Parents of ADD/ADHD Children

[ugadog99]

Although I have known for quite a while now, my 8 year old daughter was officially diagnosed ADHD. Next Monday she will begin taking Adderall. She is on a 5mg time release dose. We are starting this one week prior to school resuming. My question is, how long will the medication "stay with her" during the day? I need to figure out timing of her medicine. I can give it to her at 7:00 before we leave for school. Or, I can give it to her at 7:30 before she leaves my class to go to hers. I want to be sure it wears off by dinner time. She is very small and needs to eat a good breakfast and dinner since she probably won't eat much for lunch. Any advice you can give would be great! As a teacher, I have seen many children greatly benefit from medication for ADHD. I am really hoping this will help her, too. Thanks for your help.


Melanie

 

[ripleysmom]

"She is on a 5mg time release dose. We are starting this one week prior to school resuming. My question is, how long will the medication "stay with her" during the day?"

It really depends on her metabolism. My son takes Adderall XR and it lasts for about 12 or 13 hours.


"I need to figure out timing of her medicine. I can give it to her at 7:00 before we leave for school. Or, I can give it to her at 7:30 before she leaves my class to go to hers."

I would give it to her earlier. It does take about an hour to get into the bloodstream.


"I want to be sure it wears off by dinner time. She is very small and needs to eat a good breakfast and dinner since she probably won't eat much for lunch."

It may not be completely worn off but a good part of it should be gone. Again it depends on her metabolism.

You might find that this will affect her appetite even after wearing off. I have found though that the appettite suppressant affects wear off over time and she will begin to eat more normally.


"Any advice you can give would be great!"

Okay here are a couple of things.....

Keep an eye out especially with the small dose initially. You may find that the small dose makes her hyper. This can be due to the fact that it is not enough medication. Consult your doctor right away if you find this to be the case.

I have found that Adderall increases my daughter's ODD (oppositional defiance disorder). We are in the process of changing her medication since I don't feel it works as well as it could.

Please don't look on this as the magic cure-all. Now that you have her attention the hard work begins. You must work to help her unlearn all of the behaviors she has adopted over the last 8 years.

Most importantly....TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!! If you think it isn't working right, don't be afraid to say something to the doctor. Be insistent and forceful. Remind them that you are a teacher and know if a child is appropriately medicated or not and if they won't listen then switch doctors.


If you need anything else, even just a shoulder please don't be afraid to PM or E-Mail me.

 

[Princess_Aurora]

It will really affect her appitite for a while. I'd give it to her after she eats breakfast. My little cousin was on it and he could go all day without eating and not even get hungry!

 

[mamajoan]

I agree, different kids have diverse reactions to medication.
My dd was diagnosed with severe adhd at age 3. She has done well on Ritalin and Ritalin SR. However she had a terrible, adverse reaction when Doc changed her to adderall. She went back to heavier doses of ritalin. It works so well for her. It is nice to see her to be able to enjoy life. Did not want to worry you about the adderall. I know several children who have done very well with the medication. You should be able to see a difference in behavior in less than a week, therefore you will also be able to judge the medication sustaining power.

Best of luck,
Joan

 

[ripleysmom]

Yes please don't worry about the Adderall. My son is taking it (the XR) and doing quite well with it.

 

[ugadog99]

Thank you all so much. While I know this isn't a "miracle cure". I just hope it will make school and home easier. Being a single parent dealing with an ADHD child has been difficult, to say the least. I may be calling on you again. Thanks so much!

Melanie

 

[mamajoan]

Melanie, When I took my oldest son in for his dx of ADD the doc was really sweet. She said to me

You know Joan, I think that we should give the adult parents of ADD/ADHD kids, an RX for VALIUM---- to go along with the RX for ADD/ADHD meds for the kids ...LOL!!

God Love ya, Melanie!
Best Wishes,
Joan

 

[ripleysmom]

What was the name of your doctor Joan?

Both of my children have ADHD so I am doubly blessed.

 

[mamajoan]

AND GOD BLESS YOU TOO, RIPLEYSMOM!! She was at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii... she sure was a sweetheart of a gal.

You know when sis was dx'd, I thought OMG, what the heck am I doing wrong... That doc told me her adhd probably stemmed from being drug addicted when born. I am lucky that she and oldest ds are 10 years apart in age. Jake, the middle ds, has no dx's that can't be served with a firm attitude. When he had some difficulty with school in 3rd grade, the docs and teachers wanted to medicate him BEFORE doing any ADD testing.. I said, No way, give him some time to work this out. glad I did. It is one of my pet peeves, that kids get labeled before they are even tested.

ODD is a tough roe to hoe, my friends son was dx's many years ago but they have not been solid in following thru with therapy or medication. I think it just wore her out.
J.

