Metadate CD | ADHD Information

co morbid means in addition to....frequently ADHD does not exist alone and several things are likely to occur along with it, such as anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder, bipolar disorder, and I am sure many others that I am not thinking of right now.

I too had many nights of hours and hours of homework battles with Chase before he got effective treatment, and for the same reasons.  He had things that the other children had completed at school in addition to the assigned homework.  It was pure torture for all involved, trust me.  It will get better, I promise once the meds are working.

I'm so glad you said that the frustration and homework battle is normal. I really thought that I was the only one.

What do you mean by co-morbid? I have never heard that before.

I forgot to mention that the dr. did refer us tp a clinical phychologist that specializes in ADHD. We havent seen him yet. We're waiting for the bloodwork results to take the next step.
Thank you all who have responded. My son has not been officially diagnosed with ADD. His teacher and I filled out the questioneers, and his doctor said that he has many symptoms of ADD, and prescribed him the Metadate CD at 10 mg, pending the results of the blood work. I am still waiting on the results (his blood was drawn this past friday). Once those come in, then we'll go to the doctor.

Vickie, the dr. didnt say anything about tritration. I'm guessing because we didnt officially meet face to face.

Has anyone experienced any frustration with your
child(ren) before the meds? I have a really hard time trying to help my son with his homework, in addition to all the class work that he has to make up because he couldnt finish it in school. Last night, it took him one hour to cut something out. I have to walk away from him for a few minutes to cry a little and to control myself. Don't get it wrong, I dont spank my son. I have at times yelled at him (something that I am not proud of)because it feels like he doesnt listen and do what he's told. But I have stopped doing that, and give him positive feedback for all the good things he does. He is a really good son. He has a great heart, he's really smart, and I love him so much. At times I feel like a failure because I try so hard to be a good mom. Does anyone experience any of these feelings? Also, I don't understand how my son can play video games for hours, but it takes him hours to do his homework. He plays on weekends when there is no homework..but I have started putting time limits on his video game playing cause it doesnt do him any good.

BettyBee,

Your son's homework problems and your frustration are standard with ADHD. Before meds, homework was a battle that was destroying our home. With meds, more work gets done at school, there is less nightly homework and homework is done by time I get home from work (she is allowed to stay up an extra half hour whenever homework is done this early).

Look at the marble thread for positive reinforcement ideas to work with your son in concert with his meds.

The route your pediatrician is taking, is not the standard diagnostic route. It is an older method that includes trying meds and if there is a positive effect, that confirms the diagnosis. Generally, pediatricians are not the best at managing meds for ADHD. They can be great when the diagnosis is simple and the first or second treatment works with little fine tuning.

If you do not get the best treatment results, you might look into a psychiatrist. They have more experience with med managment, especially if any co-morbid conditions are with the ADHD (about 1/2 of all ADHD kids). If the journey to finding effective treatment goes well with the pediatrician, just keep in mind the psychiatrist option for the future if needed.

My son is 8 and he takes Metadate CD 10mg in the morning.  Last year we tried the 10mg and his teacher said there was not much change.  We then tried 20mg he was a zombie. Then tried 10mg morning 10mg at lunch, she said that was working.  I also work during the day, so I was having to go by what the teacher was telling me.  That was a mistake I don't think she knew anything about ADHD kids.

At the beginning of school we tried Adderall XR, that was terrible.  We put him back on 10mg in the morning, he's doing fine at school now with his behavior. This year is totally different, he has a wonderful teacher that has helped tremendously.

 We just saw a new psychologist Friday, and he's going to do a new psychological (IQ test) in 3 weeks.  He also gave us new rating forms for us and his teachers.  I haven't gotten those back from the teachers yet.  Hope this helps.

The lab results are in. Everything is fine..expect that his iron is a little low. Not anemic low thought. He said to give RC (my son) a children's vitamin that specifically said with iron, and that should do the trick. I told him that I havent seen any difference with the meds. The doc said to bump it up to 2 pills in the morning so now he will be taking 20 mg of Metadate CD a day. What's a little weird to me is that the doctor has not yet seen my son yet. I asked the doc if he's sure he wants to bump the medicine up without an official ADD diagnose. He said yes cause going by the questioneer that me and RC's teacher filled out, he does have ADD. I know this doc is a good doctor but i'm a little concerned cause RC hasnt been really evaluated. I've made an appointment with the clinical physologist so lets see what she says. I'm worried about the side effects. I dont want him to zombie out. So now, RC will be taking 2 pills of Metadate, 1 singulair for allergies, rx eye drops also for allergies, and a vitamin everyday. Thank God he doesnt give me a problem taking his medicine! I so happy with this forum. It makes me feel so much better to be able to release all my feelings and have questions answered by people who are going through the same thing I am. Now, i dont feel so alone.

