crying spells when ADHD child's Concerta wears off?

[bobcatgirl]

First and formost I suppose i should introduce myself. Im a mom of three boys age 5, 4, and 2. My oldest child, 5, was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD about a month ago. I have been coming here for the past week or so and have been reading the majority of these very helpful posts. Im so glad I found this place because it has answered the majority of my questions.

We knew there something wrong with him early on because of delayed speech, fine, and gross motor skills. We put him in preschool at the age of three and he was put on a IEP then and still remains on one now 2 years later. Thankfully he recieves support from school in all three areas now. We did not send him to kindergarten this year because we felt he was just not ready academicaly or socialy and will send him next year.

When his behavior became very agressive and his teachers were noticing this, we talked to our peditrician about it. He recommended further testing by the closest childrens hospital. We went through the testing which took about 2 months and several visits, the psych concluded that our child had ADHD and ODD.

About a week ago my son started taking Concerta 18 mg a day. I so far have not seen much improvement but i have noticed around the end of the day say 7 pm and later he is very moody and crys or whines a lot and wont tell his father or I what is wrong. Is this normal? Is this just the med wearing off?

[Trooper Keith]

It sounds like it could be withdrawal symptoms...but that's odd, considereing you can't see a difference in normal behavior. If the behavior is occurring at the same time each day, I would say it's very likely that it is withdrawal symptoms...but I am not a doctor, so that's just an opinion.

I would keep in very close touch with your doctor concerning it...medications are tricky, and you should keep in tight contact with your doctor when trying new ones.

Edit: PS Welcome to the forums! You may want to consider posting a brief introduction or general hello in the New Members Introductions, just so we can all officially say hey.

[Chelle]

My son who is 6 years old does the same thing. I give his med around 7:40 to a little after 8:00 am and every night 12 hours later he seems to be having withdrawl, crying and mood swings, they dont last too long and he recovers from them and I reassure him everything is ok. I find the best thing for him after he is done with the spell is to tell him I love him. He has been having other side effects, like getting woosy and sick to his stomach torward the end of the day. Dizziness, but most of all I have to be really on him about eating, he trying to not eat no matter what he has he says it taste funny. I tell him the importance of eating that if he does not eat he can get really sick and he has to eat. The Dizziness might be cause he is not eating enough, but his stomach is tricking him that he is ful and he has barely eaten anything. Hope the crying spells subside for you, those are the least of my worries. The food thing is, as he is already underweight.

Michelle

[bobcatgirl]

Thanks for the advice! I tihnk i will be getting in touch with the doc soon if it keeps up.

[Mrs. E]

My son is eight and takes Concerta for ADHD. The only time he becomes overly emotional and bally is when he has had to go with out his meds. It is, at least with my son, withdrawls. Call your doctor and discuss it with him. We had to try a few different medications before we found what worked best with my son. Not all medications work on everyone. Infact, the first one we tried was Strattera, it is time released, but wore off by 5pm with my son. That could be what is happening with your son. It could also be that he put your son on a very low dosage to help him ease into the medication. The miligrams is based on your son's weight. Have your doctor double check his weight to make sure he is on the correct amount, but keep in mind, Concerta may just not work for him.

[Coopersmom]

Concerta really helped my son focus at school but it was a nightmare for him in every other way. He couldn't sleep which made him tired, he was very emotional, and over focused on things that bothered him. He is now on Strattera and that has worked great for him.

It takes several months to find what is going to work for your son. It really is a journey.

Vanessa

[Davesings]

My son also takes Concerta. He is 9. It seems to be helping his mood and attention during the day, but I have also been noticing some crying in the evenings...It has been hard to figure if it was due to the medication leaving his system because he also had these outbursts before, for which he is also taking Abilify. I am concerned about the crying....hmmm. Maybe I should talk to his doctor