Further to my other post , i got the Melatonin on prescription from the Doc as my D is on 36mg conceta and never has slept and the Concerta is just making her sleep prob worse.
Anyway she had her Melatonin and guess what she has just gone to sleep ! Its 12;50am !!!!.
so basically no change.I know ive only tied it one night but does it take time to get into the system ??
We get Melatonin in tablet form , prescription only in the UK.
Im so past myself now with my D's sleep problem , i cant seem to win .If she doesnt have the Concerta she is a nightmare and hard to cope with but goes to sleep around 10;30pm - 11pm.
If she has the Concerta she calms down a huge amount and different child but runs about til 1am in the morning !
Im so finding it hard to cope.I know it sounds selfish but i get no free time - what can i do at 1am in the morning ?.
This is 24/7 problem .I will be up in around 5 hours as she will wake and its back to square 1 !!!
Can someone tell me more about Melatonin???
Does it work with some and not others? Does it take a few days to kick into the system??
If it doesnt work on my D then why?????
She has been on 18mg Concerta but had really bad tantrums when it wre off hence the 36mg but her sleep pattern is still the same.
She is 5 years old please give advice.

Well, if you give a child a stimulant in the evening it is reasonable to expect she will be up all night.

She is probably experiencing some rebound when it wears off and that can make a person really cranky.

Talk to her doctor, maybe a small dose of concerta late in the day instead of a bigger one ?

Is she taking enough melatonin?

Oh, and melatonin does not put you to sleep. All it does is tell the brain to begin the normal sleep cycle... it lets you sleep... but if you are determined to stay awake it won't stop you, or even slow you down.

It works with the first dose. It takes effect in under an hour ( as fast as 30 minutes) The dose required seems to be a matter of debate. When I take it, I take 6mg (3mg has no effect). Some people say that 0.5 mg is plenty and that 6 mg is too much, but I don't think that anyone has really worked out what the proper does might be. I've read of one study where people took 4000 mg in a single night with no adverse effects (I find that incredible, and unbeleivable). :faint:

I suspect it is a threshold type of thing, and I think that adults need more than kids, and the exact dose is likely to vary a lot, but possibly there is no effect until the threshold is reached.... but I"m no MD, so DO talk to your doc about it, because using chemicals to reprogram a brain is pretty serious stuff. :eek:


Me :D

Does your daughter nap during the day and if so for how long?

What types of activities is she allowed to do after say 10:00?

I also agree she may not be getting enough Melatonin yet, but there may be other forces at play.

Hi,
she doesnt slepp at all through the day - never has even as a baby.
She is active , though not swinging of the curtains since starting concerta.lol.

speedo said "Well, if you give a child a stimulant in the evening it is reasonable to expect she will be up all night."

- she has concerta in the morning and melatonin around 9pm are you saying melatonin is a stimulant??

No, melatonin is the opposite, if not just only a sleep facilitator.

Perhaps speedo thought your daughter was receiving a second dosage of Concerta.

As a side note, many adders do take their stimulant at bedtime to help them fall asleep! Everyone is different...my Concerta is now making me sleepy or too relaxed during the day, and I take it twice a day! If she is like this, a short acting low dose (methylphenidate IR) 30 minutes before (in addition to her AM Concerta) bed can put her to sleep! Talk about paradoxical effects.

Or talk to you doc about a middle acting (rather than a long acting) form of methylphenidate (the ingredient in Concerta). In the States, one such product is Metadate CD, I believe.

Unfortunately, your daughter had sleep problems before Concerta. This complicated the situation. Some doctors prescribe clonidine or guanfacine to help adders sleep. The problem is that mixing mehtylphenidate with them is controversial, as at least three associated deaths have been reported. I don't know if amphetamine will be an option with the above two meds.

Please continue visiting the forums and consulting the doctor as a more informed consumer. Do not give up, there are many things to try!

Best wishes.
Snappy

Hi,
Thanks she is totally relaxed through the day but the meds seem to wear off but the 1am sleeping cant be good for her at her age.

I really feel for you. My daughter is 7 and has also always had sleeping problems also. When she was 5 and 6 we gave her Tenex which is a blood presure medicaton that in very small doses helped her go to sleep.

We tried strattera which did not work at all and now she is up all night. She goes to sleep around 12 & 3 pm and get up at 8 or 9 pm. She also is very busy but not climbing the walls.

We are going back to the doctor on monday but this has been a very rough month for us.

