7 yr old taking concerta and scaring me.

My 7 year old started concerta about 7 months ago. He start on a low low dose and as he got used to it and as the teachers seen no improvement his Dr continued to increast the dose, he is up to 36mg and I do not think this medication is for him.
He is violent towards himself, very hard on himself ~ bangs his own head, slaps himself, and feels that he needs to punish himself when he causes harm to someone else even by accident.
He says, he feels like he is going crazy sometimes, Not something you expect to hear from a 7 yr old.  He is also very very emotional ~ this is not like my son at all, he seems to have lost some of his intelligence as he began this medicine. Like he will take 3 times to say a sentence ?
Is it odd that his meds seem to work on one day and then not the next ? despite taking it at the same time everyday ? Is it completely odd that at at 5:15pm (10 hrs exactly from the dose time) he goes tempermental and starts bouncing off the walls and literally climing the door casings, trashing the house and causing complete chaos. Is it ok that he is up til 1-2 AM cause he just cant 'make his mind stop racing or his body stop moving" as he says. I have basically banned sugar from my house, since my DH is a diabetic and we eat healthy so diet has nothing to do with it (well other than special occasions) he has a reward chart, that means the word to him until 5:15 and a routine. All kids are in bed by 8, and then I chase him around for 4-5-6 hours trying to get him to settle down before waking up everyone else.

He has a Dr's appointment on 12/10/07 and I would really like to enforce a med change, but I feel obliged to just listen to the DR. I do not want him on Concerta, Its not the med for him.

[Momtoteenboys]

That problem in the evening is called rebounding, and its from the "down" of the meds leaving his body.  My son had difficulty with that too while on Concerta.  We had to use a very low dose of Focalin (2.5 mg) to get through that period without all of the emotionality.

[archer0000]

Hello I too, have a 7 yr old son who is on concerta (he just started it last friday) He was on strattera for the last 3 yrs but it seemed to not work for him anymore. SO since he has been on Concerta he has been very anxious almost like he has anxiety.  ALSO he is constantley on the go, running around climbing the walls... HE WAS NOT like this on Strattera, he stays up almost half the night cause he cant sleep SO I KNOW WHAT your saying.this is NOT how he has EVER been. I called the Dr today and they told me to just wait it out and let the medicine take its course, I dont think this medicine is good for him ( call it mother;s intuition) I just know it Keep in Touch I really would like to talk to someone who understands what I am going through Good luck with your Dr appt

[PGB]

Concerta had the same effect on my 8 year old son.  I only gave him one dose of it too.  I called the oncall phone # that night and told the doctor that I absolutely REFUSED to give him that medicine any more.  He switched him to Strattera then, and he does wonderful on it.  BUT, my dh's cousin takes Concerta and he does wonderful on it.  It was the Strattera that gave him problems.  So, maybe it's not the med for him.  Maybe you should really push the doc to let you try another med.  Not everyone will take the Concerta and react badly to it, nor will everyone react wonderfully to it.

[Momtoteenboys]

That is very true.  I responded above about rebounding.  My son used Concerta successfully for 2 years before anxiety started.  He was about 10 then, and I suspected it was related to impending puberty.  My other son had also taken it successfully for a while with anxiety starting at around the same age.  We were unsuccessful with Strattera, and did a stint on Adderall (adderrall) XR, but that was stopped due to a family gistory of heart disease.  My son now takes Focalin XR and it is by far the best medication he has taken in terms of results and no side effects.  My older son will not take meds now becasue of the Concerta reaction he had 5 years ago, and its a shame becasue he really needs them.

[JParker12379]

Thank you for your responses. I am sorry there are other children suffering from the "rebounding" that hits in the evening-midnight hours. I am well prepared for Jason's followup with his Dr in December, I will not be leaving his office without a new RX to try.
Jess

[archer0000]

I just wanted to let you know, that I took my son to the Dr today, he switched him back to Strattera and upped the dosage (sine he was doing fine on it with no side effects) Thankgoodness, I felt so bad for my son he was telling me his hair was crawling like bugs in his hair, he was so emotional and way out of control his hyperness was severe. I am starting his strattera tommorow I will post his updates.  Good luck with your sons Dr appoitnment

[nyychic]

Some children when they go on med's like ritilin concerta etc. than they need help sleeping some doctors use hydroxazine (a rx for benedryl) or clonidine (this one is different it's my second choice my son needs this one and I cannot get him off of this it is a blood pressure medicine that allows the child to fall asleep) it is a tough decision.  Two of my sons are on concerta and we are okay with it my oldest son needs to be upped on his dose it's starting to not work as well.  With your son I would request that they actually change his meds to adderal or ritilin.  I prefer ritilin myself adderal had the neg effects on my son like you are experiencing with yours.  This is not an absolute science.  Your doctor needs to help you find the right medicine for your child.  Good luck!