 

[ugadog99]

Today I went to get the prescription filled and the pharmacist says that Adderall XR does not come in a 5mg dose! He called my pediatrician's office, but he is on vacation until Monday. The pharmacist said the options were to go up to 10mg of the XR or take a regular 5mg and cut it in half. That way one half would be given in the AM and the other half at lunch at school. One thing I had wanted to avoid was dosing at school. So, I wait until Monday for the answer. I can also take the 10mg XR, open it pour out half for use on one day and the other half for the next day. Who knows????? Thanks for all your help!

 

[joeokw]

My son is ADHD and he has been on Ritalin and now he has is on Concerta.. a time relased version of Ritalin. He is now a great student, able to socialize with peers, and to sit and enjoy the theatre , music, sports, etc. We are both RNs and we tried all other non. drug therapies , because of the controversies of drug vs. non drug therapies. We spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on occupational thepay without any noticable progress of my son related to the above.
We decided to put him on Ritalin and just overnight the positive effects astounded us. Anyway.. what we do is give the Ritalin/Concerta at breakfast say at 7 am. His breakfast is his best meal. So we give him the most nutrient dense foods then. For lunch we give him foods that he likes a lot. At school we pack his lunch unless the menu is "yummy" to him. We have Dinner at various times because of sports , karate etc. So If he is not Hungry.. he knows he has to eat more later to get his before bedtime snack which he inhales. Good luck with your daughter.. A kinda weird look at this.. our son may be thin, but it may be better than some of the obese boys in his class, teams, karate.. childhood obesity is becoming a alarminh health crises in America. It could be worse than smoking, and drug abuse combined related to fture health of out kids.

 

[ripleysmom]

ugadog, 10 mg Adderall XR is equivalent to a 5 mg dosage of regular Adderall. Do not open them up and use half and half (I hope this was a joke!!).

If your pharmacist will give you the regular Adderall (I don't thik he will but you can try), give her the 5 mg pill and see how it goes. Don't cut it in half. Most doctors rarely start out with a half dose like that.

 

[mamajoan]

If adderallxr is anything like the ritalinSR, which is also slow release.. I was told by doc and pharmacists NOT to EVER cut SR as it completely ruins the slow release process...

I also wanted to avoid medicating while at school, this did not work out. Sis gets her med at lunch time, she is now in 7th grade.
She does not like doing this at all, but knows it is necessary. She takes 10 reg ritalin and 20sr in am, then 20 reg at noon and for heavy homework days another 10 in late afternoon. I know it seems like alot, doesn't it?. She has never been agressive with her ADHD. She has a 501 plan at school to help the teachers/her follow a routine with schoolwork and homework I know this may seem like a lot of extra hassle , but it is working for her as she made honor roll the entire year. This surely helped improve her self esteem. As for the appetite thing, She also eats a big breakfast, I pack her lunch, which she eats sometimes, she eats a big snack at around 3pm, supper is occaisional, late snack always. I just make the snacks like little meals She is on the thin side of normal wt scale. She sleeps well at night. She will be 13 in Jan. She has all the plights of any 12 year old girl.. EEEEKKKK!!! I am not looking forward to her teen years, because that is when my son decided he would not take his ritalin any more... he only needed small doses for school.. Now at 21 he has told me he wished he would have used the ritalin. He feels he could have done much better in High School. sorry this is a bit long. Parents with kids dx'd with ADHD have to stick together.

 

[December99]

My dd is also on Concerta after battles of taking Methylphenidate 3 times a day and it wearing off after 2 - 2 1/2 hours!!! It was pure torture not only for her but for her classmates and her teachers. I finally asked the doctor if we could try a time release and she is approaching a year on Concerta (it actually might be two now). I love this stuff!!!! She has done so much better socially and physically (she was a HUGE bully even on the M). It lasts for about 11 hours now and she can basically get her homework done before it's totally out of her system. The problem with the other is that she would take a dose at 4pm and it might work and might not. Depended on how hungry she was and her metabolism. She seems to burn faster in the afternoon so we were up until 10, 11, 12 doing homework.....

Like everyone else has said...it depends on the metabolism and the hunger part and not eating depends also. It is not the same with each kid. The meds have NEVER effected my dd with her eating but I have a friend whose son it did affect. So it's per kid. Good luck and I'm sure you will begin to see a difference soon and wonder why it takes that to work....took me forever to do it - alot of crying nights because I didn't want to drug my baby - tried everything else....and after the first week I wondered why I never tried it!!!!!!

 

[ugadog99]

Thank you all so much. I guess we will wait until her doctor returns on Monday. I plan on calling the office first thing, so we can get this worked out. I'll let you know what he decides!