Daytrana patch

[westjones]

Today we are trying the Daytrana patch for the first time on my college aged DD (have been avoiding ADHD meds and managed to get through high school with a lot of help from the resource room, but college isn't the same thing). Anyone have any experience with this? The doctor said it would probably be 5 days before we saw the full effect, but I thought it started working right away.

Also, does your child take breaks from it? Her doctor wants her to take is on weekends too and only take breaks from it when she has longer break times.

And what happens if you get it wet? She plays sports and wants to shower after practice in the evenings. Has anyone tried this? I am betting it will come off if she does this (but I don't know).

Anyway, we just go it from the pharmacy and it is a little late in the day, but we are going to try it because she is on Christmas break and I want to see if it works OK or if she shouldn't use it once school starts up. I'm hoping for good results. I never wanted to use these medicines for her, but after her first semester grades I can see she needs them.

 

[kirstenb1]

Our 7 yr old has been using it for several weeks. We let her choose to skip on the weekends if she wants. We haven't tried it out in water yet, but according to her doctor, it's supposed to stay on, even when swimming. We've been using baby oil to help loosen it off, because it does hurt a little when you remove it.

Her teacher didn't notice a difference at first, but said she's noticing now dd has much better attention span. So maybe it does take a while. I thought it was supposed to be instant, but maybe not.

 

[westjones]

Thanks for the suggestion of baby oil. We haven't taken it off yet since today is the first day (and the first patch I put on just fell off because I didn't do it right). If she has trouble getting it off we will try the baby oil.

Yes, I was hoping for 'instant' results too, but since my DD is on Christmas break right now it will probably be hard to figure out if she is more focused. But we wanted to have her get used to it before going back to college.

I will say she seems happy and peppy tonight, but I guess we will see how she is a week from now.

I am really hoping this helps. If she continues as she did last semester she won't be getting a college degree. We are making some other changes, but we are so hopeful this medicine let's her focus better.

 

[poohguys]

DS 12 was on Daytrana from 1st through 4th grade. As he grew he out grew the doseage available. He did very well on it. We noticed results the first day that we used it. He was also very hyperactive at the timeand it was like someone turned off a switch. Also it would take about two hours for the medication to take effect. I would put it on him early while he was still sleeping so it would be working by the time he got on the school bus. Tell her to make sure it is on really well. If it is loose it can get stck on clothing and peel or roll up and stick to the clothing then she will not be getting the full effect of the medicine.

We found that the patches do fall off if they get wet. They tell you not to, but we used to use a big waterproof bandage over it when ds went swimmming. This may work for her with the sports too.

Depending on what we had going on on the weekend sometimes DS would skip. We did keep him on it year round. He got in to too much trouble at the sitters or camp with out it. He had poor impulse control this has improved greatly as he has gotten older. If your DD does not have school work to do I would think she could skip it if she wanted to on the weekends.

Good Luck I hope it helps works for her.

 

[westjones]

Thanks! The first day seemed to go well, but I need to see how she does after a few weeks to know how I feel about it. I am just hoping next semester she can keep up with her work at college.

 

[clm10308]

My DD is a HS Senior and has been on Daytrana since it first came out. In fact, she was the first patient at her pediatrician's office to use it. I think she was in 5th grade.

Just like other forms of Ritalin, there is a process to figure out the correct dosage. When my DD started she was taking a different brand, so her first dosage of Daytrana was chosen based on the manufactures recommendation of what dosage was supposed to correlate. Anyway, the first dosage was to low for her, and we upped her to the next dosage after one month.

Once the dosage was correct, I can notice the difference very quickly. For my DD, it does take 2-3 hours for the medicine to get into her system. For many years, she had to leave the house at 6:30 to get to school by 8:00 so the delay was not a proble. When she was in 9th grade, she had a bad time, and the dosage was in erased.

For many years, she only used meds on school days or specific days that we thought it was needed like long car trips, scout camp. When she does take the medicine consistently I can see a residual effect on days when she is not taking it, but I can definitely tell a same day effect even if she haven't taken it for a while.

Since my DD started HS, I have let her decide when she needs to use the medicine as long as she is doing ok in school. She is not currently taking it on a regular basis, but she does use it occasionally. Her current dr is fine with this.

For this first month, I agree with your dr for your DD to use it every day to find out if the dosage is correct. I am assuming that she will be going back to the dr when the month is up to evaluate the results. She may find out that she needs a higher dose.

The only side effects that I have noticed in my DD over the years is a the decreased appetite. Occasionally we have gotten a box of patches where the adhesive was messed up and the backing would not come off. When I called the 800 number, we eventually got a credit for a free month or two. Last winter, I accidentally left a box in my car and it was in freezing temps for several days. The company was great and worked with me to exchange that box for a new one. The pharmacy was a big pain ItA though which is a whole different story.

