We have just started on add medication for my 8yr old son. I am finding once the medication wears off in the late afternoon he seems to be bouncing off the walls. Hi is generally an active kid but I think this has been intensified. The meds (biphentin) helps him focus and concentrate at school. There seems to be positive signs so far, do I take this rebounding effect as part of the side effects of the meds?
Yes, the rebound is probably from the meds wearing off. Talk to his ped to see if he recommends adding a short term stim for late afternoon. There are ways to deal with rebound. As Granny Fran said, a second low dose of immediate release med is common, also, some parents use a caffinated drink or vigourous exercise at this time. Talk to the doc about your choices. Also, a different formulation of the med may have a smoother period when the med is leaving the body. Everyone responds differently. even to different formulations of the same med.i had that problem when i was younger, tried heaps of things such as
doubeling up on meds, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and
found that it stopped me sleeping, try long acting ritiline (concertia) you will
find tat it will last 8-10 hours and it is slow release so the comedown wont
be so bad... itsmore gentile instead of having a massive crash.yup- sure sounds like rebound to me which isn't good because i don't think its good for his body to be so on-off like that... sounds like you just need to down the dosage a bit... being on meds might not be healthy for him anyway
I to have the same problem with my child in full form in the evening--cant get a darn thing done!Hi Kissing mom,
My son started at 8 also with meds for ADHD. He's now 9. At first we had these problems too. They've gotten much better as we have fine tuned his dose.
He has had more rebound when he's been underdosed. When we ever so slightly increased his dose, the rebound went away. It's hard to find that perfect dose (or almost perfect.) I try to be very attuned to things like rebound with him.
A little orange juice and some chocolate help us rebound.
BTW, my sone is now on 54 mg of Concerta. Right now today he has few if any side effects. On 45 mg he had a very hyper period in the evening when the meds wore off.
willynilly
Hi, I'm a Stay @ Home Mom, and I have a question for you. I'm a little new at this too, but not only do I have an 8yr. old (girl)w/ADHD inattentive type, but I am a Graduate Student studying child therapy. I just knew that there was something up with my child -- I just felt like nothing is this hard for anyone putting this much effort behind it, I thought I was either nuts, or this parenting gig was tougher then they said. She has been on medication for 1 & 1/2months and things are going well (between the hours of 8:30 and about 6 HA,HA). We don't have a come-down, bounce off the walls, we can just tell the meds. are slowly fading away. My thing is "the weekends" where she does not take the meds. --- she seems worse then before, I mean WOW, am I just forgetting how I had to micro-manage her every move to see that it all got done, or is she just saving it up for the weekends and POW!!! Letting it all lose at once? (Anybody else see this "double-silly" on the no med weekends?) And the talking, O.M.G.!!! the talking, I don't know how someone could have so many thoughts all at once. I have to walk away and just let her play and do her thing -- because it just seems useless to try to get her to focus herself on anything (like homework better get done on FRI night, cause there is no way she could channel herself for it without the meds). I truly don't think she was this bad before medication - I would have remembered this. Thanks guys. 
Bi Binkx,
Did I write that last post or did you?
We've been through this for a year now and we have the most wonderful psychiatrist to whom I've asked all these questions. First off, my son's psychiatrist would not recommend a meds free weekend for a few months of getting started on the meds or even within a few weeks of a dose change. She says it takes the body a while to recognize the meds and get used to them and until a couple of months into meds, she really stresses consistency. I think she would only recommend regular no-meds weekends if there were another issue at stake, for instance too much weight loss or anxiety. So as it is, my son is on the meds everyday. I believe in my heart that he has a biological need for them, so why not give them every day. He's happier with them.
However, the times when he doesn't have meds, for one reason or another, I notice exactly what you're saying. My friend (in same boat with her child) and I wrack our brains...have we forgotten how it used to be or is it worse now with no meds than it ever was before, or is it a combination. The psychiatrist really helped me out with this. She said that absolutely the first couple days with no meds will be harder, but if a child then stayed off meds, after a few days, he/she'd be back to how they were pre-meds.
I wonder why your daughter doesn't get her meds on the weekend? You might want to consider it. My son is helped by meds on weekends doing sports, violin practice, chess tournaments, homework and just playing.
Willy Nilly
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