My 12 year old ds takes 10mg of Focalin xr every morning. Honestly, I see absolutely no difference in him with or without meds. He also says he feels no different.
In school he was doing well so for one week we took him off meds too see and the teachers said he was much less focused in class.
So why do I see no difference? I never bother with meds on weekends and vacation because I see no difference.
He's 100 pounds and 5 foot 2 inches so I think the 10 mg is a low dose for him.
Your son is the size of a small adult. I'm guessing he needs a higher dose. When my 13-year-old son was taking Focalin XR last fall, he was up to 15 mg. We stopped Focalin because it was increasing my son's anxiety.I'm not a med expert. If the teachers noticed a difference when you took him off of his meds, and he was doing alright otherwise on the med, then that would be worth keeping him on, wouldn't it?. When my son was on Adderall, the school was the only one who benefitted from him being on a med. It wore off by the time he got home. His dose might need to be upped, also.Mellowdancer, if your seeing no difference in your child perhaps he needs a dosage change or a different med. Sometimes there are improvements but the goal is maximum benefit which your child may not be experiencing at this dose or with this med. Because everyone responds differently, a trail of meds is done and the goal is maximum benefit and minimal side effects. Unlike Straterra, stimulant medication is not age or height dependant. I suggest that you speak with your child's doctor and below is a link that will provide you with more info.
Medication Management for Children and Adolescents with AD/HD (WWK3)
If he is doing well in school I would not mess with that I would check with your prescribing doctor.Why do you see no difference, but the teacher can? Once they have them on meds, they want to keep it that way. The teacher knew that you had taken him off, right? If so, Shouldn't have told her/him, because your child could have been doing ok, but he or she was afraid that things wouldn't stay that way, so he/she will play it safe and say that your child wasn't doing right in school. Sorry, but I have seen this done before.you know, that's a very good point....I may try it again this year and not say anything.
Teachers are also, many times ignorant.....they think it's just about the meds, like give them meds, and they are perfect and the teachers don't have to do anything.
As a teacher I will say parents rarely tell me about medicine changes unless they are trying to change dosages because of growth changes, and they want me to observe behaviors. I think that medicine is a parents choice, and not mine. However, when a child is trying to run around the room in circles in 8th grade (happened last year) something does need to change. Most of my students I could tell when they did not take their medicine (forgot that morning) because of the difference in focus during note taking and work time. I teach advanced math classes. When this happened I would usually ask the child why they were having problems with focus. If it was due to medicine, I realized I needed to be more tolerant and give many cues to keep them on task. However this can be difficult when you have 35 students in your room, and about 5 of them are ADD/ADHD, another 2 or 3 are special education, and 1 only speaks Spanish. Whenever you get frustrated with a teacher please keep this in mind, and that if they do care they probably work 12-18 hours a day to provide for all their students.
I think the difference in what the teacher and parent sees may be based on different activities. I teach pre-algebra and algebra and this takes much more focus than many activities that occur at home. My husband requires more focus at work than at home, and he is ADD. When he comes home he has expanded almost all of his energy for the day, trying to focus at work. This may be what is happening, but he may also need a dose change based on growth changes. I would talk to your doctor about everything, and get their opinion. I will say almost all of my 8th grade ADD/ADHD went through a medication change due to recent growth, and none were based on my urging.
Mathlady, thank you for posting from a teachers perspective as generalizations do stereo type, I have read some of your posts on other thread and I applaud you for not only your knowledge of ADHD but also your dedication and commitment to your students. Normally, if a child is on the right medication at the target dose, the only time a med change may be needed is when the child is entering puberty due to hormonal changes. Eight grade sounds about right A med change or dose change may also be necessary if the child is going through a trial of meds as the clinical response to stimulant medication is all individual and is not based on age or height unlike Straterra which is a non stimulant. Also, some parents and teachers have expectations too high in terms of results as they don't understand that adhd medication is not a behavior pill and will not make the child a robot. Medication allows the child the ability to make a choice rather than act on impulse and like any other child, children dont always make the right choices. When the child succeeds on medication, its the child that deserves the credit, not the medication.
Thanks for your input as we never stop learning and getting different perspectives helps parents to understand the bigger picture.