Excuse all my types. I havent figured out if this thing has a spell check yet!I just started going to a new doctor a month ago, and as far as I know he hasn't officially dx'd me either. (They tell you when they dx you, right?)

My mom and I filled out a questionaire and he wrote down the symptoms I described to him, and he also did kind of a verbalized version of the computer tests (told me to tap my fingers when he said certain letters, memorizing things, etc). I think my doc will dx me once he sees how the meds are working--like the old method that vickie mentioned. But he's doing that in addition to other things.

Sometimes the first med isn't the best one...you're kinda considered lucky if it is. How's it going with the 20 mg? Don't know yet. The doc just bumped it up today so we'll see tomorrow, hopefully. The thing with me is that since I work, i dont know if the medicine will be out of his system by the time I get home. I guess the school work will help to determine what the results are. I will post again with the update. My son, who will be 7 in May, has been prescribed Metadate Cd, 10 mg. Today was his first day. How long does the medicine take to kick in? I assumed that I would see immediate results, but his note from the teacher didnt tell me anything about his behavior that I havent already heard. He is not a hyper child. He needs help to focus, stay on task, control his temper, and to stop fidgeting. What are your experiences with this medication? I am new to the world of ADHD.
This is a normal low starting dose for dose tritration, looking for the effective dose. Did the doctor explain dose tritration and how long you would be trying each dose before moving on to the next level? By starting low, you can watch for side effects (which will be milder at the lower doses) before moving to the next dose. This also allows the body to adjust to the med at each level before increasing (also reducing side effects). When does your son next see the doc?Hi Betty-

I took ritalin 5 mg. but my old doc rx'd it so I no longer take that.

Now I'm taking 27 mg. concerta (the same active drug as metadate-methyphenidate) and I haven't noticed anything either. My doc says this dose is the equivalent of 10 mg. short-acting ritalin, so I'm assuming it's close to your son's dose as well? I tend to have a high "threshold" for meds..it takes a higher dose for me to respond to it at all. My doc is titrating my dose every 1-2 weeks, as often as I see him. I am increasing to 36 mg tomorrow AM. The next time you see the doc he/she is likely to increase it until you see a response. My advice to you is the advice I am constantly trying to give myself: it's still a small dose, so there is certainly a chance that you will respond to it once it's increased enough.

From what I read on the boards, stimulants are not dosed by weight so I don't think you have to be concerned that the 10 mg. should be enough for him due to his weight.

Hope this helps a bit..

BTW welcome to the boards Just for clarification; 10mg metadate CD is like 2 doses (at different times) of 5mg immediate release methylphenidate (ritalin or other brand). The metadate CD is supposed to last about 8 hours compared to immediate release lasting about 4 hours. Concerta goes about 12 hours with an immediate release of 1/3 of the medication and slow release of the remaining 2/3. So 18mg concerta is like 6mg of immediate release med given at 3 different times.

My DD (who's 6 1/2) started on 10 mg of the Metadate CD. We didn't really see any effects. After a week, she began taking 20 mg, and we did seem to see a positive difference in her behavior from the very first day. She's still taking that dosage.

I think the effects are supposed to be pretty much immediate (within an hour or so of taking the med), but am not positive.

I will say that DD's teacher hasn't made any comments about her acting differently in school, though. She knows DD was diagnosed with ADHD, but we haven't told her that DD is taking ADHD meds.

The first one we went to in 2005 had a TON of paperwork for me to fill out.  I filled out papers for almost an hour during his evaluation.  There was everything from behavior, development, milestones, etc. 

This time we went and had a short meeting, and we are supposed to have another evaluation done Apr. 9, and then we will have a feedback appt on Apr. 18.  He also requested new ADHD rating forms be completed, a copy of his prior evaluation, and a copy of his SST file from school.