For my DD, Ritalin and Daytrana have been essential. The medicine allowed us to focus on the skills she needed to learn to manage herself instead of focusing on problem behaviors after a problem has occurred. I hate to imaging what her (and my) life would have been like over the last 8 years if we had not had this tool.

Yes, I think of ADHD meds as just another tool to help a child. As a spec Ed teacher, I would never think of arbitrarily denying a child access to something that might help them. Meds may not be the first thing you try, but when all other options have been exhausted thee is no reason to feel guilty about trying one more possible tool.

 

[kirstenb1]

I'm waiting for dd's next appt to ask this question, but some of you may have the answer.

We've been putting the patch on dd's outer thigh, like the instructions show. However, we've wound up throwing away some, because when she pulls her pants up if not careful, the sticker bunches up, or comes off.

It would be so much better if we could put it on her upper arm, or even her back. Has anyone tried that?

 

[westjones]

Thanks for the reply. And yes, she is going back to the doctor in a month. She is on 20mg right now because you have to start somewhere and we have to see how it is. I don't think it is too much because she seems fine (well this is day two). Since she is not in school it is hard to see how it would effect her there, but the doctor also said it will take 5 days for the full effect to take place, so that won't be until Christmas.

As our doctor said to put it on her hip and the instructions also said that. But I would guess you would have the same problem with her catching it.

Did you watch the video on their website that shows how to put it on? I did that yesterday (after I messed up one patch, and then put the other on but apparently wrong, so today I followed the instructions).

Basically it said to peel off half of the back, stick it on and then pull off the other half and then you hold it on for 30 seconds and then go over the edges a few time pushing to make sure they are on securely. You may want to watch it if you haven't yet because I could tell I got it on better today than when I just stuck it on the way I 'thought' I should.

 

[kirstenb1]

westjones, I didn't watch the video. Thanks for the tip about putting on the half at a time. I'll ask dd's doctor next month if we can put it on her upper body, instead, and I'll let you guys know.

 

[westjones]

Here is a link to where I saw the video on their website on how to apply it (if this doesn't work, just look around their website):

http://www.daytrana.com/whats-daytrana/applying-patch.aspx


The first patch I put on did peel off on her clothes when she changed, and it didn't stick. But today she just changed clothes to go workout and it stayed on perfectly, so I think I did it right this time.

Good Luck!

 

[Schmeck]

Thanks for the suggestion of baby oil. We haven't taken it off yet since today is the first day (and the first patch I put on just fell off because I didn't do it right).

If she's headed off to college, she should probably be practicing putting the patch/taking it off on herself?

 

[westjones]

If she's headed off to college, she should probably be practicing putting the patch/taking it off on herself?

Oh she lives at home. College is only 1 mile from our house. But I am going to have her start putting it on herself. I just wanted to make sure how to do it, and today I showed her how they said to do it in the video, so tomorrow she is suppose to do it herself. She did take it off herself yesterday without any problem, but I told her about the baby oil if she thought she needed it. I guess we will see.

 

[westjones]

OK, a question. It has been a week and she seems to be doing well on the patch except she is having trouble sleeping. She takes it off around 7pm so it should be out of her system by bedtime. So I am guessing this is part of her getting used to it?

Anyone else see this happen? And did it get better over time? So glad she is trying it over break.

Oh and now she puts it on and takes it off herself and so far hasn't has any problems with that or with redness. Hopefully that part continues. I got her some cream to put on the area when she takes it off.

 

[clm10308]

OK, a question. It has been a week and she seems to be doing well on the patch except she is having trouble sleeping. She takes it off around 7pm so it should be out of her system by bedtime. So I am guessing this is part of her getting used to it?

Anyone else see this happen? And did it get better over time? So glad she is trying it over break.

Oh and now she puts it on and takes it off herself and so far hasn't has any problems with that or with redness. Hopefully that part continues. I got her some cream to put on the area when she takes it off.

When does she go to bed? I would guess that she needs to take it off earlier.

What time does she put it on in the morning? My DD has always been told to take it off after 9 hrs. She would occasionally go a little longer, but not on a regular basis. she would usually take hers off around 4-4:30 when she got home from school. Since the medicine was still in her system for a while after the patch was removed, she could get her homework complete without much trouble.

 

[westjones]

When does she go to bed? I would guess that she needs to take it off earlier.

What time does she put it on in the morning? My DD has always been told to take it off after 9 hrs. She would occasionally go a little longer, but not on a regular basis. she would usually take hers off around 4-4:30 when she got home from school. Since the medicine was still in her system for a while after the patch was removed, she could get her homework complete without much trouble.

Well bedtime is like 11 or 12. She is putting it on late now because of Christmas break. In two weeks she starts back to school and will be putting it on around 7 am so maybe that will help.

It has only been a week so she is probably just still getting used to it, and is on such a crazy schedule because of Christmas break that it is probably hard to really tell if there is a problem yet.