Morning Routine Nightmare- Help!! | ADHD Information
I am a new poster to this forum but really could use some advice. My 9 year old daughter has ADHD and is on Daytrana (10mg). Daytrana is a patch so when she gets up in the morning she puts it on. From that point, it takes a little while to take effect. So, I am at my wits end every morning trying to get out the door for school! The night before her clothes are laid out but it still takes her about 15 minutes to get dressed and come down- she recently got contacts so now it is about 20-25 minutes before she can get down to breakfast. Every step of the way I have to remind her to brush her teeth, put her shoes on, get her backpack, etc. I am really concerned because she has no appetite once the medicine kicks in so I REALLY want her to have a good breakfast, but most days she winds up having about 10-15 minutes to eat!! On top of this she has no sense of time urgency! So she doesn't 'get it' that she just needs to keep going. Eating can also take up to 20 minutes!! Then there is the trek back upstairs to brush teeth and hair. My main problem is that if I don't stand on top of her the whole entire process we would never get to school. We have done charts, tallies for money, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, yelling, EVERYTHING but year after year it is the same. I feel bad because I know that she can't help it, but I am scared she will never make it on her own someday!! And then what do I do when she wants to put make-up on in the morning (in a few years)?? I can't get her up any earlier! She needs alll the sleep she can get.I also have a 7 year old son who has none of these issues and can be ready for school before she is even done with breakfast! I have night and day with them!!
Anyone gone through this and made it out the other side? Do I need to just accept that I will have to stand on top of her until she graduates high school? Help!!!!
hi! im new here as well, but maybe switching from the patch to a pill would help some? i know my dd takes adderall, and i can see it just start to kick in around the 20 minute mark...
good luck ;)
Boy have my husband and I felt your pain with our 8 year old so!. What works for us is a timer. Ours is digital and it gives our son something to keep him focused on his task (other than us asking him to do something a million times). We still have to remind him of his next task (giving them to him one at a time really helps), but it has definitely been less frustrating. He knows there are consequences of the timer goes off if he isn't finished.
Good luck! Hope your mornings are less stressful soon!
I also have a 9 year old daughter who can take hours getting ready for school. She was taking Adderall XR in the am, however, it took way too long to hit her system - and in the meantime we battled constantly. Her doc switched her to regular Adderall every four hours and since it is not XR it hits within 20 minutes. I still have to remind her to do things, but it has made a huge difference. She also feels better physically - she's gotten her appetite back.
It just seems that the extended release meds take way too long to hit their system and then they wear off way earlier than the drug manufacturers claim they do.
I too worry about her in the future if I'm not around to remind her to do stuff - I'm taking it one day at a time. A day we dont fight about her being late is a great day.
Hope this helps. I totally empathize with you!!
Our Dr recently had us give our dd her pill 30 mins before she gets up. We wake her and give her the pill then she goes back to sleep. When she gets back up the med usually has started working. Have you tried this?
Hi Dawn,
This is a very common issue that comes up often. And guess what......there is no one right and wrong answer. What works for one child/family, may not work for another. My son is now 16, so I pretty much tried every tip thats ever been mentioned on this topic. I will say that there is one tip that overall, had the most success for us. And that is taking their med early, preferrably with a nutrtious food, then letting them sleep another 30 or 45 minutes. This one strategy, combined with all the others, reduced our morning chaos more than anything. You may also need to re-examine whether or not the patch is working effectively for her. When we gave our son his med, we'd give it with carnation instant breakfast plus something like a banana or cereal bar.
Some would disagree that this is an extreme "accomodation". I don't. Implementing this simple change literally changed our mornings from hell on earth to calm, almost overnight. Expect it to take a few days to iron things out if you try this approach.
Okiemom
My son is still pretty young (4) but we have similar problems. He's on the fast acting type of Ritalin but it still takes about 1/2 hour to kick in. I tried waking him up to take a pill then go back to sleep but that didn't work because he won't go back to sleep after he wakes up. So what I do is wake him up but let him lay in bed watching TV for about 1/2 hour. After he's up for about 5 min I give him his first pill but I don't start asking him to do things until about 1/2 hour after he wakes up. I end up having to get him up 1/2 hour earlier than I normally would but IT IS SO WORTH IT! Good luck!
My son is on the Daytrana patch also. It takes about 2 hrs to be effective for him. I put the patch on him while he is sleeping. I apply about 2 - 2 1/2 hours before he has to leave for school. He doesn't wake up when I put it on.You may also need a higher dose of daytrana. Is the patch effective the rest of the day or is she still having trouble completing her work and staying on task?
As for breakfast try to give her foods that are easier/quicker to eat. I buy frozen pancakes (or freeze ones I have already made) and microwave them for about a minute. I like to keep things like granola bars and bananas on hand that he can eat on the way to school if we are really rushed. My son tends to not eat much during the day. I don't worry as long as he eats lots and lots in the evening. Good Luck. Thanks to everyone who has posted a response! I think i will look into a different medication. The daytrana does its job for her so I have been hesitant to switch. I also fear that if I put the patch on her before she wakes up that she won't have an appetite for breakfast or lunch and she will end up going the whole day without eating very much. But, again, thank you thank you thank you, for all your posts. It seems that maybe a non XR pill might be what we need to switch too!
[QUOTE=Logan'sMom]robdana1, Is it possible that your son also has Sensory Processing problems? My son does and one of his problems is a sensitivity to certain sounds. When we started with stimulants they worked great in a lot of ways but aggravated his sensory issues. He would startle at the stangest things and be scared at all kinds of sounds. We put him on guanfacine (generic Tenex) along with Ritalin and the Tenex helps keep the stimulant from aggravating the Sensory problems. Just a thought...[/QUOTE]
Maybe, but he has been off of the meds for two weeks now and his fears are no where near as extreme now. He still may have sensory problem, but you wouldn't have known it on the other meds. Daytrana was just not right for him. We are still open to meds in the future though. Right now however we are going all natural. If it works great, if not we will try something new. It is a learning process for us all right now. We will not give up untill we find what is right for our son.