[cardozaamy1980]

i wanted say that i have daughter with adhd she 8 years old and at one time i had her on concerta twice and she went through what ur son went through and so i took her off it... I went through alot with her when she was on that.... Concerta was bad medicine for my daughter she takes stratera (Strattera) shes been on it for 3 years straight then they wanted switch her i said ok then that happen she got mean, hateful she wouldnt sleep so i know where ur coming from she bounced off walls oh yeah... I hope u found the right meds for ur son... I been through so many meds with my daughter... Stratrea seemed to best for her.... Well good luck

[Eva670]

My 8.5 yr old daughter was advised to go on Ritalin for the combination of ADD/Turette's syndrome one year ago. We refused as these types of meds interfere with kid's developing brains and predispose them for future street drugs additions. I have a medical knowledge and things did not make sense to me. We started seening alternative practitionaires- a naturopath and homeopath. It was a long process - learning about nutrition, reading labels and lots of books. It turned out that our daughter had allergies to milk's protein - cassein, gluten, chocolate, artificial food colors, dust, cats and deficiencies in zinc, calcium and magnesium. All of that was the reason for her neurological problems. Our daughter is PERFECTLY FINE now when she is eating a healthy and a low sugar diet. We noted that she also benefits from a daily use of fish oil (Omega 3), Probiotics and a liquid multivitamin and magnesium supplement. If this seems to be her medication for life- so be it! This difficult experience was my inspiration to go back to school and become a Registered Nutrition Practitioner to work with kids who are overdiagnosed with ADD and other behavioural disorders. Did you know that majority of ADHD/ADD cases are nutritional disorders? Get your child tested for allergies and run a hair analysis to check for heavy metals and minerals deficiencies. Good luck!

[jetiduncan]

We have tried every supplement out there and our son is on a GF/CF diet.  He has CELIAC disease which causes neurological disorders and we are now going to try Concerta for short trial to see if it helps him....

We'll see......  

I too don't agree with drugs but Celiac disease does have a connection with neurological disorders and we are in the we have to find an alternative NOW as he is having MAJOR issues at school and we have a complete DINK for a principal.  NOT good with dealing w/ kids with disabilities, etc.  If your child is well and healthy you do well in his school.  IF your child has a medical impairment you are in trouble.

[darlene38]

i had a similiar experience with concerta these types of behaviour, and because body tics were so bad, he had been prescribed prozac to combat those and anxiety made worse by concerta. also had issues sleeping..so then comes clonidine.....when the md heard a tape i made of my son speaking of hurting someone else and possibly hurting himself and me ...and that he was chewing the inside of his lip so bad that it took 2 weeks to heal and left a scar, he was taken off concerta and clonidine and half dose of prozac...some stimulants are not tolerated well by some kids that really do need them..do date my son is in therapy, and coming down off all those meds were hard. but it didn't help that he was misdiagnosed adhd since age 5 when he has nld which is similiar to asperger's......now trying natural meds to see if there is any help to be had....

not easy being a parent to a special needs child.....

[gel852]

I totally understand everyone that has a child that has to be put on concerta cause the same thing is happen with my son but the major problam that I am having is that he is not wanting to do anything at school and I'm getting calls from the teacher that he just wants to put down his head and not do anything, am wondering if it is the concerta that is making him do this? Cause i want to find a way where he does not take medicine because he is also losing wieght and I DONT  like that at all he was wieghting 95 pounds and just six month he wieghts 80 pounds and since am not used to seeing him like this I want to get him off and see if there is other things that could be done?      

[dollyn]

Hi  I just read this,I am kind of new to this site and hope you read what I have to say.

first look this up if you have not already  http://adhd.emedtv.com/concerta/concerta-side-effects.html.

You will see that one of the side effects to conerta are seizures.

