how much zoloft can a child take?

You can’t give a child concerta in the evening…they need to sleep. taking a 1/2 tablet of ritalin would probably be what the dr would suggest but you really need to talk to him before you start adjusting meds on your own.

I was wondering…why is she on both Concerta and Zoloft? I have seen kids who didn’t do well on Ritalin put on Zoloft but not both at the same time…as one is an antidepressant and the other is a stimulant. Don’t they kind of counteract each other?

Sorry, I can’t help you on the zoloft end.

On the Concerta, I know that you can give a regular Ritalin when the child comes home from school as a homework dose. I do that when my son has tons of homework (he’s on Metadate CD, which is another company’s form of Concerta). I wouldn’t give another Concerta because that would last much longer than you need and probably screw up appetite and bedtime.

Of course, please check with your doctor first and remember that all kids behave differently on meds.

Our son takes Concerta during the day. The doctor also gave a prescription for Ritalin to take in the later afternoon (but no later than 5 p.m.). It’s to help him get through homework time. I’m pretty certain it’s out of his system by 8 (judging from how difficult homework becomes after that), so I doubt it would help you at PJ time.

I found that shepherding our child through bedtime tasks (and morning rituals, for that matter) was the most effective approach. Rather than getting frustrated that I was asking him to do something 8 times, I decided for my own sanity that I would walk him to the tasks and get him through them the first time. Otherwise he felt like he was being nagged (kids can’t see it from our perspective!), and I always felt like I couldn’t take it one more day.

Why are you asking these questions here? Why not ask a pharmacist? Asking unqualified people for medical advice is insane but then again drugging children is equally insane.

Take a fucking pill you stupid arrogant *******. Make sure it is a poison one.

Check with your doctor for the best and most accurate info.

as you all have suggested - and sited - I heard back from Dr’s office today

AND FIRST CAN I JUST SAY - that I don’t “dabble” w/ my daughters medicine w/out first checking w/ the Dr. You act like I’m going to OD her. Cripes. I was just asking bec I wanted to know what - if anything - others did for those first few morning hrs when waiting for meds to kick in - and then evening hrs including homework and pj time.

I appreciate your insight - and when the nurse called back - it was exactly as some of you have suggested (and do too)……they are writing a script for ritalin 5mg to give her at 4pm as soon as she gets home. This will carry her thru. I know it will work - bec before we started Concerta - he had us do Ritalin and work our way up to 20mg per day before starting the 18 mg a day Concerta. I would give her 10mg in the morning and 10 mg in the afternoon and it worked great.

So anyways….I appreciate your answers….I couldnt’ get on the board earlier today either it was down or I was just having problems with it.

So….someone asked why is she on zoloft as well as concerta.

Zoloft was our first choice of med - back in late Dec - bec her behaviour was much worse than her lack of focus/staying on task in sch. Her behaviour was 80% of the reason I was in the Psych office. SO first we dealt w/ that by giving her zoloft. it worked - worked miracles…..she wasn’t getting so explosive about the little things - her tempers - were fewer and fewer betw them which was a God-send.

So then - after we had that pretty much where we wanted it - I mean she still had tantrums and fits - but they weren’t as frequent and weren’t always with as much power…..then we started focusing on her lack of focus and completion of assignments in sch. Dr said in beginning that we might have to piggy back an ADD med w/ her zoloft - later - well later came - and we tried STRATTERA first - that was pure hell for 2 wks….went off that - waited about 3 more wks - then had another appt - and started ritalin for 1 mon - and now we’ve worked her up to concerta which is what she’s been on now for 2.5 mons and it’s working, but like I said - I really wanted to tweek those am’s and pm’s…..

Dr’s suggestion for am is to get up at 6am and give her - her meds - I can’t see this happening - bec I work night shift…..my only few hrs of PRECIOUS sleep are from 4a-7a (when alarm goes off). I can’t see myself waking up at 6am to give her meds then trying to go back to sleep for one more hr. So I guess maybe I’ll do as one other Mom here suggested (and what she does at bedtime) - WALK HER THRU the morning routine instead of getting frustrated w/ her….it’s just really hard bec - I have two younger ones that *I* do have to get ready - well at least the baby I do - and I try and get myself ready when Lauren should be getting herself ready - so if I’m going to have to walk her thru her morning routine then that will eat into my getting ready time.

Oh well - I guess we’ll figure out something…try a few new things - your suggestions and see what happens.

Thx again.
Loves,
S

Hey Sharon,

I am jumping on late with this thread but wanted to let you know that my 9 yr old is on the same pair of drugs. The 50 mg of Zoloft was too muchand caused him to be more agitated. We had upped hsi does and the reaction was not good. Any chance that could be the issue?

The concerta has been sonderful. He doesn’t “come down form the med until about 7:30!

Wanted to say good luck.

Liz

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