A bit of advice, keep copies of everything, report cards, evaluations, meeting at school, notes from teachers, etc.  If you have any papers take them with you just in case they ask.  Hope this helps some.

Wow...thanks for the heads up. That helps a ton.

Do your kids know that they have ADD? I dont want to tell my son. He asked what the new medicine was for and I just told him it was to help his focus in school. He was like "okay". I don't want him to feel that he is any different than any other kid cause he's not. How do you approach this topic with your children?What was it like at the psychologist? My 1st appointment is on Tuesday. My son is not supposed to go to that one. It's a conference for the parents and the doc is going to ask questions about his development, milestones, and stuff like that. Did you have to do that? If so, what did the doc ask?Does anyone have any problems with "acccidents"? My son (he'll be 7 in May), still has occasional accidents. I wonder if that's part of ADD. I have taken him to a urologist and they didnt find anything wrong. I know sometimes it because he's too into the video games..but at 7, he shouldnt be peeing on himself anymore!My son cannot swallow the pills. I buy those trix yogurts, a spoonfull for every pill I sprinkle on it. I did try to have him swallow them, but he couldnt do it and it just ruined the pill. But I read in here that people have tried teaching their kids to swallow pills using tic tacs. I thought that was a good idea...but I think my son enjoys the yogurt. Maybe i'll try the tic tacs on the weekend.

Yesterday was his first day on 20. He still wasnt able to finish all his work, but the teacher said that he tried really hard. I took him to the store and he was such a good boy! He was very calm, level headed, he wasnt touching everything and running around. For dinner he ate a whole lot, and at bedtime his stomach was still grumbling. I wonder if that's because he had a lack of appetite in school and once the medicine wore off, it make him extra hungry. I dont know. we'll see today when I ask him about what he ate. He had a little problem going to sleep. Usually, after I tuck him in he's usualy knocked out 10 minutes later. Eventually he fell asleep and hour and a half later. I dont know if that's because of the medicine or because he really just wasnt tired. I guess one day is too soon to know, so I have to monitor him for a little longer.

We tried 20mg last year but it turned him into a zombie.  His med wears off around 4pm, so when he gets home from school he's usually starving. He does not eat much at school, usually just his snack.  He's a very picky eater, he usually wants chicken nuggets or pizza occasionally something else. He usually eats some supper but not alot because he can't sit still long enough, or he's just to busy wanting to play or something.  The last 2 mornings he said he ate 3 bowls of cereal.  I'm hoping the med is increasing his appetite, but I don't know yet.

He usually goes to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 and goes to sleep in a few minutes most of the time.  

No, I don't think he knows he has ADHD.  I just asked him why he takes his medicine in the morning.  He said so that he will be good at school. Can your son swallow pills?  I have to sprinkle it in ice cream. I haven't really tried to explain it to him, I'll just ask him questions about different things.  Why he does things, does he find things hard to do.

The pediatrician just put him on Percocet at night. He's 8 and only weighs 47lbs.  The Percocet is supposed to increase his appetite.  It does at times but still probably not as much as the Dr. would like.  He's supposed to gain 7lbs in 2 months.  We'll see. 

