Daughter taking Concerta for the first time ... Questions

Debbie - posted on 03/23/2009

She's on her 3rd day and she only complained about the stomach pain for the first day. I explained to her that it could have been something else as well since she's had stomach aches before.



How long does it take for them to possibly lose their appetite? I keep waiting for it, but my daughter's appetite appears to have gotten better (although she did start over the weekend and it was a very active weekend).



She's in a lot of after school activities. It was mentioned about kids being active and wearing the medicine off before bedtime. Is that possible? If so, I might not have to worry about how early I give her the medicine in the morning. I've been trying to do it before 8am (which on school days, it's quite easy). But she's in bowling, soccer, and softball this season.



Did it take 10 days for you to see a difference in regards to the medicine? Every day I ask my daughter, just in case, if she feels any different or such like that. ... I know it's only the third day, but I want to make sure that I'm involved in what's going on with her.

Cheryl - posted on 03/23/2009

My daughter who is now 13 has been on Concerta previously. We liked the medication but as with others it stopped working after a time and she is now on Focalin XR. To be honest I would be shocked if one dose of Concerta would give your daughter a stomachache especially since they say it takes a couple weeks to get into their system enough to regulate them. I am just thinking and actually Heather used to frequently complain about her stomach hurting. However, it was not enough to keep her in from playing or anything. I am not sure how many years ago that was with Heather though. She is now 13 and I don't think she has complained about her stomach in at least a couple months. Heather is the type of kid who makes more out of things than there is though. My recommendation would be to keep her on it for a week and see what happens. If the stomache is so bad that it makes her not want to do her normal activities though I would contact the psychiatrist immediately.

Donna - posted on 03/23/2009

i think that all kids are different with these medications. my eldest was diagnosed when he was 5, hes now 13, and hes tried all the medications available to him. we found that each one would work for a few weeks and then the effects would wear off as if his body became immune to them. he has't taken medication for over a year now as they dont know what else to give him. i dreaded this at first. the first few weeks were a nightmare but he seemed to calm down after a bit. i keep him on as much as an organic diet as possible and watch foods containing sugar and artificial ingredients. This is workin quite well plus he has the benefit of not takin tablets everyday. obviously tho, each case is different.

Jennifer - posted on 03/23/2009

My 9 year old is on 54mg and doing very well, he makes honor roll now as well as the behavior section of the report card having very high marks. He takes his in the middle of breakfast so that there is food before and after it. This stuff has been a god send for all of us. 54 is a high dosage but that is what it took, he isnt a zombie or anything, he is himself just not so in your face all the time and his teacher is elated.

Donna - posted on 03/23/2009

my son was on concerta for quite a while (36mg) and he had tummy pain for a week to 10 days which did eventually disappear completely. He very often complained of feeling sick, tho he never did actually vomit. I used to find that giving it to him half an hour b4 breakfast helped.

Karen - posted on 03/22/2009

I have two boys (7 and 10) on Concerta and we love it. Not without side effects though.  They have appetite loss until dinner time and also have a hard time getting to sleep at night.  So I give it to them after they eat breakfast and then have them play in sports to wear them out so they can sleep.  But other wise we and the kids are happy to be on Concerta.  The 7 year old did take Riddelin before and he had stomache aches and it did not work very well - so we switched.  Also both kids are on 27 mg.

Tracey - posted on 03/22/2009

The stomach aches will go away shortly, just stick with it. Trust me, it will be worth it!!

Maddie - posted on 03/22/2009

Hi my 14year old daughter has been on 18mh of Concerta since she was 8 and the only side effects she has ever had is when she decided to double her dose all by herself! She then had hallucinations - one was a sea of frogs and the other was spiders crawling out of holes in her bedroom wall! She went back to 18mg and was fine after that. I don't think the stomach ache should be too much cause for concern, just monitor it :-)

Debbie - posted on 03/22/2009

This morning is just the second day she took a pill and it was just a hour ago. She didn't lose her appetite yesterday and she was fine going to bed at her normal time last night. Around 5am she woke up and tried to get me out of bed. She then made the comment that her stomach hurt, but the medicine should have been mostly out of her system at that time so I wasn't sure if it was the medicine or not.



I'm going to keep a journal of how she's behaving for the doctor so when we have our meeting in a month I'll be more informed for her.

Cindy - posted on 03/21/2009

How is she doing now on the concerta? Or did she stop it? My son has been on Concerta for over 3years and he is doing awesome. No side effects except if he takes it to late in the am - then he has a hrd time getting to slepp at night time.

His grade have come up to A's and his mood swings are gone, the anger and frustration levels disappeared etc. If you ahve questions please ask me!!



Cindy