mornings and evenings HELLLP! | ADHD Information

How do you handle mornings and evenings? In between seem to be fine. My 8 yr old is on vyvanse 40mg once a day. Mornings are horrible and evenings are too. Mornings I can't get him to get ready for school his goofing off, even on the way to school. Evenings I can't get him to settle down to go to bed. He has every excuse of something that needs to be done; and it is usually rediculous!

we always ran into this too. Currently I give my daughter her meds twice a day. Methylin ER, once at 5:00am and school gives it to her at noon. It is an 8 hour med. So by waking her at 5:00, when she gets up and showers it is beginning to take effect. By taking one at noon, it lasts until 8:00pm, no rebound and we get late afternoon evening coverage, it works GREAT.

Some other options are, wake him early and give a long acting med, then a short acting (4 hour) after school. Or vice versa. A short acting early, early, then the long acting on the way out the door.

I have had the same issues with my 5yr old. We are in the process of having hime tested ADHD.. But, I began the marble discipline and it has been pretty effective. Still some bad mornings & evenings, but it's not every day. He seems to respond better to positive reinforcment than negative.

Once all his marbles are moved to the happy face cup, we reward him with a surprise. He loves suprises.

I am still struggling with putting him on meds. If I can control his behavior with positive reinforcment and he continues to do well in school, that's my plan. If things make a turn for the worse, than I will definately look for help.

Wow, getting my kid up at 5, that is hardcore! But I see the same behavior in the morning before the meds kick in. I haven't done that to allow the full effect of focalin XR to be for school. But after reading these posts, I may reconsider. Mornings can be brutal, with all of the goofing around getting out the door. I know how important it is to send your child off to school without losing your temper. But taking 10 minutes and five requests to 'put on your shoes' is getting old. I am already up by 5:00, and my daughter literally sits up, swallows her pill and goes back to sleep, so it's not too out there for us. I know a few people who do this.

[QUOTE=debvath]How do you handle mornings and evenings? In between seem to be fine. My 8 yr old is on vyvanse 40mg once a day. Mornings are horrible and evenings are too. Mornings I can't get him to get ready for school his goofing off, even on the way to school. Evenings I can't get him to settle down to go to bed. He has every excuse of something that needs to be done; and it is usually rediculous![/QUOTE]

OMG!! Your son is exactly like my daughter in the morning and in the evening. I mean, EXACTLY. Our evenings are a disaster and everyone is stressed in the house. The Dr. called it 'Rebound' coming off of the stimulant. I have to say I was skeptical of this but she prescribed something called Clanidine. It puts her to sleep. I hate to do it but the evenings were really really getting stressful. I didn't know what else to do. I'm not recommending that you do this or suggest it until your at the point you feel like walking out like I did. Last night she fell asleep so soundly. She even talked to me and gently gave me a hug instead of being her mean self in the evening and being very difficult. She was asleep at 8:15pm that has not happened in two years since she started Concerta.

My 6yo is off the wall in the mornings and in the evening. We tried the early morning pill, but there was no change in his behavior. He is taking Risperdal twice a day and wears a Daytrana Patch. The patch stays on until he is in bed, but it seems to stop working at 6pm and then he is out of control again. He used to take Clonidine, which worked great at night and in the mornings, but the Insurance Company said no more until he had an EKG. I am so happy they requested that, my son's results showed he had a Type II Second Degree Heart Block, the cardiologist took him off the Clondine for 1 week and retested and it was back to normal. So he can not be on this medicine or any similar types. If you are using Clonidine with any other medicines you may want to have an EKG done. This is a serious reaction. So now it's back to the beginning.

ok,

I got a dry erase board and wrote the following:

1. go to the bathroom, 2. brush teeth 3, change underwear 4. put pajamas in drawer 5. get dressed 6. make bed

this board sits on his dresser. I lay out his clothes for him the night before so they are ready for him. Anything not completed within the 30 minutes we give him is 10 minutes off his bedtime that night which he cannot stand. This helped a lot ( visual cues ). Good luck

I can so relate to all of you, especially the poster who talked about asking her son to put on his shoes 5 times - I'm there every morning, and I swear I get into the double digits with my requests to get dressed, brush teeth, put on shoes, etc. I even do the 1-2-3 thing with my son, and still he winds up getting to time #3 - he loses privileges when that happens - and he gets so angry and blames ME! I keep asking him, when is it going to sink in, that it's YOUR choice, it's up to YOU what happens? My son is 9. Am I expecting too much??

Maybe I should try the early morning meds like some of you have suggested. He's on Focalin XR 20mg., I give it to him around 7:30 as school begins at 8:00.