Hi BettyBee:  My son has ADHD and has been on daytrana patch for 4 weeks now.  We had terrible problems with homework too so you are not alone.  Before meds though I signed my son up for a homework club I found.  He goes Monday and Wednesday 1 1/2 hours each time.  There are 10 kids in the class most of whom are autistic and a few ADHD or ADD.  My son does all of his monday and tuesday homework there on monday and then he does his wed, thurs. in there on wednesday.  Then we do his homework that's due friday on thursday.  I tell you it really helped to pass the homework off to a tutor and it's really quite reasonable.  Much better than a one on one tutor.  He loves being with the other boys and although he give me a bit of trouble before we go there he likes it once he's there.  Sometimes it's better to get someone else to help with the homework because I too used to yell at him when I got upset that he was acting all silly and not trying to get it done.  Strange to me that he does so much better with the tutor than his teacher but I think it has to do with small class size and also the tutor gives them little rewards.  My son is 7 so he loves it that she says he can make a paper airplane if he gets his work finished or he can make an origami or play on her lap top if he gets it all complete.  As for your pediatrician I went first to a pschologist who diognosed my son ADHD last year but he said no meds yet.  Then just recently we went to UCLA and their psychologist diognosed ADHD and then she sent us to a psychiatrist in the same office within a week and we started on the meds.  He's only on a low does 10 mg patch and so far it has bad and good effects.  His teacher noticed good results within the second day but at home we prefer his funny playful side because he does seem a bit hyper focussed to us on the patch.  We took him off this weekend and he was his usual self out playing balls, riding bikes, being noisy, laughing.  On the meds during the week he will sit and just play legos for hours and get so wrapped up in them we can't get him to stop.  It's a hard decision for us right now on one hand school is much better but the rebound effects when the patch wears off can be bad at home.  I think we will keep taking it off on weekends and holidays and over the summer vacation.  He also complains about pains in his stomach so much while he's on the patch and barely eats.  This weekend he ate us out of house and home and he's not fat by any means.  My son is in 1st grade. I never really had any major problems with him at school. There was this one time when he was in daycare, that the teacher there was "man handling" him. She had grabbed him from his shirt to make him sit down, and has grabbed him from his arm to yank him. I always knew that my son was a handful, but no teacher has a right to put their grubby little hands on my child. I immedialty took him out of that school. He has never had any other major issues in any other daycare, or in kindergarden. The symptoms started appearing this year. He started on Metadate CD (10 mg) and that didnt do a thing. He is now on 20mg. Which I think is working. I work during the day, so by the time I get home the medicine is pretty much out of his system. But the teacher has sent notes home telling me how much of an improvement my son has made. I dont give it to him on weekends, or on vacation. I only give it to him when he's in school.

His pediatrician has reffered us to a psycologist because they are trained in diagnosing ADHD. The first appointment was to talk with "mom & dad" to discuss what systems he has. She wants to rule out that it's not a lack of discipline. This is a good time to take any notes that you may have from the teacher re: his behaivior. The 2nd appt. is to test my son. The doc will have him do a series of actions to see how he pays attention, attention to detail, etc. That's how far its gone. I'm waiting on the results on that.

before you take him to the psycologist, find out what coverage your insurance offers. My insurance only covers 5 visits per year. anything after that, I have to pay 1/2.

P.S. My husband is in denial, too. Betty, I would love to know how your son makes out. He sounds a lot like my son. He is a very bright boy with good grades but is having trouble with focusing and staying on task. I am suffering from terrible denial problems. I think it is just boredom, the makeup of students in his class this year and his total lack of sleep(classic denial, right :-D). I have asked every teacher he has ever had if they think he has a problem and they have always said no until this year. My pediatrician said he was just waiting for me to ask for help....he has notes in his file back 3-4 years about his behavior at his appointments.

Jack started the Metadate cd (20mg) this morning. We have been on Concerta (first 27mg -too much then 18mg-didn't help at school) but he has sleep issues to begin with and the higher dose made him weepy and angry. I am hoping that we can find the right thing soon because my 10 year old son was talking to his pediatrician yesterday like a little adult  about symptoms and doses. I just want him to succeed in school and be happy. I may pursue the psychiatry route if this keeps up.

Good luck.

 
o2paint39199.2646643519My son gets his homework assigments every monday for the week. I have him do it all on Monday. Although it is a little difficult, he has realized that if he gets it all done in one day, he will not have any more homework to do for the rest of the week. I also time him. He loves that. He thinks it's a game to beat the clock. Truthfully, I cheat. I always add more time when he's not looking. It makes him feel so good when he finished before the beep. I always let him watch some TV or watch a movie afterwards as a reward. So far, that has been working. How do you feel about taking your son to a psyciatrist? That's why my husband is in denial. He associates psychiatrist and psychologist with mental issues. he keeps saying our son isnt "crazy", and i try to tell him that I know he's not. That it's not a mental issue, it's a behaivior issue, and that they deal with that too. But he doenst get it. We only have one child, so he's really overprotective of him. Although he may not agree, he has been great in cooperating. Thank God because I dont want to deal with this all by my self.

Almost forgot - Excellent book for discipline issues, "1-2-3 Magic" by Thomas Phelan, Ph.D.  I swear by it!  Check it out.

 

Hi Betty!  Welcome!