When I saw what you had to say about your son is the same this I use to get form my son teacher at school ,and telling my son doctor about what was happening a few time's.
he finally sent my son for an egg because one day the school nurse said she thou my son may be having seizures and his doctor thou it would come back normal and to our surprise it did not.

you see my son was doing the same as you son was at school ,because he was and still is having night time seizures.And you can't always tell when he is having them.
and now he is having 3 different kind of seizures and the medicines he is on is not working.To the point that he just had the VNS surgery and not we have to wait and see if this will help him and try take him off some of his 5 medicines that he takes for just his seizures.

and he is not on any medicine for the add or the adhd.they can make seizures worse and I wont put him back on anything that can cause more problems to his brain.

they now think my son has lenoxx gastro syndrome.witch you can look up.

I do pray that no other child  and parent has to go threw what my
mine  has ,the side effects to these medicines can not be reversed.

[dollyn]

I forgot to add that my son was on aderall at  first before he went onto the conerta,but was not until he was on the conerta that he got worse,because his teacher said the aderall was not working and that is why he was changed to the conerta.

wish I had not put him on anything.

there are also other things going on with children,it doesn't always have to be adhd and wish doctors would check for everything before starting people on these medinces.and also they would find out better info after being on the medicines what is doing what to people.

thank you and hope to help people so they don't have to go threw what my son and my family have to go threw every day.

[the_cube]

I think that ADHD does not exist, there are just wild children in a child-hostile society and an evil combination of stressed parents, doctors beliving in drugs, and a greedy pharma industry.
Don't let chemicals destroy the brains of your children!
If there are so many ADHD kids like it seems, how did mankind cope with that 100 years ago, before concerta&co ??

[dougturnsy]

Yeah it's rebounding, being a kid who's gone through that I understand it. I haven'tread all the replies but if it hasn't been mentioned often the issue is the child's lost his appetite when he's on the medication, so he doesn't eat as much, his blood sugar levels decrease and he becomes short tempered etc. This isn't the sole cause of the problem but it would be a lot easier to handle if he ate properly during the day, which if he's at school will of course be very difficult to control, so try and get him to eat when you get him home, it's unlikely that even then he'll want to so try and make it something he will eat, even junk foods better than nothing. And to the reply to the above comment, the disorder exists, but the label shouldn't, ignorance is bliss. I've learnt that.

[Sandman2]

  Hey, mankind coped without antibiotics and all that led to was a lot of unnecessary deaths.  To make an argument that just because it was dealt with a hundred years ago without medication is the reason why it was not around is not real scientific.  
  There is ongoing research pointing out that the early exposure to chemicals, pollutants, etc. (which increased dramatically during the last 30/40 years) to our children is part of the problem.  Anyway, there is a lot of scientific proof to show that ADHD does exist.  And yes, it is certainly over diagnosed due to many of the reasons you mentioned.

[Psamathos]

Since nobody seems to be tackling any real problems here.
I hope the situation is under control at this point, I think so since it has been years.
I am an ADD patient myself and have used concerta and ritalin in small doses.
I have had the same effects as you describe about your son. These strange fits were very rare to me, but I sometimes wrote down what I felt like at that moment. It really helped me to analyse at a later time what had been going on, since my mind didn't really function at the moment that I was feeling so strange.
to anyone that feels the same or has children that feel the same, make sure that there are times when they do NOT use the substance. they can feel the difference between normal (ADD/ADHD) and medicine-induced life. writing down exactly what you feel is nice too for later judgement.

[AG96]

Hey, I read what you wrote and I believe I know what might be your son's problem.
I am 13 and I have ADHD, my dad has ADHD and BIPOLAR.
I think your son might have Bipolar. Symptoms are similar to ADHD.
Except the are depressed for longer, want to be alone the WHOLE time and are very suicidal. My dad is using a pill called EPILIM. It is specially made for people who have Bipolar.
Try it, it might help. Best of Luck!

[TainaLinda]

Mankind dealt with it by burning such children at the stake as witches and demons during the Middle Ages, committing children to psych wards in the 50s and 60s, incarcerating and removing children from the families, and other such atrocities because science had not yet considered children important enough to include in their studies.  In fact, science still does not consider women or children as important as males in conducting their studies, etc.  However the more important point is that we have children that come from ALL walks of society suffering with this very REAL disability and they struggle day in and day out.  You are entitled to your belief and choices, just make sure they are well informed.

[inthenow05]

I believe it does exist. I believe it existed back then as well but it has taken until now to figure out what the condition is and how to deal with it. The meds are simply to help the kids focus so they can manage dealing with day to day activities, especially school, that even seem overwhelming for someone without ADHD. It is much more severe in some than others. It has nothing to do with any over-stressed parents but it can cause a parent to be over-stressed. For you to make a statement like this tells me you have never dealt with this up close or on a personal nature.