Do meds start working faster if you sprinkle the contents instead of swallowing the capsule whole? I talked with the pharmacist, and she said that it might speed it up a bit because there's a little less for the body to break down. Does anyone have any experience with this? It's been great that my child can swallow the Metadate CD capsules whole because he can have major ADHD issues interfering with taking meds sprinkled on a spoon (distractability, hyperactivity, and impulsivity make it hard for him to take it off a spoon, but for some reason he can focus well on picking up the capsule, putting it in his mouth, and swallowing it whole). Obviously we also don't have to worry about spilling and not getting all of it when he swallows it whole. However, it's been taking about 1-1/2 hours for the Metadate CD to kick in, while the Focalin XR used to take only 20-30 minutes. I'm wondering if going back to sprinkling the contents would speed it up. If it won't speed it up, I don't want to reintroduce that stress into my life. (The Focalin XR capsules are huge, and we used to sprinkle those onto applesauce.)
my own thoughts would be to NOT open them if possible. I cant imagine it would make that much difference and I would think keeping the med intact is best. Plus you KNOW they get the full dose. We used to use a short acting 5mg Ritalin to cover the time it took the long acting med to "kick in". If giving a short-acting and a long-acting form, how do you time it? The short-acting form works for 4 hours, right? Did you give the long-acting one two hours before the short-acting one wears off (or however long it took the long-acting form to kick in)?I would give just 5 mg short acting as soon as she woke up, then the long acting about an hour later on the way out the door to school. It took about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to hit optimum effect, by then the 5 mg short acting was working it's way out. It worked ok, she just had too many stim side effects and we ended up off them. It did work out nicely having the 5 mg Ritalin though we could use it to help ease rebound. If your child is ok on short acting meds she was not. For whatever reason she's always suffered more side effects from short acting meds than long acting ones. The side effects weren't form the overlap it was just that formula she could do. She really didnt tolerate the stims at all, we just kept trying .
This works well for a lot of people. I have a friend who gives her son a 5mg regular release Adderall to her son. She wakes him up he takes it and goes back to sleep. When he gets up, she gives him his Adderall XR and then another short acting 5mg after school. Works REALLY, REALLY well for them.