we had an appt. today with the pediatrician and in the visit it was decided that adderal was not working, the stomach aches and the no sleep issues are too prominent for us to continue that route. we got a script for liquid ritalin which my dd said she would take, but then no pharmacy in the area had this on hand, so a pharmacist at target showed my dd a ritalin tablet, which we would half to start out with and she said "okay". soooooo, after 4 more hours of dealing with the whole rx change and running around...i came home with ritalin and a pill cutter. my dd was swallowing sunflower seeds tonight (unshelled)...so i think we are good to go for tomorrow. eeeccckkkk! i'm not thrilled with the idea that she will need to go to the nurse every day at noon...but if the med works and she has less side effects i'll be happy. if this doesn't work...i will definitely be scheduling a child psychiatrist appointment. i will schedule one tomorrow to have in the books just in case anyways:)
who has has their kid/kids on ritalin with success? any advice for me? the pill halfer that i bought at the pharmacy doesn't work perfect...my dd will start out with 2.5 in the morning and 2.5 at noon. our evenings could be interesting...but i just hope that she's asleep before midnight:)
shelley
Hi Shelley,
There is a slick trick for cutting pills. You lay a credit card on a flat surface, then lay the pill on the edge of the credit card so that half is on the credit card and half is not on the card. Put the index finger of one hand on the half of the pill on the credit card, and the index finger from the other hand on the other half of the pill. Then push down on the pill with both fingers and it should split accross the edge of the credit card. Also it is best to give the 2 halves of the same pill on the same day to make up for any variance in pill halves.
These were both suggestions by my daughter's psychiatrist, since we had to split guanfacine into halves in the begining.
I will keep you and your daughter in my thoughts.