First of all---sorry so long---
Until 4 days ago, our DS 5 took 10mg Methlyin right away when he got up in the morning (around 6:30am) and then his Daytrana patch went on about 7:15. We were struggling in the mornings and school was saying that mornings were bad until the patch kicked in, which is why we added the Methylin morning dose. Things got better at school, in fact we've been hearing that they were great but mornings & evenings were still horrible for us, which didn't make sense to us.
So now, at the recommendation of his pscyh, we've changed things up a little in the timing of when he takes the meds. We're on day 4 of taking the 10mg Methylin at 7:30 just before we walk out the door and the school nurse is putting his patch on 9:30-10am. We've had great mornings and great evenings. Even though it may be too early to tell, it's possible that our evenings were rebound and now his patch is carrying him through until bedtime, which is great! The only problem that we seem to be having and I'm confused about, is his Methylin pill. School said the last couple days he seems unable to sit still and keep his hands to himself during morning activities until about an hour after his patch is on. I've even noticed the increase is his activity level on the way to school (which is about 1/2 hour after taking the Methylin pill), he seems unable to sit still in his car seat. Is it possible that the methylin only helped when it was in combination of the patch starting to work? By itself it just adgetates (sp?) him? It seems ridiculous but it's the only thing I can think of.
We are giving this a try until our next psych appt in two weeks when we plan to re-evaluate. Any suggestions of what other short acting med may work instead? He seems to respond well to the methylphenidate group. Obviously it's something we'll discuss w/his psych but I want to be armed w/info.
epokey, it's probably not enough methylin. Like you said, when combined with the Daytrana it was good, but now it's the 10mg alone it's probably not enough. When you do a morning "booster" it's really just to get tose symptoms enough under control until your med for the day "kicks in" if you will. My thoughts would be he needs a higher dose, or try something different, like regular release Focalin or 5 - 10 mg Ritalin. Diane V39484.4641435185