She has never slept a lot but I have found that the meds and a healthy amount of phyical activity helps. Just becareful not to over stimulate, too much anything can cause the brain to become extra busy!!

Don't give up hope, it takes time, and sometimes we have no real control over what is happening in their body and we can only do our best to keep them healthy and safe.
It sounds like you are working hard to help your daughter, take pride in the great job your doing........it will all work out SOMEDAY!

Well its just after 1am and her melatonins been upped to 6mg and guess what _- she's still awake hence me being on here .
Im in total sleep depravation mode now:eek:

Talk to her doctor, maybe a small dose of concerta late in the day instead of a bigger one ?I'm with Speedo on this one (how often that happens!). Neither I nor my child can sleep in rebound or totally unmedicated, our thoughts race too fast and are too distracting for us to sleep.

Crazy :cool:

Hi,
She finally went to sleep around 4;30 am ! and was up again at 7am .She is full of life after only 2 and 1/2 hours sleep !
I on the other hand am like the walking dead lol.

My son is like that. He is now 13 but when he was younger, he would have a nonstop video marathon. It was back when Barney was popular. I had a video tape that was several hours long and we would put it in the VCR and he would watch it while we slept. He would sometimes wake us up because it ended.

Since then, he has a diagnosis of adhd/ocd/mood disorder and learning disabilities. He has been medicated since preschool due to being off the chart hyper and having behavior issues. He currently takes Metadate, Respirdal, Zoloft and Clonidine. The Clonidine was the miracle for us in helping him go to sleep.

I take Melatonin and have for over 15 years. If I don't take it, I think all night long. (I am adhd.) I recently started taking Evening Primrose and Valerian Root also because I am premenopausal and can't sleep at night. It helps me relax.

Good luck.

Hi,
shes been on Risperdal , the valerain root etc over here is for kids over 12 so my D is too young.She had been diagnosed ADHD only.

I think the melatonin effectiveness can be a question of dosage, or maybe it just does not work for your child. Meds are like that, they do not always work for everyone. Try upping the dose more if your Dr. OK's it. Otherwise maybe the Dr. can prescribe something else.

I personally would never put my child in front of a TV until they fell asleep. However, a stack of books might be a good idea. Both of my kids always take a few books to bed. Even when they could not read they would love to look through the books and look at the pictures.

Prior to my son getting medicated for adhd/ocd and mood disorder, I wish he would have been interested in books or anything that involved quiet time. He was off the chart hyper since 2 years old. We were lucky if he sat down long enough to eat.

My daughter was the opposite. We would lay in bed with a book and even though she was too young to read, she'd look at the pictures and tell me the story. We'd both eventually fall alseep.

My son has never been interested in reading books. Luckily he has found his niche in drawing cars and motorcycles. He's 13 now. Whenever he is bored, he'll grab his paper and pen and will start drawing. My mom is an artist/painter and cartoonist and he definitely inherited her talent. The other night as I was going to bed, I saw him drawing in his room.

We get him books on drawing and magazines with cars and motorcycles in it but again, he's not a reading fan. Nor am I. I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to books. I can read magazine articles. And if I am on a mission to learn about something, I will go to the library and get every book they have on the subject. Read them all and then not read a book again until I am on another mission. Currently I am reading up on pre-menopause. I am a knowledge expert on it.

Anyway, in addition to my son currently taking Clonidine, we also bought a couple of cds with relaxing music on it. We put in a cd. He closes the door (he can't have any light coming in his room) and he goes to sleep. It's like heaven considering what we went through when he was 2 through 5.

Now that I think about it, both of my sisters fall asleep watching tv every single night. I have been known to do that too but I eventually wake up , turn off the tv and crawl in bed.

Hang in there. Good things come to those that wait. :)

pixii,
When does the concerta seem to wear off? Talk to your doctor about the areas that still need to be adjusted for better results.

My daughter has always had sleep problems except her first couple of weeks on 27mg concerta. Melantonin was not helpful for her either. We did not see any indication of the concerta wearing off and she fell asleep easily for the first time in her life. When the concerta started wearing off earlier and earlier in the day, she went back into her old problem of not falling asleep. She says her mind is too busy inventing to sleep. We just gave her some time off concerta while school is out so that she can gain some weight. Soon she will go back on the concerta with a second dose in the afternoon to pick up where the first is wearing off. The doctor says she might go back to sleeping better because some people with ADHD sleep better with meds on board. In addition to this, she is starting guanfacine (tenex) which is similar to clonidine. This med does not help with attention but helps with calming, hyperactivity, memory, sleep and can counteract the weight issues with the methyphenidate. We are still on the journey of optimizing meds, but I look forward to school starting so we can better judge the effeciveness of the meds and better adjust them during the demands of the school year.

