My child's been on Focalin XR for a year. It is not a medicine that builds up in the system, so you should see improvement in focus basically immediately. Keep in mind that she'll start on the lowest dose and may increase the dose every couple of weeks until she reaches the ideal dose for her. This means that you may not see optimal benefit of the medication for awhile, but you should start seeing some improvement the first day she takes it.
Many people taking Focalin XR have their appetite decrease dramatically. For my child, his appetite shuts down about 20 minutes after he takes it. When this was the only med. he took, he would eat little or nothing from breakfast until dinner. However, he would make up for the lost calories at night and eat the equivalent of three dinners if he'd eaten very little during the day.
As for the special ed. placement, can you wait and see her academic gains once she's on a medicine that'll help improve her focus? With additional tutoring to help her catch up, she might no longer need the special ed. placement.
Good luck!
Both of my kids are on focalin. The oldest who is 120 lbs and 5'4" lost a few pound and has not gained weight since going on focalin (Jan of this year). My youngest lost weight on concerta and we moved to focalin on which she gains weight, but she is on other meds that have the side effect of weight gain.
Because the doc would have started the med at a low dose and then titrate it up to the effective dose, you may not see anything on the first dose or so. This is done so the body can adjust to the med at each dosage and reduce or eliminate side effects. When you are at an effective or partially effective dose you should see the effects around 1/2 hour. The other thing you watch for is rebound when the med wears off later in the day. This can be the symptoms of ADHD coming back worse than in the unmedicated state or as moodiness.
I would see how she does with the meds. Then work for an IEP or 504 plan that helps her in the classroom (least restrictive environment). There are several accomodations that can help. My youngest went from reading at 2 years below her grade level to reading at the top of her grade level over the course of 1 school year on meds, with some special ed help. Her grades went from Ds and Fs to As and Bs and she is a happier, more self confident child.
Hi Everyone,
I'm a newbie & am in need of some advice. We just started our 9 1/2 yr. old daughter on Focalin for Innattentive ADD. I have some questions . . .
How quickly should we see results on her learning issues?
Here's the low down . . . I've never had an official diagnosis of ADD, but strongly suspect that I am. My daughter was diagnosed last week with the innattentive type. She's been having problems in school with reading in particular. The school wants to put her in "special ed" for reading. So far I don't feel like they have helped her at all. And, in fact have done harm to her self esteem. Her psychiatrist wants us to postpone the special ed. to see how the focalin works. Do any of you have advice? My intution says to keep her out of special ed, but the teachers say that she needs it. I want to know if any of you went through this & what you think the best course of action is.
What sort of weight loss should we expect? Could it actually trigger more eating? My daughter has been diagnosed with precoucious puberty. She's much bigger than the rest of her classmates, especially the girls. She's 5' tall and 155lbs. She has to take monthly shots of Lupron to postpone puberty. Her endocrinologist has said that Focalin is fine to use. It would probably be helpful for her to lose weight, but I want to make sure it won't cause weight gain or mess up her metabolism in the future. Again, any advice is appreciated!
Sorry for such a long post, but I'm excited to get her on the right track. Glad to find a great site like this!