Glad to see that something seems to be working ok.
My 5 year old son is on 10mg of Focalin XR(I also break it apart) in the morning and 5mg of Focalin(its a smaller pill and does not last as long as the other) in the afternoon. He has been taking it since Feb.( we started off at 5mg of the XR once in the morning) and I have a seen a huge improvement. The only side effrect I have seen is the decreased appitite as well, so we give him a carnation instant drink in the morning.
mom2irishtwins - M is 5 years old.
I spoke to his daycare teacher this morning, and she said that he had problems with yelling at his friends yesterday, but that the touching and stuff was better. She also mentioned that he was able to sit a bit longer at circle time than he usually does. His chart from 4K indicated that he seemed to keep his hands and feet to himself, except for bothering the teacher at group time.
When I got home last night (didn't get home till almost 6:30 due to work) he was very overstimulated...not sure if that is because the meds were out of his body and he was rebounding, but will have to monitor that. Maybe it was just because I got home late or because of the yucky rainy weather we have been having.
I guess he ate his lunch very good yesterday, and dh said he ate dinner well too, so not much appetite suppression so far.
He did seem to have a harder time falling asleep the last couple nights. Since he quit napping in September, it seems like we put him in bed at 7:50 and by 8 he is out - the last couple nights he thrashed around in bed for about 1/2 hour. But, he woke up very happy this morning.
We've been using 10 mg of Focalin XR for our 8 yo son for about two months and it's going great so far. We never went up to the 15 mg dose because we saw enough of an improvement to warrant waiting on the higher dosage. He has an appetite problem, so we've had to make eating during the day about nutrition and not hunger. Hope that doesn't hurt later in life. Keep up posted about your progress.
We started M on his meds on Saturday - 5mg of Focalin XR.
Found out he cannot swallow the pills, so we are breaking them open and putting it in applesauce. The dr. recommended we do that.
As expected, we are pretty sure that it is not strong enough. The dr. said to start with the 5mg, and try for a week. If not enough, then do 7.5 one week, then 10 one week if needed.
My observations from the weekend are a little bit more ability to not spiral out of control - and a little bit more of ability to respond to my directions with an "ok mom" versus not being able to stop the undesired activity. A couple times he asked me "mom can we wrestle just one time?" and I said yes, and they did one tackle and then he told his little brother that they had to stop after one.
He played pretty will with his brother on Sat and Sun mornings - didn't get too wild and crazy. We went to see 4 wheeler races and mud bogging contest on Saturday and he did very well with staying by us and watching them, vs wanting to run all over.
So, definitely some improvement, but my guess is that after a week at school we will probably have to increase the dosage. The dr. said that she feels that 5mg is not going to be enough.
The good news is, no significant negative reactions! A little bit of a decreased appetite, but not too terribly bad.
Just wanted to let ya know it seems we started the med journey