My son has taken both ritalin 5mg and focalin 5mg at 4 pm when he gets home from school. It doesn't effect his ability to sleep at all (that's different for everyone) but it doesn't help him focus that much because the dosage is so low. It did help when he was having rebound, though.
We are actually going to ask the doc for a higher dose of the short acting focalin for afternoons my son has football practice this fall. We can usually get the homework done before it wears off, but practice is until 8.
What time is his soccer practice? Seems like there would be enough time for the ritalin to take effect as long as you gave it about 1/2 hour before.
Just another note about the sleep issue- I know some people can't sleep if they take the meds too late, but I gave my son his focalin xr at 3:30pm the other day and he slept just fine that night.
Wow! Two very different answers... and thank you so much for taking theThat was the short acting. Like I said, it helped with rebound, but he built up a tolerance to ritalin fairly quickly anyhow, so that may have been why it didn't help him with focus so much.
Will was taking 5mg of Ritalin at 4pm, then we switched to Focalin short acting. We were on it for several weeks, but suddenly noticed last week, that he was having trouble falling asleep.. Now we give it to him at 3pm, as soon as we get home from school and it seems to be doing ok...
I wouldnt give it to him, my son is on a form of ritalin (chewable) i cant give it to him any later than 2pm if i want him to sleep at all. My son take Ritalin LA 30 mg around 7:30 to 8 a.m. and also takes Clonidine
Hi,
I just wanted to add my 2 cents. We have been on Concerta 18 mg since last March and I wanted to try the short acting ritilin for evening activities. So far we have done it 3 times. The first time he had a head ache. The second time he has a stomach ache, and the third time he has what had to be rebound for 2 solid days (even with the concerta) Luckily, we were on vacation but I don't think we will use it any time soon.
YMMV,
L.
We find that the Ritalin LA wears off after only 7-8 hours. Doctor doesn't seem to believe that's all we get. The quick acting seems to only last 3 hours. So there is a good portion of my day that we are without coverage. We have been on this dose for some time. The doc did mention last appointment that we might up the Ritalin LA, but he was to concerned about how much my son weighs. This routine seems to work for us. I just wish we had longer coverage. 10-11 hours total with the LA and the short acting out of a 24 hour period We have also tried the melatonin and cholondine for sleep. Those only worked for a short period of time. We now take 75mg of Trazadone and it works wonders.
We have also added .25mg of Risperdol to help with the mood swings.
Cheesehead.... and others whose kids take the immediate release RitalinCheesehead,
How long have you been on this med schedule? Has your son developed any tolerance and subsequent increase in dosage? Just curious--we are on a similar schedule except Methylin ER 2x/day and short-acting for activities (we used to take the LA, also only lasted 7 1/2 hours).
P.S. Go Packers!
My son takes 30 mg of Ritalin LA in the morning. It only lasts 7-8 hours for him. We then take 10mg of methpheydnaite(short acting Ritalin) somewhere between 3:30 & 4:00 p.m. This allows us to do football practice, swim lessons, homework, etc. We have conerta mornings and then at 4ish 10mg quick release ritalin. Quick release takes about 23 minutes to kick in!!!! This takes the edge off the rebound. If I time it when it is starting to wear off, he is actually tired and then will go to sleep. If given too late it can have the other effect if I let him stay up too late! Some children actually can fall to sleep with a quick release. All children are so different. Afternoon activities for us cannot be done without a quick release. One way to find out!!!!! Try it on a Friday so that if it becomes difficult to get him off to sleep then at least it is not interferrring with school the next day.