Jena

New Member
hi

i hope everyone had a good, calm day today :)

I have a question, I will be calling doctor tomorrow yet wanted some feedback

It's only the 2nd day difficult child's been on 12.5mg seroquel. She tends to react to medication's rather quickly so I wasn't surprised to see a change immediately in her.

This is what i saw:

- Was able to play with bunch of kids at recess; even "told" one kid off that was bothering her (this would normally NEVER happen)
- Told me how great she felt today after getting to school; no nurse visits today at all.
- Increased aggression with me this a.m. and this p.m.
- Is not sleeping now; slept last night for 13 hours. Tonight nothing; she's up and wired; can't sleep at all.

She's disgusted because she was hoping it would work right away. I told her patience it helped alot during the day, we just have to work on sleeping at night. I know doctor is going to tell me to increase medication dosage, yet I'd rather add melatonin at night for sleep with the seroquel.

Has anyone every heard of that?? I was thinking 2.5 mg of melatonin mixed with the 12.5 mg of seroquel. As opposed to just doubling the seroquel dosage; which will make her sedated. She seemed to have a great affect just today alone from one hit of the medication. I'm sure in time we'll have to increase it; yet I thought of the melatonin mix.

any thoughts???

Thanks :)
 

klmno

Active Member
I personally would not do that without psychiatrist's knowledge and approval. Others might have experience with it that I don't, but some of these mixes can get very serious.

Good luck! I hope psychiatrist calls you back soon!
 

smallworld

Moderator
Personal opinion: I would use one medication and titrate it up to a therapeutic level before adding anything else. Definitely run this by the psychiatrist.
 

Whipped

New Member
Hi,
I have a 17 yr old daughter with adhd..she has a history of insomnia..recently we have had success by adding 3-3mg tabs of melatonin and 25 mg of trazadone..she also takes .2 mg of clonidine..I'm told by the doctor that the 3 mg tabs of melatonin seem to be more effective that 5mg tabs because of the way they are manufactured...anyway..this seems to work well for us...also..i use the following website quite often to educate myself on drug info.. https://online.epocrates.com/noFrame/ .....:redface:
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
I do not mess with any of our medications without running it by our psychiatrist first. Or pediatrician. Our psychiatrist is pretty accessible by e-mail.
K has been through the list of medications, I know how frustrating it is, and it still is for us.
We are right now hanging on to the lowest minimal dosage of Seroquel possible that will get her through the day.
This takes 2 of us. A great Special needs teacher, therapist once a week, a great pediatrician, great School Nurse, social skills class once a week, great psychiatrist, husband having to work out of the house... and after all of this she is still just doing OK.
Fact of the matter is our kid has mental illness. As our psychiatrist puts it she is making great strides and doing pretty well, for a kid with Mental Illness.
For us we choose to do more therapy based treatment at this point because we can and she is making strides.
Some times it takes weeks for some of these medications to start to take affect. I know it is hard to be patient. K at times will have a reaction to a medication in the first couple of days and then it mellows out. We then need to tweak it and watch how it is working. Make sure you are keeping a journal.

I am in the middle my own medication changes so I do know how it feels and how hard it is.
Hang in there and talk to her Doctor, tell him your fears.
 

Jena

New Member
Good morning

Klmno, smallword - Yes I agree I began looking it up on the web last night a little and there's no way I'd add it in without consulting dr first. I tried calling a pharmacy who tends to be open later around here yet they were closed. So, we just rode it out, no big deal we're used to the non sleep issue.

Whipped Yes I have heard that also regarding the melatonin. I'm glad you were able to mix. yet i know certain drugs have certain reactions, etc. so i'm going to wait for dr. on this one.

I just felt bad for her with it because she was so anxious and hopeful.

Totoro - I'm sorry to hear you are going thru that with K right now also. So, you are in the process of weaning her off? I've heard the side effects from seroquel can be harsh also. I hope she is doing ok with all of that. I"m very anxious to begin therapy again with her, I have had two meetings so far to give history and soon difficult child gets to go. I think medication without therapy isn't good.

thanks again
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Again, Jennifer, honest try. This medication initially sedated kt terribly but she overcame that sedation & her sleep pattern righted itself around. As I remember psychiatrist warned me that seroquel took on average 4 to 6 weeks to see a significant & real difference.

All of your questions are not seroquel related (other than sedation) unless you've given it for at least 2 - 3 weeks. Saying that, if your difficult child is having trouble breathing, hives or any other allergic reactions you need to head to ER.
 

