Anyone have/had a child on Focalin XR? Update post 18

[6_Time_Momma]

*sigh* Destiny had her third follow up with the psychiatrist for her anxiety. We talked about the areas that we have seen improvement in, but also the things that have not improved or gotten worse. After listening, the Dr. said that she believed Destiny had ADD and her lack of self confidence arising from her difficylty concentrating, etc is the cause of her anxiety.

At first, I was like "Huh? No." , but the more the doc said, the more I was like "Wow, that sounds a lot like Destiny." She talked about how when they can't focus, they start to feel like their not as smart as their classmates, even though oftentimes, their IQ is quite high. They start to lose self confidence, etc.

Anyway, she gave her a prescription for Focalin XL. I just don't know what to feel/think right now. It seems like anything you hear about ADD/ADHD and kids with it is negative. This med is in the same family as Ritalin, again something with negative conotations. I know there are a lot of parents who have dealt with ADD and I could use your thoughts about the diagnosis as well as the medication if your child has been on it.

I swear, just when you think the storm is about to break, some more rain starts to fall.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

My stepdaughter has been on it for about six months now. While I only have her every other weekend, I can tell a HUGE difference when she's on it.

She was having major issues in school; everything from failing tests, hitting/pinching classmates, to not paying attention at school, or at home.

Her father and mother decided not to mention it to the teacher, to see if she noticed the difference in her behaviour and her grades. It took a few weeks, but her progress reports showed the impact and her teacher eventually mentioned that she was acting much better in class, on all counts.

I notice absolutely no side effects from the meds. She has lost, nor gained any weight and she sleeps fine.

 

[6_Time_Momma]

My stepdaughter has been on it for about six months now. While I only have her every other weekend, I can tell a HUGE difference when she's on it.

She was having major issues in school; everything from failing tests, hitting/pinching classmates, to not paying attention at school, or at home.

Her father and mother decided not to mention it to the teacher, to see if she noticed the difference in her behaviour and her grades. It took a few weeks, but her progress reports showed the impact and her teacher eventually mentioned that she was acting much better in class, on all counts.

I notice absolutely no side effects from the meds. She has lost, nor gained any weight and she sleeps fine.

Thanks for your comments. Weight loss is one of my concerns as Destiny is quite a tiny bunch to begin with! Only 50 lbs.

 

[Pembo]

Ds was on Focalin and Focalin XR. He did not lose weight or have any sleep troubles but we did notice some mood changes and on the XR he thought he was depressed. He is now on Concerta and all is well.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Thanks for your comments. Weight loss is one of my concerns as Destiny is quite a tiny bunch to begin with! Only 50 lbs.

My step-daughter is too! She can actually wear a pair of 3T shorts still!

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Ds was on Focalin and Focalin XR. He did not lose weight or have any sleep troubles but we did notice some mood changes and on the XR he thought he was depressed. He is now on Concerta and all is well.

My youngest daughter, now 16, was on Concerta for about three years. We had no side-effects from it either. (I took her off of it when she entered middle school.)

Her story was almost identical to my step-daughter's. As a matter of fact, I was the one that first mentioned that DH's daughter needed to be tested. It's like he and his ex were both oblivious to the warning signs.

Sure enough, after lots of testing, she was diagnosed and it's all be good since then!

 

[got2travel]

When my son was first diagnosed with ADHD, I fought the medication. I had heard all the horror stories about us being in a generation that just medicates everything. But when we finally tried it, I was so angry at myself for waiting. We saw instant results. Once we finally got his dosage right, he could make it through a day of school and was finally learning!

The only concern I would have is that the ritalin family of drugs has anxiety as a side affect. My son has been on Concerta for 4 years now, but we are slowly switching him to Strattera because of his anxiety. I always associated his outburts with the ADHD directly, but his therapist thinks he is so anxious that he get frustrated and angry and that fuels his violent outbursts.

Since you were first looking for help with anxiety, maybe some other ADHD med would be better???

