Starting meds for the first time tomorrow | ADHD Information

Corrina pretty much covered it and I agree about seeing responses immediately. Caution dictates to slowly titrate up on a new drug as your doctor is doing.  If the dose was close to being right, we always saw a response immediately.  It is also wise to observe your child in several settings before deciding if the drug/dose is right. You may want to consider observing him:
-at home, school, extracurricular, neighborhood, shopping etc
-by himself, one on one, small group, large group
-free play, organized activities, seat work,
-look for changes in following directions, quality of handwriting and seatwork

My son is now 20 and when we tried new drugs or were finetuning a medication those were the things I'd look at.  During these times, I became a common figure at school...whether it was purposefully dropping a lunch off, taking care of some thing at the school or just observing him on the playground.  I am not sure how old your child is but one quick test I'd so with my son was to have him edit and copy a few sentences I had made up with punctuation, capitalization and grammatical errors.  Was he able to focus, find the errors and how had the quality of his handwriting changed? An age/grade appropriate paper exercise would help one answer some of those questions.

These are just suggestions.  I wish you and your child the best of luck!
jfla239968.3618634259 PS  Re: "relapse issues"

My son had obvious rebound issues when he was on Ritalin short acting and Concerta. (adderal did not provide him with enough focus altho socially it was great)  the rebound was worse than before he had even been on medication.  He is on Ritalin LA which eliminated the problems with rebound.

The word "relapse" reminded me of another thing.  Some days he would behave just as though he hadn't taken his medicine altho I knew he did.  After awhile, I realized that like everyone, he had his good days and not so good days.  I didn't allow those infrequent not so good days to influence my decision of whether a medication was working or not.  Hence a good reason to observe behavior on a dose before changing it.
jfla239968.3600115741My son was on two meds and you could see the difference immediately.
If he has a weird reaction, don't wait 2 weeks to report it to the doctor.
More likely you won't see the effects right off. In that case, wait the 2
weeks to see if it kicks in. If not, let the doc know and up the dose.

As far as the relapse - my son gets it. It's just - boom! - he acts like he
never had the drug. But I'm totally used to that, and knowing when it's
coming makes it totally fine for me. It's well timed during the day
because that's when I would pay him the most one-on-one attention
anyway. But if it's really bad for your son (broken record anyone?) call
the doc about it.

Watch for other side effects, like loss of appetite or sleeplessness. If it's
an appetite thing you can change when the major meals are to before he
takes the pill and after it wears off. If sleeplessness is a major problem
check with the doc (is that #4?), but melatonin works very well with my
son.

Good luck with this! Chances are it will be like the majority of kids who
start meds with no problem. And even if there are issues, because you're
educated about it you'll know what's going on so you can correct for it
instead of freaking out.

Let us know how it goes!

We saw the neuroligist today after speaking first with our ped and we all agreed that medication seems to be the next nessesary step for our DS. 

The neurolgist (who really got a chance to see our DS in his glory today at the doctors office...he was horrible) suggested Adderall XR.  5mg for the first week to have him get used to the medicine and then 10 mg after that first week.  I have to admit I am nervous about this drug.  I have heard some goofy things about reactions some children have to it.  I know every child is different and what one didn't work out, the next child it did work out.

How long from your guys's experience would I start to notice the difference? 

If you have/had your child on Adderall XR how did it work out or didn't work out??

Did you have that "relapse" issue that I hear some children get in the evening when the medication wears off?

 

ok started it today and he puked.  He's pretty upset right now.  called the doc and he told us to discontiue the use of it.  he'll call us next week with something else.I wouldn't give up on it the first day just because he
puked.

My son did this for 2 or 3 days straight when he started on
Vyvanse back in December. We realized it was because he
needed to eat while he took the meds.

Just my 2cents.


Although, if your doc told you to discontinue it, then I
would. well as the day went on it was apparent this was NOT the right medicine for him.  After he stopped puking and felt better we went to the park to play. He starting practically beating up this one boy there because he was "being mean to him".  Now my son his hyper indeed but never agressive...never.  So this was a major shock to me.  Then when we got home he was very angry all day.  Major mood swings he complained of headache and dizziness too.  Yikes.. no way jose.

ok well we didn't start today.  The pharmacy didn't open till after 9 this morning and we had planned on going to the zoo today and left early, so were starting for sure tomorrow.

when you say you noticed "immediatly" would you say you mean like day 1?? or maybe day 2 or 3??

 

I spoke to our pediatrician today and let her know that the neurologist suggested Adderel XR (because at first she recomended medatate) and she said that that was fine.  I told her i was a little nervous about giving him that particular medicine just from some of the stuff I read.  She said that she felt and found that most of the medications are all the same idea, but have different reactions with different people.  So I guess we'll see.  I did read in an ADHD book that Adderal is a more potent drug and thats why they precribe lower doses of if compared to say ritalin.