My daughter takes 20 mg of Metadate CD once daily.  I find it only lasts about 6 hours.  Her biggest side effects have been trouble falling asleep (Melatonin fixed this problem - can be purchased at most vitamin stores / GNC and online)  and appetite.  I stopped giving it to her on weekends and school holidays / vacations unless we are going somewhere where it is imperative that she behave, stay quiet (her ADHD makes her extremely loud) and be able to pay attention so she can get some weight back on.  She has lost 5 pounds since the start of the school year.  She looks like a little skeleton and I hate that. 

Definately see a psychiatrist and/or psychologist.  We saw the school psychologist but I also got a second opinion through a psychologist that her pediatrician recommended.

Does anyone know just how Metadate CD is released in first-pass and then the remainder of the day?

My son is 7, in 1st grade, dx w/ADHD x1 year now. After a double-blind Ritalin 4 week study at dx, we tried many combinations of meds. We settled on Metadate CD 20 mg in the morning with an additional Ritalin 5 mg at after lunch. This seems to be best for him.

He must metabolize the Metadate differently as his peds showed us the little drug co. card showing how the medicine is "supposed" to metabolize and work. For 20 mg of Metadate CD, the card showed that when initially ingested (sprinkled on applesauce or yougurt as he can't swallow big pills, only small), Metadate CD immediately releases 6 mg with the additional 14 mg released slowly during the remainder of the 8 hours.

He didn't seem to have any Metadate CD on board come noon and that's why the additional 5 mg of Ritalin after lunch.

Have any of you been told how Metadate CD in different dosages works how I described? And when should he up the dose? We do take weekends off of we don't have any kind of activity going on, like right now. So, hopefully he doesn't have that big of tolerance to the dosage.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

I have no info on the subject..

Just that Will is also 7 and takes 30 mg of Metadate and 5mg of Ritalin after school.

It sounds like you have the homework thing all figured out so that's great.  I tried timers for homework and getting dressed in the morning and it only worked for a while for us.  Tonight my son had a really bad rebound affect after the patch came off I took it off early so we could see a bit more of his fun side.  At first though he cried and refused to go to the tutor and I just did it at home with him because he was such a mess.  I had to wait about an hour for him to calm down and we had to  do the math first and then the spelling later after he rode his bike with my husband.  As for the psychiatrist my husband was fine with that.  He actually takes prozac himself for depression and just recently he told me he thinks maybe he too has had ADHD all his life.   I've thought that about him for years but he never would listen to me in the past.  He actually asked if he could try one of the patches and I said no he needs to be checked out properly.  I'm not going to be responsible for something happening to him if he uses it before being properly diognosed.  I sure would hate to see the rebound affects in an adult man that my son has too that could be scarry.  The thing is that ADHD is a mental issue so hard as it is for all of us to accept it's true.  As for my son inheriting it from my hubby our son is adopted so I wonder has he learned it from my husband perhaps, I don't think it's possible but who really knows.  I noticed our son was different I guess I'd say pretty much from the time we adopted him and he was only 6 months.  One thing I will say I am not going to waste any more money on therapists.  I took him to a sand play therapist for 9 months and it did absolutely nothing but shrink my bank account.  She insisted he see her every week and she was 100 per week so that bugs me.  And I've read since that therapy won't help ADHD kids but behavior modification will by the parents.  We purchased some parenting tapes called Total Transformation and they have some good advice.  Again I'm not sure they are worth the 0 we spent but they are somewhat helpful.  I'm interested in finding out about the CHAD parent to parent classes but no one has responded to my emails about them.  Anyone tried that or found any form of therapy that does help out there?I have not tried any other kind of therapy yet. I'm still new to all of this. I have 5 visit per calendar year that my insurance covers 100percent. Anything over 5, i have to pay a large percentange out of pocket. The first visit was to talk with me and his dad about symptoms. My son was not present, but yet they billed him, which means that's one less visit he gets. the next visit was for my son to take a test. now, the third visit (which is next week) is for the results of the test, which my son will not be present. Does anybody have any advice or tips or experiences with how the billing is done? I called my insurnace co. and they couldnt give the answer I was looking for. I'm afraid that my 5 visits are going to be all used up before my son actually gets diagnosed and treated. He's on medication because his ped. rx it. but my son is not officially diagnosed yet. His ped. said that from speaking with me and the forms i and my sons teacher filled out are classic symptoms. Help!BettyBee39203.5470833333