anyone been on concerta????

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littlemommyjenn
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
anyone been on concerta????
4
 Thu, 03-27-2003 - 7:38pm
The doc took dd off of dexidrine time release because she was a "out of control" child when she came down off it. He put her on concerta 18mg in the am only (which i wanted). Has anyone heard of this med? Did it work? What are your thoughts about it? She is seven yrs old and is ADD.
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kathy_in_ga
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: littlemommyjenn
anyone been on concerta????
 Thu, 03-27-2003 - 8:01pm
Hi. am not sure which med you are refering to. My son took dexerine & we had to take him off it after 2 days. Was an awful sight! Concerta is extended ritalin. My son can't take any form of ritalin, so he is on Adderall.
lealavendar
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
In reply to: littlemommyjenn
anyone been on concerta????
 Thu, 03-27-2003 - 8:15pm
My son took concerta for awhile. I think it was about a year. But we found that it kept him up far too late at night. The length of time it was in his system was just too long for him personally. Some kids do great on it however. We found Metadate ER to work better for us, and he is able to go to sleep at a more reasonable hour.
2sweetlilcritters
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-26-2000
In reply to: littlemommyjenn
anyone been on concerta????
 Thu, 03-27-2003 - 9:47pm
We've been using Concerta now for about a month and a half. My DS is also 7, but he is on 27 mg. (The doctor didn't even KNOW there was a 27 mg dose until I told him). I like that it lasts all day. I do notice that he is sometimes a little more emotional in the afternoons with homework. We also had problems with him staying up WAY late. How late, I don't know, because I'd fall asleep first. This has been helped with Melatonin. His teacher says that he is fine and seems happy. My DS also takes his on weekends if we have anything planned - soccer games, church, etc.

Concerta is basically a time release form of Ritalin. According to my SIL (who had 2 kids on it), there is a Ritalin coating on the outside, so you get the immediate dose of Ritalin. Then the capsule itself has a tiny hole in it. After you swallow it, the medication in the capsule slowly expands due to body heat and slowly escapes by the hole in the capsule. Like I said - that's SIL's version.

Before we tried Concerta, we were on Ritalin for nearly a year.

Karen

 


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keke0116
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: littlemommyjenn
anyone been on concerta????
 Fri, 03-28-2003 - 5:23am
Kevin took Concerta (successfully) for 15-18 months. He started on 18 mg, which was eventually increased to 36. This was our miracle-drug, if there is one, and we were quite happy with the results. What was great about this, for us, is that not only did this help with the ADHD issues, but the ODD behaviors (which Kevin also has) basically disappeared (after years of struggling.) What I did was have the doc prescribe this in 2-18 mg. doses, and I would give him one tablet before he even woke up (like at 6:30) so by the time he had to get up (7:15) the med was already working, and our mornings became much more pleasant. (36 mg on an empty stomach bothered him ... and splitting the dose like this doesn't give the FULL effect, but the 2 were taken close enough to not make that much of an issue.)

We felt this was losing it's effectiveness recently, so the doc has put him on Strattera. That's not working as well ... so they added 18 mg of Concerta to the Strattera, which seems to be giving him that extra boost.

Not all meds work the same for all kids ... but for us, Concerta was a big thumbs up!

Nancy

Nancy 

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