 

[6_Time_Momma]

Thanks for the replies. She took her first dose this morning, and I'm sitting here wondering how she's doing. I will keep an eye out definitely for more anxiety, got2travel, thanks.

 

[Pembo]

I hope you have great results and the meds help!

 

[cstraub]

Try the meds! I was diagnosed with ADD about 3 months ago and I have to say the meds are nothing short of a miracle! I spent my whole childhood and much of my adult life feeling inadequate and incompetent. I knew that I was working hard and everyone around me was telling me I was not trying hard enough. I recently read an article that said people with ADD are working harder than others and getting less results. You just work so hard and no one knows or praises you for it. It's a total self esteem buster and can lead to anxiety and depression. You keep coming up short over and over no matter how hard you try.
Please at least try the meds. Keep in mind that usually to find the right ADD meds takes time and trial and error.
I have my DS9 on ADD meds and it's been life changing. I was nervous and put it off for a long time. We just got so desperate after awhile. We are able to enjoy being around him now and he is able to enjoy things more in general. He smiles more. We all do!
Your child should not be a zombie on ADD meds either. I think that is a common misconception. If they are acting like that either decrease the dose or switch to another med. Adderall XR did that to me. I switched to Concerta and so far so good!
Feel free to PM me.

 

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

6_time_Momma,

I feel where you're coming from and like got2travel, I fought medicating my DS, who is now 10. It was hard for me to come to grips with even considering that he had ADHD, because he is a brillant child, his grades didn't suffer, he learned to compensate, but he had social problems with the other kids. Anyway, he was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with ADHD, high degree of impulsivity -and dysgraphia (difficulty with handwriting). I still didn't medicate him right away, it was a couple of months later when his self confidence began to really plummet, and I could see the effect it had on him (anxiety too) - that's when we knew we had to do something for his quality of life.

Anyway, our ped started him on a low dose of Strattera and I watched him like a hawk (25 mg). Initially he had a little trouble sleeping (was awakened easily) and his appetite went down some. He lost about 5 lbs in a month but then it leveled off and he hasn't lost any more. We went up to 40 mg and it's been a Godsend really. The initial sleep problem (he was sleeping light for a couple of weeks) went away too. He's now in a program for highly gifted kids, popular in his class, invited to all kinds of parties and a happy kid. He still struggles with blurting out anwers in class (that impulsiveness thing) and his organization skills but we're working that out with some strategies. He has an IEP mostly working on the dysgraphia and it's been great too. There are some things right with our schools.

It's been about 7 mos now since we started the Strattera and it's a world of difference. I know it's not the same med your DD is on but I wanted to tell you our positive story. I'm hoping you have a similar outcome with your daughter.

Best of luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[CharityLynn]

My son is also on Concerta and it was working for a long time but noe I am wondering if I should up the dose or get a new med or something. It is so sad to see a 1st grader say he hates school, that he's not smart, he just gets frustrated so easily with things. He is so smart and I try to encourage him everyday and highly praise him when he does well.

ADHD is so much harder than I expected to deal with he was diagnosed 3 years ago..

 

[beavismom]

My son has been on Focalin XR for a little over a year with great results. I too fought the medication idea for several years and was riddled with guilt when I saw what the meds did for him. I can only imagine how much better off he would have been if I had tried the meds earlier. We haven't had any real side effects other than he doesn't eat much at lunch time, but he takes a vitamin and eats like a horse when the meds wear off.

You will have to spend some time figuring out the right dosage. Talk to the teachers so they can watch for when the meds start to wear off. You may end up on a different dosage or a different med altogether since different ones work for different people.

Good luck with this. Just know that you are not alone.

 

[KAMommy]

WOW, just reading through this made me feel "not alone".