I give my daughter her focalin XR 15 mg 30 mins before she gets up..she sits up takes and goes back to bed 30 min....she can even do homework in the mornings now...i would suggest for any adhd child I print out a spreadsheet: Mon - Fri at the top, 5 get ready tasks on the side. He has to do them in order and check them off as they are completed. Jessica N39737.6551851852My son is on Vyvanse 30mg. I give him his meds every morning at 6:30am. He takes the bus to school so the meds are in his system by 7am. Sometimes his behavior is not good at night. If he doesn't get his way or something doesn't go right he throws things. Thats been here lately. He's also been on antibiotics for 10 days and I think that does something to the Vyvanse. But before that he was fine. I can't get him in time-out either when he does through fits so I throw one with him in a funny way and he stops and looks at me like I'm crazy, but his fit stopped. I put my son 10, in time out only when he is throwing a fit and there is no control. He goes to his room and comes out when he is calm enough to discuss it. as a regular thing it didn't work work for us either. We take away privedges in the short time. ie. no gameboy for the night. or no playdate the next day stuff like that.

I made a chart with pics when my son was 5 (and one for his 7 yr old brother too). It showed the steps of getting dressed, shoes on, eat breakfast, brush teeth and THEN tv or book or whatever he had time for before it was time to go to school. I used velcro so they could move the pic from one side to the other as they completed the task. I made it clear to them that I made the chart for them to be responsible and that if they chose not to follow the routine of the morning and it was time to go then they either 1) went to school in pajamas or 2) went to school without breakfast but I wasn't going to hover and nag them the whole morning anymore. Thankfully they've never called my bluff on going to school in pjs!

I will say that I think if you can keep something like this to less than 5 steps, then youll probably get more compliance. There is really only so many steps they can remember in the mornings when they're groggy or distracted by other things.

I am still doing the marble discipline. When we get up for school and have no issues with getting dressed and leaving on time, he gets to put marbles in his smiley face cup. If he goes to bed at night without issues, he gets to move marbles as well. Other things warrents marbles to.

Once he has moved all marbles to the smiley cup, he gets a surprise. He loves surprises. This method has worked very well for me and him. After he is completely dressed for school, I allow him to watch cartoons till time to go. He knows no tv, until he is dressed. He eats his breakfast while watching cartoons.

He is 5 and in the process of being evaulated for adhd, but no meds yet.

I found for the clothes I put pants and shirt together 7 days worth and hang them up on the back door so all three kids have a weeks worth of clothes and they don't have to search for a shirt and they don't have to hear mom saying take that shirt off and get another one on.

I was doing that alot and my husband even got tired of me saying it.My son is 10 and on Vyvanse. He is a nutball in the morning and after homework.We have found that Given meds early(5am) he is better in am and excersice(we have a big trampoline calms him down in the evenings. Other than that our rebound is not bad. We also use Melatonin to calm him before bed and to sleep.spamula39734.2424768519

do you put your kids in time out when they get out a hand? I do and it doesn't work and I need some advise on other things to do. and I for one am tired of yelling. some days I just want to pull my hair out.

Mac is on 54 mg daily concerta. I give it to him at 6:30 am, let him go back to sleep untill around 7:15 and then we start our day. Usualy works great tho here lately he's still a but "wound up" when he gets up at 7:15...not sure why but its not so bad that it cant be handled and by teh time we get to school at 8 he's ok. He takes a supplement of ritalin around 5pm every evening, 20mgs to get thru the night. W/out it he couldnt get thru homework or ever settle down to go to sleep. We've been doing this for at least a year now and its working great.

[QUOTE=loveis]My son had been on Clonidine for 2 years and it really made him relaxed and took care of his impulses. He would complain that his heart hurt but figured he didn't know how to describe the feelings he was having. I did'nt think anything of it. He goes to his Special Peditrician every three months for his routine checkup and there seemed to be no problems. The Clonidine and Tenex is used for people with high blood pressure problems. It slows the rate down and what it was doing is causing his beats to skip. Every child in the Dr's office that was on meds was tested and found 5 other children with this or similar problems. I am just happy that this was caught, I don't want to think what would or could have happened. When we googled Clonidine, it was everywhere about the combinations use of meds and the possiblity of this issue.[/QUOTE]

very interesting. But I wonder if it is just certain stimulants with Clonidine that cause that. thanks for the information and I will probably take her to the pediatric Cardio.

My son had been on Clonidine for 2 years and it really made him relaxed and took care of his impulses. He would complain that his heart hurt but figured he didn't know how to describe the feelings he was having. I did'nt think anything of it. He goes to his Special Peditrician every three months for his routine checkup and there seemed to be no problems. The Clonidine and Tenex is used for people with high blood pressure problems. It slows the rate down and what it was doing is causing his beats to skip. Every child in the Dr's office that was on meds was tested and found 5 other children with this or similar problems. I am just happy that this was caught, I don't want to think what would or could have happened. When we googled Clonidine, it was everywhere about the combinations use of meds and the possiblity of this issue.

