My 9 year old has been on adderall xr, had irritability issues when med. wore off. Now we are on Focalin XR. Started with 5mg, did not phase her. Pedia. doubled dose to 10mg today. I'm not sure how she did today while I was a work, my mom and dad kept her and her sister, but they still fought like always. This afternoon she had a meltdown over some trivial thing. Is focalin alot like adderall? She can't take pills, so we are limited to what we can take.
What other meds out there can be sprinkled or maybe a liquid? I am worried that this med will make her have the same reaction as the adderall.
One more question, if the stimulant meds make her irritable, could that be a sign of something else being wrong in addition to add? Could that be depression? She just never seems to be happy or satisfied with anything. The minute she comes into the room, the whole room just turns to chaos. Is this normal with add? I just want her to be happy and healthy!!
Try looking into the Daytrana Patch - its a skin patch that delivers Ritalin.
Also, you might try having her practice swallowing pills by using candy. Have her start with mini M&Ms or ice cream sprinkles and work her way up in size. You can also try slipping the candy into yogurt, pudding, ice cream, applesauce or even peanut butter. Once she can swallow the candy (in food or alone), your life will be much easier.
My gut feeling is that if the meds are making her irritable, it's just not the right med. Focalin and Adderall are a different form of stimulant than Ritalin. My son did horribly on both, (botch caused extreme nauseousness) but is doing great on Concerta (a type of Ritalin)
Good luck
My son is on 20 mg of Focalin Xr and 450 mg of Welbutrin. He has been on this dose since it was released. He has consistently stated that it wore off by 3:00. My son is now 18 and 6' 4". His doctor has recently increased his dose and added an addition 10 mg in the afternoon.
Focalin has been a complete change in everything. Nothing worked until this. We recently tried the patch and was a no go. He wanted the Focalin back.
[QUOTE=knm6413]One more question, if the stimulant meds make her irritable, could that be a sign of something else being wrong in addition to add? Could that be depression? She just never seems to be happy or satisfied with anything. The minute she comes into the room, the whole room just turns to chaos. Is this normal with add? I just want her to be happy and healthy!!
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KNM6413, I'm not sure how long ago your dd was diagnosed, but sometimes a medication will amplify the symptoms of ADHD. Our dd was diagnosed about two years ago, and we have gone through a series of medications during that time. Before we found a medication that worked, our extended family had nicknamed her Hurricane Ashley because of the devastation she left everywhere she went. For us, finding the right doctor was critical. It is also important to separate the behaviors that are symptoms of ADHD and the behaviors that are, in effect, "learned." Some of our dd's "freaking out" was the side effect of a med that didn't work for her, while other meltdowns were (as we learned) just her manipulating a situation after figuring out how we would react. I found that calmly talking to her about a certain behavior is often the most effective thing I could do. It is easy to "lose it" on these kids, but they are the ones who most need ultra-calm behavior consistently modeled for them -- even if the meds are what's causing the behavior.
Hang in there -- I know it's tough.
Ritalin LA, Focalin XR and Adderall XR can all be opened and mixed into food/pudding.
Adderall is amphetamine salts. Ritalin and Concerta are both forms of Methphenidate HCL. Focalin is "half" of Ritalin. Imagine a Ritalin molecule in the shape of a butterfly. Take away one wing. What's left is Focalin. They figured out that one side of the molecule didn't do anything but give people side effects, so they figured out how to take that half away.
With Ritalin it took about 5 days for a working dose to take effect. Sounds like the doc is ramping you up slowly to find the right dose, which is the right way to do it. Give Focalin time to take effect at each dosing level.
My DD takes it and it is such an improvement over Ritalin for her. She lost so much weight with Ritalin it was not funny......no so with Focalin. She lost about two pounds, but no more.
You may want to look into her sugar levels. My son's doctor (psychiatrist) had us do a 6 hour glucose tolerance test. We found out that he has reactive glycemia. This is where his sugar level drops drastically. He has to eat more protein and watch his carb intake. The doctor mentioned that when your sugar levels drop that this can cause you to be more irritable and sometimes aggressive. We have our son on 5 mg. of focalin xr and have him on diet of more protein and less carbs (met with a nutritionist that works with our doctor). So far so good. Matter of fact we are doing remarkably better and I thank God that my son is doing so much better. He is much happier. And not showing signs of constant irritablility and agression as once observed. Hope this helps.