My 8-year old has always had trouble getting to sleep at night as as she's gotten older it's gotten worse and worse and worse. I posted a thread on here awhile back about giving her Melatonin to help her get to sleep at night and was told by someone or sometwo ;) that kids don't need Melatonin because they produce it naturally. Now I'm reading that doctor's do prescribe it for kids and that it can be helpful.

Out of desperation we went ahead and tried giving it to my granddaughter but it didn't really seem to help that much. We were just giving one 3mg tablet, maybe 2 tablets or even 1 and a half would help more. What we don't do very often but it does seem to help is to give her an antihistamine at bedtime.

Pixii, maybe you could give your daughter a child-dosage of something like Benedryl at bedtime tonight so that you can get a little sleep. I spent too many years being sleep-deprived and I really sympathize with you.

hello lanc yeh iwas allsways the same as a kid still iam now you may never get them out that it might be hotwired in there brain its to find out what they do at night when they dont sleep....an what narual things make them sleepy but i hope all gose well keep us poseted dorm

The only way melatonin works for me is if I follow all the other rules for getting to sleep. I take it when I'm going to bed. That means lying down and turning the lights off.
If I take it while I'm still doing other things then I'm able to work through it.

What is she doing when she isn't sleeping in her bed like she should be? Is she up running around? Are you leaving a night light or hall light on for her? Maybe you have to take it away. Part of the problem might just be discipline. You have to be tough on insisting that she stay in her bed or at the very least her room.

I'm very tough on my seven year old that he stay in his bed. If he stays in it then he can look at books with the hall light shining into his room. If I had a child that wouldnt comply then it wouldnt be beyond me to flip the fuse switch on all the lights to force the point. How long do you think they would stay awake if they had no access to lights?
I don't believe in hitting kids, by the way, so that isn't what I mean by tough.

First, let me say I am SO GLAD I found this message board today! My 7 year old son has ADHD (diagnosed this year) and does not fall asleep until after 1am. He is on Summer vacation, so I was not that worried about it. But, school is coming next week and I have NO idea what to do. He used to go to bed when I put him to bed....but not sleep. Which was "okay" because he would fall asleep within an hour or 2.

But for the past couple months he is REFUSING to go to bed and even go to his room! He is purposely pushing me to the limits by calling me names, throwing things at me and basiocally just saying "NO!" to everything I tell him to do. So I am ready to jump out the window! I never believed in spanking him, but nothing works. He even SPIT at me tonight!! If my husband was here he would have not done that. Unfortunatly my husband is working 12 hours days right now and doesn't get home until midnight.

I also have a 5 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy, so I need my sleep to get up with her early in the morning.

Anyway, his Dr said to give him Benedryl---doesnt work!! So I got him sleeping pills made with the same ingredient as the Benedryl, just a higher dose. It works sometimes, but I refuse to give him that every night. I HATE medicating him period. He takes Daytrana every morning....it's the new ADHD patch, LOVE IT!! It was hard getting him to take a pill, so the patch is working great.

Anyway, my husband has BiPolar, my son has ADHD and my daughter has Cerebral Palsy. I have nothing...well...besides a weight problem. LOL!!! GEE WONDER WHY!!??!! LOL!!!:rolleyes:

Anyway, so I would love to hear advice about sleeping issues too. I know I can buy Melatonin here over the counter, maybe I will call the Dr and ask about it.

Did the refusing to go to bed issue start at about the same time your husband started working longer hours?

Did it start when the doctor put him on the patch? I've been reading posts here where some meds mess up sleep patterns.

Anyway, from what I've read the Melatonin does not have any problems as far as interacting with other drugs or supplements, so it might be a good idea to give it a try.

Give it a try but further to my original post my dd is on 9mg and has been for months and guess what its 12;35am and she is still awake !

My son is on Dexedrine for ADHD. He takes his last dose at 4 p.m. I give him 5 mg. of a orange flavored sublingual melatonin from Source Naturals. He takes it about 1 hour prior to bedtime and has worked well. Valerian Root is another good idea - the taste isn't the greatest. If all else fails, try the Clonidine (Tenex). Good Luck