Jena

New Member
hi again,

I'm glad once again that kt was able to make it past the difficult point with the medication. It can be rough.

I think I was basically questioning whether or not adding the melatonin was an option. Yet I'm giving it to her earlier today and will try that approach. Nope none of those problems thank goodness that you listed.

Who knows what the sudden mood swings or aggression are about could be just her. Time will tell. My Ex gets her this weekend, ugh so i won't get any feedback from him regarding it.
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
No Jen~ I think my post was not clear, I myself am going through medication changes!
K is doing well, or as her psychiatrist put it as well as a Mentally Ill child as severe as her can be doing with all of her therapies in place can be right now. And she is still struggling. That is my point, it is soo hard and although we are keeping her Seroquel at a low dose, it does help.
She will change medications again. It is inevitable, it is just a fact, with seasonal changes, hormones and just the way her disease changes...
Sometimes patience is all we can hope for at times and a great psychiatrist that will call us back!!!
Oh and a great board...
The medications are always going to be an issue for you as a parent. Even if they seem to working, it is just a hard thing to do.
Heck I still have a hard time making myself take medications.
 
B

butterflydreams

Guest
difficult child is taking Melatonin for sleep. He was taking 3mg at 8pm, he wasn't going to sleep until like 11pm at least and was waking up during the night. psychiatrist had me increase it to 6mg and give it at 7pm. He is out by 9:30-10pm and sleeping through the night. A little hard to wake in the morning though if he has to get up early - which right now he has to be ready to get out the door at 6:20am to go to partial.

I was taking Ambien CR for sleep, but my prescription ran out and I didn't have the money for the copay. I had a bottle of 1mg Melatonin that my parents had given me a while back that I had tried. 1mg did nothing for me, I tried 2mg and I sleep way better than I ever did on Ambien CR, and if I do wake up during the night, I can go back to sleep alot easier.

I would contact the doctor and ask about adding in the Melatonin.
 

Jena

New Member
hi,

Tortoro i'm sorry I misunderstood your response.

As far as difficult child goes I changed time I give it to her. I gave it in afternoon and I had her down by 9 last night. That's perfect. :)
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
Yeah!!!
If you do use Melatonin, don't know if you are? Watch out, it can cause nightmares in some kids with Mood-Disorders.
I take it with my Tryptophan and my Ambien or Klonopin whichever I need at the time.
Melatonin on it's own does nothing for me. :( But it really helps N sleep! We also give her Valerian root.
K is so tired from running all day and the Seroquel QID seems to be enough to hit her at bedtime. We give her the 3rd does of Seroquel at dinner.
by the way, Seroquel is supposedly better if taken QID (3 times a day) some even take it 4 times a day...I know you are on a low does right now, but in the future maybe.
I am glad she is sleeping better!!!
K still has nights when she is UP! That is why it is good to have a PRN around.

Oh and by the way, you don't ever have to tell me Sorry, I am not the most eloquent of writers! LOL I have a hard time getting out what I want to say at times.... I tend to ramble.....
 

Jena

New Member
Toroto

Well, from one rambler to another thanks!!! :)

Valerian root is really good, tried that one me a few times. Thanks for info on dosing throughout day. I'm going to have to increase at some point once her body becomes adjusted and ms. thing starts pulling all nighters again :) so that info. will certainly come in handy.

I hope you had a good class party with all your baking last night. I wanted to go to difficult child's party today but they wouldn't let me :( the class mom's control the world lol.

hopefully i'll sneak in at thanksgiving.

oh and i'm not adding melatonin in, i'm going to stick with this now. I feel more confident now that i have changed time i gave it to her and she responded well. She has been thanking me for 3 days now for this pill. She said it is helping :) she's too cute and hopeful.

K is still up at times, huh...? That's rough. You have been down a long road in regards to searching for answers. She seems like she's doing so much better now though from your posts, which is great :)

happy halloween. I'm looking forward to mounds bars!!! lol
 

weenie1

crazy mom
My difficult child was on seroquel for 2 yrs to help her sleep. When it quit working she went on clonidine. When that quit working she went back on seroquel and had a severe reaction to it. She could not speak or move, her eyes were rolled back in her head.

We took her to local ER and she was there from 9am til 4pm and they wanted to send her home. I had her sent to childrens in dallas and they gave her Benedryl and within a few minutes she was back to her normal self.

I am writing this just so that yawl will now what to look for when u are dealing with Seroquel, she is not able to take that class of drugs and difficult child 1 is not allowed to take them either psychiatrist does not want to take a chance.
 
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