I fought against meds for my DS12 for several years. Finally, at the beginning of fourth grade, his pediatrician got him to talking and he admitted that he felt stupid...his word, not anyone else's. I could have cried right there. Yes, homework was a struggle, but he was making A's and B's. Anyway, I got myself educated, fought my mother ("you just want to drug him so you don't have to deal with him" - made me feel really good) and got Concerta. Four years later, we are still on the same dosage and he is doing marvelously. I wish I hadn't made him suffer for all of those years while I wrapped my brain around the medication.

One thing we did have to do in middle school, since Concerta is time released, it takes a while to kick in in the morning. His first class was advanced math, and he was struggling. The doc gave him a very tiny dose of regular ritalin to take in the morning. It gives an immediate dose while the Concerta gets going...works like a charm.

Our family motto is now "Better Living Through Chemistry"!

 

[beavismom]

There are so many misconceptions about ADHD and I perpetuated some of them myself in the beginning. The only kids I knew who were ADHD were the hyper kids that literally bounced off the walls and that was not my son so obviously this was not his problem. After I read more about the symptoms I realized my error, but I still wanted to try and control things without meds. He would work very hard and do well for several weeks and then things would just come apart. Now I know he just broke under the pressure... he will never know how guilty I feel for that.

We take drugs for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and everything else under the sun, why is it so wrong for us to give them to our kids to control a problem.

 

[tinkerrn]

I have been diagnoised with ADD and am a psychiatric nurse. I have seen so many children with ADD, who also have self esteem problems that contribute to anxiety and depression. The meds do make a huge difference. I fought my ADD for years without meds, but my anxiety increased and it caused some mild depression. I have been on Adderall XR , and it is wonderfull. The anxiety and depression is gone, and my concentration and work performance improved. As a matter of fact, I was just promoted to supervisor of my hospital. The focus I now have has given me more self confidence, and am just happier.

 

[queenmum2]

My story is like so many others here...fought the "label" for my son, tried behavioral and dietary routes, then ended up putting him on Ritalin LA. That was in 2nd grade and the change was profound! His scores went up considerably and his behavior improved noticeably. My DH is not whole-heartedly into the medication, though.

We changed him to Focalin XR about about the beginning of the school year because he was having problems with appetite and mood. The Focalin was supposed to cut out those side effects and be beneficial with half of the dose -- but we didn't find that the 1/2 dose of Focalin XR helped nearly as much as the full dose of Ritalin so we went back up to the full dose of Focalin. WHAM - back to the moodiness, stomach aches and suppressed appetite. We tried 10 again and his overall demeanor was fine, but his grades have TANKED (from Honor Roll to C's and D's).

As of last Friday, he's now trying Adderall. We started with the 5mg dose, but it isn't helping him in school nearly enough. He started 10 yesterday. Still experimenting with getting the right med. and right dose - but I'm hopeful that it will happen.

That said - DO try the medication. Like the others have said, the effects of ADHD/ADD are more than just bad grades. The child is trying hard and doesn't understand why he gets in trouble so much (my son is a GOOD kid, but very impulsive and talkative), or why his grades are so bad.

Tracie

 

[6_Time_Momma]

Well, she's been on the Focalin XR for about two weeks now. She is doing better as far as being able to get her homework done and not getting answers wrong on tests just from being careless. However, she seems to be really moody. She is really "whiny" about little things, like not being able to have chocolate milk or pop until supper. Then later she comes to me and apologizes. She says she just doesn't understand why she is so whiny. She is on the lowest dose of Focalin at 5 mg, so maybe a different med is needed.

Her psych isn't in the office until Monday, so I'll have to give her a call then. I have a feeling this is going to be a long frustrating road.

 

[rie'smom]

My DD was on concerta for 2 years-it was fabulous but it's effects wore off. A couple of months ago we tried Focalin 20mg - it was terrible-profound mood changes. Next we tried Adderall-mood change but not as bad but it didn't help with concentration. Now,we're on the patch. We'll give it a while. I'm praying for all of us.
Kristy,long,frustrating road should be emroidered on a pillow and given to the parents of all ADD children and to the children themselves.

 

[TheDoctor]

One of my DDs used Foclin XR She did well on it.