Just Can’t Win Some Days | ADHD Information

Is there something that has changed? Illness, allergies, stress can put a stress on the brain function that can overwhelm the benefit of the meds. Also, did you just start a new prescription and posibly there is something wrong with this lot of patches?OK. Long story short, ds has been on Daytrana for a while. Always worked
great. Beginning of school year it had to be increased to 20 mg. Was OK for
a week or so. Then Daytrana patch took 4 hours to "kick in" and we added
Focalin in the am. Worked fine until this week. Now have to add Focalin at
school for the afternoon. What is going on? This patch is just not working
like it should. I am very frustrated and had to vent.As with most ADD/ADHD type meds, sometimes they just stop working. My son was on Concerta for four years, it worked very well. His Dr. increased the dose during that time. But after 3 dose increases, even at the
higher doses, it just didn't work. It's frustrating for sure, I know, but from my experience, the long acting stimulants work pretty well. Every child metabolizes medication differently, so sometimes they have to try a
few before the right one is found.

Hang in there and feel free to vent anytime! Ds metabolizes meds very fast. Focalin XR only lasted him about 4 hours
so we tried short acting and had to give it to him several times a day.
Since he needed something longer, we switched to Daytrana. I think that
he is just not sleeping well and it is affecting him later in the school day.
He goes to a small private school that is wonderful and supportive, but
the flip side is that you hear just about every little thing that goes wrong
in the day. He has a lot of anxiety and worries about us being mad or
getting upset if he does something wrong. His sleep cycle has been off
this week for some reason. He has trouble getting to sleep and then
wakes up early. I am going to let him sleep as long as he wants this
morning without waking him up with putting the patch on. I will just take
him late to school if I have to. I think we all need a break once in a while.
His is very bright fortunately and always gets his work done at school and
does well on his tests. Thankfully we don't have this to worry about. If
the Concerta doesn't work well (will try over Christmas break) then we will
just have to make the Focalin/Daytrana combo work until we can figure
something else out. Thanks for your input. I just had a bad day
yesterday because when I went into the hallway to pick ds up, there were
several moms waiting in the hallway all telling me how ds was crying and
in the classroom with the teacher and yada, yada, yada. Maybe they
could have announced it on the school announcement system that my ds
was having a meltdown and then everyone could come in and stare at us.   
This is what I dislike about small private schools. There is no escape and
everyone knows your business. Just had to vent. Thanks for listening.
Another proud parenting moment.

We were on daytrana 10mg from march this year til oct and then it seemed to just quit working as well as it was before. But our dr just changed our meds, he didnt even suggest increasing dosage.

Quick question, does focalin come in both short acting and long? Could your child benefit from long acting? Forgive me for not knowing alot about the meds. Still learning all of this.

And venting is wonderful, helps keep you sane......best wishes

B.J.

yes B.J; Focalin does come in short-acting AND an extended release (I know this because my son is on both...)

MOST (but not all) ADHD-type meds do come in short-acting and extended release forms.