How was your kid’s Winter Break? | ADHD Information

I've found that if we stop my son's meds for more than 2 days, that first day back on is weepy and stressful, so we will only go 2 days off at most.  Our break went great!

Get this.....

We left for a family vacation to Colorado on the 23rd. It was just the five of us! We had an early flight out and I decided to wait until we were on the plane to give him his medicine (20 mg Dexedrine). I opened the bottle to pour out his pills and there were only three pills left. I had grabbed the wrong bottle instead of the refilled bottle. :-( Well guess what? We managed AOK!!! The first day was a bit rough. He was angry and argumentative but managable. The next few days were fine. He wore himself out every day and stayed so busy with physical activity that the over-active part of him was a non-issue. The best part was he ate and ate and ate! He even tried and loved Caviar!!!

We eased back into his meds when we got home and are back at school now and into our routine!

Brandon only takes his ritalin on school days. So yes he had a med break. Things went pretty well. I kept him pretty busy at least part of the time. He was quite well behaved when we went out for dinner with my family on my birthday! So that was great!

Like Vickie, we stopped the stimulant but kept the guanfacine.  She is doing great.  At one point we were going to do pottery painting, so I gave her 10 mg short-acting....wow, the odd behaviors came back again.  She became more interested in playing with her hair than painting....I'm not sure we will resume the Ritalin LA next week.  It seems to make her retreat within herself and not pay attention to the things she's supposed to....I'll be talking to the doc soon....I tried a med break, but the addition of the guanfacine made him dizzy w/o the stimulant to counteract it...so that didn't work, but before we used to take weekends and holidays off with no problems, so hopefully in the future we can do that again once he becomes accustomed to it...he does fine at home w/o it, really no huge difference in his behavior on vs. off. 

We have had a nice, peaceful, lazy vacation...
We actually had the best break ever!  As opposed to a med break we took the week at home to up his dosage to see how he did (I hate doing it when he's gone all day).  What a difference!  For the first time in his life (he's 8) he cleaned his room with out help- and it was done properly and only took 15 minutes.  I have high hopes that his grades will improve along the same lines.  Usually I can't wait for school to start back up, but this time I didn't even think about it until last night when we packed the backpacks.Our break was good. Of course the normal argueing amongst the kids, but Chases' behavior was really good. The new meds are working great (no med break for him).  They go back to school tommorrow, and not a one of them is happy about that.

My son's "medication fast" actually went fairly well.  We were on a laid back schedule so maybe that was helpful for him. 

He begins kindergarten again in the morning and I've been trying for the last several nights to get his bedtime adjusted to an earlier time (we've been a bit too free in his bedtime/wake-up time during the break).  Well, let's just say it's 10:00pm e.s.t. here, and he's in his room talking to himself.  He's going to be one tired critter in the morning!

Zzzzz

 

squirrelgirl39084.8404861111

My 10yo daughter is taking a break from Concerta, but is still on guanfacine and doing great. The guanfacine evens out the behavior, hyperactivity and impulsivity so I did not expect any issues. The Concerta is really needed during school and homework. I will start her back on Concerta the day before school starts again.

Many parents that have kids in school just went through a time when their kids were at home from a couple weeks. How did it go? Were there any parent's that decided to put their kids on a "medication fast" (not give their kids their meds)? How did that go?Dad in Akron39084.8306828704I work so he didn't get to stay home all day.  But he did excellent at daycare.  No time outs for the whole time.  We survived last week, but no way would I try a medicine break. He does
much worse with unstructured time... I can't have him in the school's
"holiday camp" for very long or things get ugly, so now I take at least a
week off. Last year my co-workers had a pool for when he would get
kicked out (five hours into the second day). Today he went back to first
grade and he was a MONSTER tonight- growling and defiant, took 35
minutes to copy five easy sentences. I had to sit on him to brush his teeth
and he bit down on the brush so hard I think I heard it crack. Tomorrow
HAS to be a better day...

mine was kind of "rough"...the low dose of ritalin wasn't enough for my dd in my opinion-she was very argumentative and difficult to deal with at times.  i think the family had too much family togetherness too and we got off schedule a bit.  today we upped the ritalin and she goes back to school tomorrow...

shelley 

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year!  

We had a very pleasant winter break.   I stopped giving my son his meds right after Xmas.   I expected it to be a choatic time for us, but really it was rather nice.    I have to say that part of the winter break he was with his father.   But from what I hear, he was well behaved and had fun.   I also noticed he was complacent to most requests and did not argue or act out as much as usual.   He starts school tomorrow.  I will give him his meds then, but I'm worried about how he will take the meds after a week of them.

If anyone has any experiences like this, please share them.

Thanks............

 

 

 

 

When ever we take a med break (the conerta only, not the guanfacine), I start my daughter on her meds slowly. 2 days before school starts up, she gets a low dose (18mg pills left over from the period when we were looking for the right dose) for 1 day, then the normal dose (27mg) for 1 day, then school starts. If she were on a higher dose, I would start sooner to avoid any problems (we have had none, but why take the chance).We had a great vacation.  We tried to have a med break 1 day, it was way to rough.  So we ended that real quick & the rest of the time was wonderful!