Please help I am at a lose.  My son is 6 ADHD ODD and recently moved back to general ed.  He takes focalin (regular not XR) 5 mg at 7:30 am and 2.5 mg at 11:40.  He has never really had any rebound on this med until recently.  I have put him on the GFCF diet with great results.  I am sold on this diet.  He has been on diet for 3-4 months.  He had a total aggressive violent rebound at school on Friday.  Took three people to handle him and I came to pick him up. 

My question is did I clean his system of everything that was agitating him and now the focalin is too much?  Do meds sometimes show no side effects and then they pop up months later?  Maybe his dose is too high or too low.  He does well until about 11:30 with minimal rebound until Friday. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your thoughts.  I really appreciate any input.  I gave him his afternoon dose an hour earlier than usual and that seems to be working at least for today.

Sherri

Hi,

I am new to the forum.  My son (almost 14) was taking Concerta XR 45mg for the last 2 years but he had no appetite and his affect was completely flat.  This was affecting his health and social development.  So six months back we switched to Focalin XR 2o mg -- he is making friends and his appetite has improved.  However, his irritability and intolerance for frustration has made our relationship difficult.  I cannot make any suggestions, ask him do something --sometimes he acts like a typical teenager (unwilling but will at least listen me out), but other times he just starts protesting loudly, expressing frustration that is completely out of proportion.  I realize that some of it may be him being an adolescent, but I really feel that such sudden change is a side effect of focalin.

Anybody else have this experience.  Suggestions would be helpful