I was just trying to remember and I think Adderall aggravated his sensory problems worse than the Ritalin. So it seems (like you said) certain meds do it worse than others. Well good luck to you and I hope you find whatever works!
I have been exactly where you are! Our 7 yr DS is on Daytrana & we love it, however, there is that morning stretch to deal with. There ARE other options, I hope you have looked into them before stopping Daytrana, I hope I'm not too late! One is a short acting Ritalyn (pill) that kicks in quickly that you could give her right away when she wakes up. For us it kicked in within 1/2 hr, so we let our DS watch TV during that time & then get ready for school once he was more focused. It worked for a while for us but then eventually it took longer & longer to work & we ended up switching to Guanfacine and so far the results are great. We actually give him Guanfacine at night before bed and it lasts through our morning routine and then put his patch on before we leave for school and the Guanfacine lasts through the 2 hr period of the patch kicking in. We actually have a medicated boy 24hrs a day and have no down time...it's awesome! Definately speak w/your Doc about options of other meds to relieve that morning stretch until the patch kicks in, there ARE options for you. If the patch is working well for you, I wouldn't be so quick to quit doing it just because of the lag time in the morning...finding a med that works is tough...don't give up on one that works. I hope you find a combination that works for you, when you do...you will get that ahhh feeling! Good luck!
One more thing about Guanfacine...it's actually an appetite booster, so our son has acutally increased how much he eats. It somewhat counteracts the Daytrana in the way of appetite suppressing, so that has been a bonus for us...something to look into since you were concerned with her eating so much less.
epokey40094.6205324074My son was on Daytrana and I have to say my wife and I are not fans of it. For my son it caused his fears to become out of control. The poor guy would scream in terror if he saw a bug or heard a strange noise. The fear became so bad he didn't want to leave the house even to go to see his grandmother or to chuck e cheese. We have since stopped the patch on our own and are looking to try something different. We have started him on a more natural treatment with diet, fish oil and DHA. We are still open to meds, but he has gone though so many different ones that have either not worked or had bad side effects. I am glad Daytrana works for you but I personally have read too much bad about it and seen it myself to want to go back to it.robdana1, Is it possible that your son also has Sensory Processing problems? My son does and one of his problems is a sensitivity to certain sounds. When we started with stimulants they worked great in a lot of ways but aggravated his sensory issues. He would startle at the stangest things and be scared at all kinds of sounds. We put him on guanfacine (generic Tenex) along with Ritalin and the Tenex helps keep the stimulant from aggravating the Sensory problems. Just a thought...Since it's a patch, couldn't you just quietly put it on her an hour or so before she gets up? Probably don't even need to wake her up. Just a thought.Hi,
I understand. I wake my ds at 6:30, at 6:50 I give him a short acting 10mg ritalin, at 7:10 he is expected downstairs dressed, he eats breakfast and in the car at 7:40. We have a long drive to school 30 to 40 minutes sometimes less when I drop him off I give him his 30mg ritalin la. This allows him to have the 10 mg still working while the 30 mg is starting. It also allows the 30mg to work longer during the school day. If he has alot of homework he gets another 10mg after school. This works like a charm and our mornings are usually great.
I don't want the 10mg to be fully kicked in when he comes to breakfast otherwise it effects his appetite. It might sound complicated but it really is simple and makes our mornings much better.
well when i had 24 boys to wake up but was understaffed.
i didnt want them to active but they needed to be alert for school.
so i would give them more time to sleep.
but then its was go go go!
most of them had no trouble but it was the the sleepy heads that were getting to school sluggish and just putting thier heads down.
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over time i observed that some of the kids responded to stimulus in the evironment.
basically a loud noise.
hmmm not a semi loud noise more like a door slam.
or a radio that was too loud
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the ole set the clocks to an earlier bed time trick.
then set them ahead in the moring to make a sense of urgentcy
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faster paced songs on radio . someting thats like a quick clock ticking.
some music just puts you to sleep
but other music keeps you in step.
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light is also one of those stimuluses .
too cold to get out of covers?
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othertimes i would just have to talk to a sleeping kid until they got up.
especially the ones on sleeping meds
.
id start with
let me see your foot move so i know youre awake.
they would move a little and id say id be back in five minutes.
but i would keep making noise.
cough bump something and say ouch! shut the door too hardid come back only two minutes later
what do ya want for breakfast?
the id keep talking to someone else from the door way.
id make my sell phone ring and
pretend to be getting exciting news
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other kids just want that extra half an hour to just lay around doing nothing
thats how i am i just dont snap awake it takes me awhile to recall what my priorities are .
so i would get them awake tell them to get thier uniforms on, then they could stay on thier beds.
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ever since i was little I seem to be more alert at night. a night owl.
what was intresting to me was i need more rest to wake early
but less rest to stay up late-
IMHO I feel natural when sleep deprived
yea kinda weird lol
i feel better with sleep deprivation symptoms than to wake early and rested with Normal Thinking
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my spouse - awake from a pin drop but go past 11:00 pm
me i could sleep in bowling alley unless its midnight !
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i went fishing at 5:30 am once with an NTer omg
now i know why they say the earlybird gets the worm.
i just have to point out-
theres alot more worms out at night- nightcrawlers?
still -
structure and routine helps me accomplish big challenges.
wellll im way off from the thread sorry
have a good morning!