I have the same problem. I have found that motivation is a powerful ally. My son is motivated by things that you and I would think are silly. He likes when I blow dry his hair when I do mine, so he knows that he only gets this if he is up, pottied and teeth brushed by the time I do my hair, otherwise he misses out. It's amazing how fast he can move when he hears the blowdrier. Also, if we have a few extra minutes in the morning, I will read another chapter of whatever book we are reading for a bedtime story. While we were working on the Harry Potter books, this worked great, because both boys really wanted to hear more story, so they hustled.

I too have been tempted to put a list up in the bathroom, but Branden is getting better at remembering what to do.

Can I ask why you are taking him off the Clonidine? As you can read on my posts that my daughter is probably the worst to try and get to sleep. It's pretty sever. But the Dr. started her on .1 mg of the Clonidine, and she couldn't even hold her eyes together. She put her head straight down on the pillow. I think she was too dizzy. I'm cutting it in half the next time I need to use it. I am not going to use it every night, or try not to anyway. [QUOTE=loveis]

[/QUOTE]

She is on Concerta 27mg a day. I thought a patient had to have a pre-existing condition of the heart for anything to go wrong?

I really wish I could be a stay at home mom. I work full time, part time college and try to hold things up in a calm fashion at home. My hubby makes a decent living but we would struggle. We throw around the subject of me just getting my college over with (which would be 3 years left) with no full time job. It is so hard because ADHD children really are needy in the emotional dept. and want attention all the time. Keep your fingers crossed for me all that he may agree to it one day. Who all on here is a stay at home mom?I am a stay at home mom with a 6 yr old. The evenings are getting better here, since his doctor started him on Risperdal .25mg. The risperdal is supposed to help with his appetite. Were slowly taking him off the Clonidine, he's taking .25mg every other day. This should be stopped by this weekend. His doctor never mentioned an EKG regarding this medicine. He has an appointment in November I'll have to mention that to him. My son gets a little wild for about 30 minutes after I give him his meds, then he's fine. My biggest problem with him right now is his bowels. He holds it for about 5 days then I have to threaten him with a stool medicine. I've had my child on meds and a remedy for a long time. Jessica N39908.397337963You can find it at your local health food store.Jessica N39908.3978125Mornings were horrible for me when I had both my children here. ADHD son made his brother late for school twenty some-odd times last school year. ADHD son had a very understanding teacher, and she didn't mind if he was a few mins late. She wouldn't count him tardy, but older son's teacher said he was late if he wasn't in class by the time the announcements started. I even wrote her a note once and told her that it wasn't my oldest son's fault, it was that his brother just couldn't get it together in the mornings.

It doesn't help that I suspect that I am ADHD too, and am really bad about forgetting things
or waiting unti lthe last minute to get them done. Youngest son is with his father now, and somehow he manages to catch the bus every morning. I think they finally got his meds straightened out and that helped tremendously, but I can SO relate to asking 10 times to put shoes on. Threatening to send him to school w/o them woudn't have phased him, he hates shoes anyway.

Things are much calmer now in the mornings, but I suspect other son has ADHD too, his bad times are early evening and bedtime, although the past few days he seems like he's getting worse. We have an appt Tues with his primary physician, but I'm sure all he will do is send him to a behavioral specialist like they did his brother.

[QUOTE=Jessica N]I've had my child on meds and a homeopathic remedy for a long time, but stopped the homeopathy for 2 months. What I think I saw was med rebound in the mornings and at night once he'd been off the homepathy for three weeks--- really severe ADHD behaviors. He just wasn't functional. Could get anything done at all. I've put him back the homeopathy and we are starting to get back to normal. [/QUOTE]

What is homeopathy treatment?

I am a stay at home mom and I tell you.. Will makes me want to go back to work full time..

He is 9 and is on Vyvanse 70 mg. Dad gets up at 5:30 every morning just to give him the meds. I didn't think Will would take it and go back to sleep but he really does. I was SHOCKED.. We've been doing this for a few months now and you can really tell a difference, in the mornings.. I haven't found a bright idea for the evenings yet.

We've only been able to do this with Vyvanse because it truly is a long acting stimulant. It has such a slow release also, and we like that.It's not perfect and we're having issues as I type, but it's the best med he's ever had.

Our problem is the holidays are coming up and Will just cannot keep it together. This time every single year, his behavior just goes crazy wrong to the point that during Christmas break, I'm on the phone calling his dr in tears. I'm hoping to avoid that this year, but I can already see signs of it starting.

And now, his grades are starting to slip.. UGH!

Sorry, I got off topic. I haven't been on here in a while! I would suggest trying the early morning meds and seeing if that helps!

We had the same problems with mornings and evenings.

I have a 10yr old son who is on 72mg Concertta in the morning and 40mg strattera in the evenings. Since strattera stays in the system for up to 24 hrs our problem was solved, it gets us through the mornings and the evenings when he has homework or ball/piano practice.

I hope that this was helpful