Hello all,
So we went back to visit the pediatrician and she decided to increase my sons concerta dosage to 36mg. Every month they have increased his dosage. Has anyone experienced this. What should I expect. Is this dosage too high. The other 2 doses didn’t make a significant difference. Could this be the wrong meds for him. I hate that he has to be on a higher dosage. His performance at school isn’t any better academically then before. Any advice or experience with this medication.
Yes, for us the increase to 36mg made a difference and I feel like it is the right dose. There is one dose higher to 56 mg. We're going to a new child psychiatrist this week and I'm going to talk to her (see moveone's thread about getting the max out of meds) about tweaking the meds a bit. Good luck!
My son is 9 and weighs 75 lbs. We just switched to from Ritalin to Concerta 1 month ago. We started at 18mg for the first 3 days and then went to 36mg. This dose seems to be working for him, we have seen an improvement in focus at school through the duration of the school day. (We were having issues in the afternoon). I know there is a conversion chart out there somewhere that compares dosages of the different meds. He was previously taking 7.5 mg of Ritalin 3-4 times per day and we were lucky to get 3 hours out of that medication toward the end. (If we stuck with the same med we were going to increase to 10 mg) His psychiatrist showed us a chart that at 10mg of Ritalin he would need 36mg of Concerta. Not sure if this helps. Good luck working towards finding the right medication and dosage. It’s not easy and can be stressful on everyone. Hang in there!
Sweetkid- In working with our child psychiatrist she told us that there is a range that kids need. If the medication doesn't seem to be working and there are no side effects, then they will often increase it. We found yourself saying "is it really working?" then we would increase it. We are now working with the timing and how much to give. We are giving more during the intense academic periods.
I would not worry about the increases as long as you get to the dose and time you need.
Good luck with getting it right.
Doesn't sound excessive to me...of course, one of my two ADHD kids with very severe ADHD was taking 72 mg Concerta per day PLUS additional short-acting methylphenidate in the evening to get him through....all at age 11-12ish. THAT may have been excessive! We had to switch doctors because of insurance and the new doctor started with a fresh perspective.
Same here. My grandson can't eat in the morning after he takes it so I try to let him eat before administration. Also he has a hard time sleeping. I don't see much improvement in him focusing. When he does focus, he does well. He's 7. I hate giving him these kinds of meds at all.
Medication not working? 
Clonidine vs. guanfacine?
Can you get too accustomed to Guanfacine?
Intuniv side effects 
