Switching from Focalin xr to Vyvanse | ADHD Information

My 8yo son has been taking Vyvanse for the past 3 months, and is doing fantastically on it.  He no longer has the sleep problems, and his appetite is much better.  He also has a lot less rebound than he had on the last sustained-release med we tried for him.  Willa, EXCELLENT, I know every child is different etc and what may work for your child may not work for mine, but I am PRAYING we might see this one work better. Will keep you posted, ty so much for the reply HI all, we found out almost 3 months ago that our7 1/2 yr old Daughter has ADD. she was having HUGE focus issues in school so we started her on Focalin xr 5 mg, we tried to up it to 10 mg but she developed the eye blinking and sucking in her lower lip. we put her down to 5 mg and this seemed to work. she has been on this almost 12 weeks, of course she has the side effects of NOT eating and takes her up to 1 1/2 to fall sleep, ONCE she is asleep she is good to go, gets about 9 hrs of sleep! We were seeing success in school she was meeting her goal everyday, but over the last few weeks we are seeing focus issues with in the afternoon! So we saw the dr yesterday and after her losing almost 4 lbs and still having the sleeping issues the dr didn't really want to INCREASE this med and increase the side effects. She wants to try a different family to see if this will WORK BETTER. As I have said we didn't get the WOW EFFECT like this is IT for her this is really working etc. I am on board with this but also hate having to go through the side effects all over again, MAYBE this will be better maybe she won't have as many, I don't know, I guess I am just wanting or needing to put this out here for support!! While I know I can't compare her to any other child in here, while some are really successful on the Focalin, and others on the Vyvanse, I am just frustrated, I guess I wanted it to be THE ONE the first try.

Today was DAY ONE of the Vyvanse, she did pretty good in school, but today seems a bit tired and moody, BUT of course  I need to give this time to see what it can really do. The only thing we saw right away with the Focalin was the eating and the sleeping this was almost on day 2 of taking this. We also saw school improve with in a week and by 2 weeks we thought we were on the right track

Anyone have any stories of success in switching from ONE family to another and it being successful???

I have heard most can't do BOTH usually can only be successful on one family?
Just an update on us, after almost 4 1/2 weeks on 20 mg of Vyvanse I want to say my Daughter is doing AWESOME I am loving, this, school is really GREAT, sleeping is way better, attitude is so much better. ONLY eating is tough but we saw a nutritionist and finally in a month gained a lb back. anyways just wanted to share :)
That's such wonderful news, I'm sure you must be thrilled!! Things are still going well for us, although as time goes on, our son's appetite seems to be decreasing. He's lost about 2 lbs now, and was thin to begin with. I was wondering what suggestions your nutritionist had which enabled your daughter to gain back a pound. Any tips will be appreciated. And continued good luck to you and your daughter! HI there glad things are going well also, yes my DD had weight issues before on the thin side and it has only gotten worse. Ok here is what we were told

1)Offer at least 2 items per feeding. or meal times. and make sure one has some sort of protein in it.

2)She said to make sure they drink at least 16 to 24 oz of WHOLE MILK she prefers it to be WHITE with no chocolate in it!

3)We can also add real butter to mix with her portion of pasta, potatoes etc, put it on toast and then peanut butter on top. REAL butter is about 100 calories per tbsp

4) you can add powder milk to REG milk, potatoes pasta etc also, it adds calories, she said try to get about 1/3 cup of this through out the day.

5) another sneaky way to add calories is to add canola SP sorry oil, it has fat and calories and pretty much tasteless, same add to milk, juice, potatoes pasta etc

If you give vitamins do so at bedtime they absorb better at nighttime

IF you can add a pedia sure, carnation instant breaky, even a diet drink WITH a meal, for us my DD hated this and will NOT touch it! She said feed them a snack or meal every 3 to 4 hrs DO Not go longer than 4 hrs IF you can. sometimes life gets in the way, but too long their tummy can play tricks on them, we were doing a snack then dinner 2 hrs apart she said NO NO NO, we are only bringing on the fight. So my DD eats later than we do.

