling angry, sad and felt he needed help beyond just counseling.
Just back from doc. They believe the elevation is due to his massive growth spurt. He is 14 years old and 6'3". Hope that is it. We will see in a month.
came every night like clock work my kids turned in to monsters like the warewolf does when the sun goes down in the movies .There was no order and the fighting and hitting and screaming and jumping and total disrespect to others in the house the entire 9 yards !So the Dr add a dose of Risperdal at night to help curve the extreme behavior changes when the pill wore off .
My 6-yr daughter has been under the car of a pediatric endocrinologist for 18 months due to delayed growth. She dropped to the 0.8% in both height and weight. The dr has tested all her hormone levels with just a standard blood test, as well as testing her for Turner syndrome and celiac disease, but everything came back normal. She is now on an appetite stimulant, which has certainly caused her to eat more, but I still haven't seen much growth.
I know there are a lot of children that have been told they have add or adhd and autism that where later told they have Seizures. And where on drugs for add and adhd.
How many new the side effects of the drugs they where on could cause Seizures? And didn't find out about having Seizures until they where on these drugs like adderall and Concerta.
She had a huge growth spurt last summer, growing 4 inches in about 5 months and gaining about 30 lbs! The rheumotologist thought the pain in her joints and muscles might be related to that. He took blood and said it was all normal except for being a bit low in Vitamin D and calcium. She spends alot of time on her computer, as well. I was wondering if these things could be related to the growth spurt or sitting at her computer and/or if the twithching might be a side effect of the Concerta?
Since Melatonin is the master hormone that controls sleep patterns, many parents find that it will induce sleep in their ADHD children and help to alleviate the insomnia and sleep disturbances that go along with ADHD and ADHD treatment. Melatonin has been shown to reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, lengthen the time one stays asleep, and increase daytime alertness.
As far as I know, the only two are intuniv and concerta. They use different formulations. No clue which is better. I think it probably depends on the individual. Both do take a while to take effect (compared to a stimulant). If you google them, you will be able to see lots of anecdotal posts on how it worked for that poster or their children.
Hope this helps.
My son who is 8 was taking concerta 36 mg but was having side effects such as sleep and eating problems, now we have him on Addreall xr and he is doing fantastic in school sleeping no problem but will not eat all day he dosen't even want breakfast in the morning, as a parent I know he needs the med for school but I am afraid of what no eating will do to his little body, is there any other drugs out there that has little or no symptoms, I feel at my witts end!
My daughter is nearly 11 years old and has been taking Concerta (now on 36mg) since March. The doctor recommended a switch to Strattera for the reason that it works 24 hours (Concerta is effective for only 12 hours) and will help my daughter concentrate more. I have no idea whether Strattera is a better alternative, can anyone tell me if this is true?
Many thanks for reading my post
We took our 8 year old daughter, who has a twin sister also, we took one of our twins to a neuro/physiologist and he did lots of test's on our daughter and found she has ADD.I don't know how this hasn't been picked up before, anyway, she was then sent to a consultant pediatrician that deals in ADD ADHD and he also diagnosed her with ADD, both Dr's have told us she will catch up in time, our twins weren't premature, The Dr gave her concerta.
My main concern now is that they (his doctor and mother) have elevated his drug regimine to include 3 drugs that have known interactions with each other, 1 (Concerta) that is known to potentially cause sudden death, and 2 (Clonidine and Zolpidem) that are not recommended for children. Although Strattera does have some potential side effects, I believe it is by far the safest.
I have child that was also on Concerta 36. There are two types of this medication. Concerta and Concerta CR which is controller release, I believe it was called. However, I found that concerta is not a very effective drug for dealing with ADHD.
You might want to have the school give her the second dose at 1pm at school, this way it will avoid the medicine lapsing while she is at school.
Your doctor contacts the company and will probably get some paper work for you and then you and he fill that out. Concerta is generic so it throws a monkey wrench into this but you could try to work with the original manufacturer of brand name concerta. Otherwise, generics are typically not as dreadfully expensive. Are there any job opportunities on the horizen that offer insurance?
good luck (make sure you are seeng a psychiatrist for your comorbid conditions).
MY SON HAS BEEN ON CONCERTA FOR 7YRS AND IT IS WONDERFUL HE HAS ADHD. MY DAUGHTER HAS ADHD AND ODD, CONCERTA GAVE HER TICS AND FINALLY I FOUND A GREAT DOCTOR AND SHE TOOK HER OFF STIULANTS AND THEY ARE ALL GONE SHE IS NOW ON TENEX AND IS A NEW CHILD. SOMETIME IT IS JUST TRIAL AND ERA TILL YOU FIND THE RIGHT DRUG, AS YOU COULD SEE WITH MY DAUGHTER, AND BELIEVE ME WE TRIED ABOUT 10 OR MORE TILL WE GOT IT RIGHT.
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