This is why we stopped the patch.. It was just too much of a hassle to get him up 2 hours early to apply the patch.
Other than that, it did work well for him.. We are now back on Metadate.
My son just starated using Daytrana last week. I found that the 15 mg is not enough, so I was told to cut one in half. So now he is taking 22.5mg. This is working so much better! He had a great day in school today.
My question is....does anyone use a short acting medicine to help get the day started. The mornings have been rough. I am considering asking for a low dose med to help. Maybe 2.5mg of Focalin and delay the patch 30-60 minutes. I was wondering what you guys do. THANKS
We don't use a short acting med, we use coffee. Ds (14yo) likes coffee so he has a cup or two before school. Have you thought of that or Mountain Dew? Ds has band and gym first thing in the morning, so the Daytrana is in his system by the time he starts his academic classes. We switched to the patch the day before school started. He got his schedule the week before and I was so disappointed that his tough classes were later in the day. It worked out perfectly for us.Hey,
Good Luck with the Daytrana. Well, what would work the best if you could put the patch on about two hours before you would need the medicine to work but if you are like me you cant so what we do is just put the patch on and then give her a dose of ritalin (liquid) I think it is a 5 or 10 mgs. Very low just to get it started and it seems to work fine for the school. Hopes this helps. Let me know what you think about the daytrana. Thanks
I have read of others using a low dose short acting form to get a good start to the day.Which dosage is the patch that you are cutting? The patch Comes in a 20 mg form if that is what dose your child needs.
When are you applying it? I have founbd that applying it before my dd wakes up, then giving her a nice hot cup of coffee( or hot chocolate) in the mornings wroks well for us, she likes coffee, and it is half-caff, so not too much caffeine.
Which dosage are you cutting? The Daytrana patch only comes in 10, 15, 20 and 30 mg doses. So , he is not getting 22.5 mgs if you cut any of them.
http://daytrana.com/pdf/DaytranaPatientGuide.pdf
DS is on the 15 mg. patch now and I don't believe it is enough. I am goingedbson....I thought that the size of the patch determined the dosage. I am cutting a 15 mg patch in half. He is getting 1-- 15mg patch and a half of another patch. I must have misunderstood the booklet. Would that be equalivalent to a 20mg patch? Thanks to all you guys for the advice.
My son is almost 6 1/2 and does not like coffee. I try to get hime to eat breakfast and drink milk with the carnation instant breakfast in it.
You could try Mountain Dew..it has quite a bit of caffeine in it. I know, I know, it goes against all of your 'Mom' instincts...but it just might work! Or ask your doctor for a quick acting formula for first thing. It kicks in in about 10 minutes and only lasts for about 2-3 hours, so if you give it at the same time that you apply the patch, it should be wearing off at about the time the patch kicks in.Well according to the daytrana prescribing information sheet, it says quote "The composition per unit area of all dosage strengths is identical." That basically means that the medicine is evenly spread throughout the whole patch. So whoever you talked to when you called Shire probably told you what SHE thought, which doesnt necesserly make it true. When manufacturing things like the patch or pills or the granuals in a capsule, there are certain tolerances as to the distribution of the med, and generally, it is probably pretty even within those tolerances. That being said. The company cannot make recommendations for anything that was not fully tested during the clinical trial (like cutting the patch). This is because all marketing materials, patient and doctor education materials can only say what has been approved by the FDA and is fully supported by data from the clinical trials. This does not mean that these things do not work, just that they are not supposed to suggest anything that is not fully supported and approved.I put the patch on while dd is still sleeping....no hassle, and she doesn't wake up.
Cutting the patch may not determine dosage, Shire advises against cutting them in half. They told me that the med may not be evenly distributed throughout the adhesive, may only be in one spot, so you never know where it is.....
I try to put the patch on his around 6am so it is there for school at 8, but on tue, wed and thur we have karate and church so I need it to act longer. On those days we give a focalin 5 along with a jolt of caffiene and then put the patch on right before school around 7:45 -8:00 that way when he takes it off around 5pm or so the effect lasts just a little longer to help get through his evening activities. btw he love mountain dew and big red both have lots of caffeine, but he now thinks it is cool to have coffee with mom in the am, we just doctor it up with splenda and creamer so it is sweet tasting.