Another Newbie | ADHD Information

Hi Syl06

Thanks for the welcome.  Like your dd we are not seeing really any difference on 18 mg.  She has been on it now for 3 days.  Although, she definitely typically has more ADHD symptoms at school then at home so it is hard for me to say for sure until she goes back to school tomorrow.  I think the stimulus from being around all the other kids is what really sets her kind of crazy.  I was thinking that if she isn't showing any improvement as observed by her teacher by Tuesday or Wednesday I might try giving her 2 pills to see if that helps.  I am a bit anxious to find her right dose as she is going to be the flower girl in my cousin's wedding on Dec 28th and I am just terrified that she is going to decide to start barking like a dog while she is walking down the aisle.  What a nightmare!!
the next dose would be 27mg, probably best to go to that before jumping to 36. The point is to use the lowest possible dose to relieve symptoms with minimal to no side effects.Thanks for the advice.  Maybe her doctor will have samples of the next dosage amount as I hate to fill a full month Rx for a drug that might not work for my dd.  If not better by mid week I'll call her doctor to see if we can bump it up to 27 mg.

April
The Psych will not have samples as Concerta is a controlled substance, but 27 mg would be the next dose, not 2 /`18 mgs pills which would be 36 mgs.

Aprilrain: i to am a newbie. My son who is six just got diagnosed on Dec. 6th also. He has add/adhd combined type. So I know what your days are like right now. We however started with the daytrana patch 10mg.  Can't really say it's working yet but we didn't start until Sat. . He is not doing so great, but thanks to some wonderful people on here, I have convinced myself to give it a few more days, or weeks. But I have no idea what were in for either. So my thoughts are with you too. I hope all goes well with you and your dd. This will be a roller coaster ride, but I assume it will get better. Your lucky to have such a wonderful teacher, where we live it's embedded(literally, my brother-in-law is a teacher) to not flat out tell a child's parents you suspect there may be something wrong with your child, because then the school system has to pay to get your child tested. So getting his teacher on board with us has been kinda blah. She knows what we thinks going on, but yet still seems to do nothing. So yeah your lucky, send her roses for me then ask her if she wants to be my son's teacher? LOL. But good luck to you, keep in touch. We all can go on this journey with you, because you need somewhere else to vent, and this is the place, people are wonderful on here. Good luck!!!!

 

Also can anyone tell me what dd- means? I so don't get it, darling daughter maybe? Everyone post this and I have no idea what there talking about? I know I am duh..LOL

Welcome to the board April.  I have been around for a few years however I do not always come to the boards lack of time problem. Hi everyone - Just wanted to introduce myself.  I am another newcomer.  My name is April.  My husband and I have a beautiful 6 yr old dd named Ashley who was just diagnosed on Thursday with ADHD.  She was started on Concerta 18 mg Friday morning but so far have not seen much of a change.  My pediatrician said it might take several months of trial and error before we find just the right dose, so I shouldn't get discouraged. 

I have suspected for a while that she might have ADHD but waited for confirmation from her school teacher (afterall, maybe other kids act this way too??)  Anyway, her teacher who is a sweet wonderful woman met with me the beginning of November and told me of her problems sitting still in class, blurting out at inappropriate times, etc.  I asked her if she thought she may have ADHD and she confirmed my fear.  She herself has a son who has ADHD and after being a kindergarten teacher for many years she told me she did suspect that Ashley had it as well.  She gave me a reference to great child psychologist for formal evaluation which we did right away.  After filling out the Connors's surveys, the computer test (I think he called it TOVA?), and interviewing my dd the psychologist formally diagnosed her with ADHD.  I actually felt relieved that there was a concrete reason for the way she was acting and that we could do something about it. 

I feel blessed that we caught it early so as to hopefully avoid some of the problems that come with untreated ADHD later on in school.  Right now the only problems that she has really are her inability to sit still for anything (takes 1/2 hour to eat two eggs for breakfast), she blurts out answers in class and sometimes just blurts out whatever she is thinking about even if it has nothing to do with what the teacher is teaching.  She actually focuses fairly well on anything that she is given visually to do (writing her letters, coloring, drawing, etc.) but if she has to listen and follow instructions or listen to a lesson or story that doesn't involve a lot of visual aids, forget it.  She is totally off in her own world.  She can't sit still on the bus and frequently gets in trouble for crawling under the seats, and frequently she will just start barking and acting like a dog (she loves dogs) not realizing that this is inappropriate behavior for the middle of the grocery store, etc.  She actually has quite a few friends so I guess so far her odd behavior hasn't alienated her classmates.  They tend to think she is funny.  She isn't particularly bossy but will do things like get up during seat work time and go to another table of children and tweak the nose of a little boy there.  The kids think it is funny but of course it is inappropriate for the situation.  So far she is not oppositional or defiant except that you really have to supervise her closely to make sure she does things she is told to do. 

Anyway, sorry this opening post is so long.  I am so happy to find a forum with people who are in my same situation.  I don't know anyone else with an ADHD child.

Welcome.

You will probably have lots of questions along the way. Read what you can, there is lots of good advice here. Some one will have gone through whatever stage you're going through.

Sounds like you have a wonderful teacher you are very lucky.

Thanks for the welcome.  I have been reading all the threads and everything else I can get my hands on.  I can't wait to learn from all of your experience.

my dd is also 6 years old and just dx with adhd, her issues are inatentiveness and socialy awquard(sp) and acting like a dog in the bus or anywear els is just like my dd, when we started 18mg we saw a bit of a difference at the bigining, but not for long, 27mg was better but still not great, now she has been on 36mg for a week now and WOW!! what a change! she is focused she can keep up in her class, does her work, does not need the teacher beside her to keep her from being distracted, we dont realy have any side effects exept difficulty falling alseep, so insted of falling asleep at 8:30, it takes her till 9:30, i can handle that. She is cranky comming home from school, but thats ok, as long as she has 15 minutes to just go into her room by herself and relax, she is usualy ok afterwards.

anyhow welcome to the board, and hopfully it is as helpfull for you as it is for me :)