These are some tips if I can think of more I will but make sure you try to offer PROTEIN at every meal, GOOD LUCK let me know if I can be more of a help! Take care

We started our son on Focalin XR a year ago last Christmas. Initially he was taking 5 mg but that wasn't enough so we upped it to 10. Then he started having alot of anxiety, so we added a very small dose of Tenex and that was a disaster for him. Stopped that after one day and kept him on just the 10 mg. of Focalin until May. Although his school work and behavior improved significantly, he had lost 3 lbs. (and he was thin to begin with), was biting his fingers till they bled, and had a 1 to 2 hr. period each day where he would just zone out. We were so upset with the side effects that we took him off meds entirely. This year in first grade he was having difficulties to the point where we knew we had to try something again, so even though we were "anti-medicine" at this point, his doctor suggested something in a different family, and also short acting instead of extended release. So he takes 5 mg. of adderal before school and 2.5 mg after lunch. Now after two months, he is having no loss of appetite, nor is he having anxiety issues. I can honestly say we see no side effects and his behavior in school has improved as much as it did on the focalin. I hope this gives you some encouragement....

Kathleen TY so much or your story, we are on day 11 of the vyvanse and so far so good, school is going well. she isn't as emotional on this although we have had a couple of times but NOTHING like the focalin xr. ALTHOUGH we are still dealing with the eating issues, GRRRR and the sleeping thing is still there, BUT over all I am MUCH happier with her on this, we head back to the dr for a med check on Tuesday,this will be 2 full weeks on the new MED, I think this family works better for sure, BUT just am very interested in what to do with the eating thing. I will keep you all posted, WHAT a roller coaster this has been for sure The lack of appetite seems to be the most common side effect of most of the meds, and posts about it are all over the boards. Some suggestions I found really helpful were milkshakes made with ice cream, whole milk, and carnation instant breakfast. Throw some fruit in there too if she'll eat it. Give this to her before bed as an additional meal, or in place of a meal she won't eat. Another thing to remember, don't keep her on a typical meal schedule...mealtime is whenever SHE is hungry! So if your daughter wants dinner at 8 instead of 6, so be it! And remember, the appetite sometimes comes back after a month or two on the meds. If she continues to loose weight, you might want to discuss a short acting medicine instead of extended release since it might be easier to schedule meals around that. As for the sleeping, ask your doctor about Melatonin. Our son's psychiatrist tells us it's fine for children and I know many of the moms here give it to their kids. Another thing you might want to try is epsom salt baths before bed, they really help our son relax. Good luck and keep us posted! Kathleen ty for the tips. for us it is hard as she was a picky eater before meds which is harder now. She doesn't like ice cream much but we can get it down her at times. We have tried almost every type of protein shake, and instant carnation breaky NO GO GRRRRR! She loves whole milk though and we do get a lot of that down her as well. YUP this week I have started feeding her dinner after we are done and dishes are done, she gets home around 4 and usually will eat a snack so NO way does she want dinner at 5:30 ish, so later is working better for her. ALTHOUGH she has an appliance in her mouth to widen her palate which is causing her to eat even slower, but we are doing OK with it! Yes hoping that after some time we see her appetite get better. We have our good eating days and bad ones! I will def. keep in mind the other short acting one if this gets too bad!

Our sleeping story isn't TOO bad like some I have read. usually before meds she would be tucked in at 9 pm and off to la la land by 9:15 no issues, day 2 of the focalin we noticed it got later and later, then got into a routine that about 2 nights in a row she would be asleep by 10 then maybe 2 nights after 10:30 and so on and so on, but ONCE asleep she is good to go to get about 9 FULL hrs and before meds she would get 10 so not too bad. She does OK with this, but our Dr did say we could do the melatonin if need be. We are in the same pattern now also as the focalin, but she does say she is tired closer to bedtime, WHICH I am hoping this may be a sign this might get better. we even tried an earlier bedtime but found that only made her lay there for a longer period of time to try to sleep. She is great though, she doesn't get out of bed and mess around or anything. Anyways will keep you posted for sure